1 Introduction
2 Literature review
2.1 Blended learning
2.2 Interactions and discussions in BL
2.3 Online debate
2.4 Feedback in BL
3 Research design
3.1 Context and participants
3.2 Data sources
Pseudo Name | Gender | Prior BL experience | Teaching/design experience in BL | Professional background |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cindy | F | Y | N | High school math teacher for six years |
Lana | F | Y | Y | Full-time Graduate student & research assistant at a research one university with professional experiences in nonprofit program development and training |
Linda | F | Y | Y | Instructional designer at a School of Medicine in higher education |
Sam | M | Y | Y | Training manager at an automotive company for over 28 years |
Shawn | M | N | N | High school teacher for 16 years and a media company owner |
Zoe | F | Y | N | Full-time Graduate student & research assistant at a research one university with 5 years of professional experiences in IT and HR |
3.3 Data analyses
4 Findings
4.1 Research question 1 (RQ1)
4.1.1 Effective strategies
I got the most benefit out of the paper analysis. Man, I did not like doing those. But I will say for the first time ever in all of my classes I actually felt like I was doing academic work, where I actually kind of felt like a researcher. I thought I actually used some skills that I never really used before.
4.1.2 Ineffective strategies
I didn't feel like I got a lot out of online discussions. I felt that they were better than nothing in terms of learning the material. But they didn't give me the structure that I needed to reflect thoroughly on the reading that we had done.
Week | Number of posts | Total Number of words |
---|---|---|
Week 2 | 28 | 5754 |
Week 9 | 21 | 4087 |
Week 10 | 7 | 2841 |
Week 12 | 9 | 3438 |
4.2 RQ2 From graduate students’ perspective, what are the advantages and disadvantages of BL?
4.2.1 Advantages of blended learning
Online courses make me feel disconnected from my classmates, whereas with a blended learning situation, you meet occasionally. You get to see people… I felt like in the blended learning environment, I had a chance to get to know my classmates and their strengths. (interviewee transcript A, p2, line 91-94)
Well, the advantages are the human interaction. The fact that you know when you have an idea or a thought, and you can bounce it off somebody, and they give you feedback within five seconds. It means so much more than if you type up some big paper, you submit it, and then you hear back four or five days later (interviewee transcript B, p3, line166-174)
4.2.2 Disadvantages of blended learning
I'd say I'm really fortunate that I have the GRA position as my primary gig. But that's not the norm for most people. For me showing up on campus isn't a big deal. I know for other students, it can be hard to attend classes. (interviewee transcript A, p3, line138-143)
4.3 RQ3 How can BL leverage learning technologies?
A lot of our students are rural. They don't have high-speed Internet. They can't do Zoom or WebEx because they just don't have a good width. Yeah, a lot of them still don't have computers at home… It's like you may not be able to use technology. It's gonna really depend on the resources your students have. (interviewee transcript C, p5, line275-283)