AN EXPLORATORY LOOK AT STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF BLENDED LEARNING

In recent years, blended learning, a pedagogical approach that combines online and traditional classroom components, has expanded significantly in the business and educational communities. Although this approach, enabled by technologies such as the Internet, seems to offer many benefits to learners and organizations, few studies to date have evaluated its effectiveness. This investigation examines the use of blended learning in a required undergraduate course where students completed online learning modules prior to class discussion of these units. The study generated mixed results. Although some subjects recognized important benefits to the online modules, the success of this effort appears to be limited by two factors: (1) the time required for the online units was viewed as excessive by many participants for the course; and (2) few participants had prior experience completing online units. The outcomes suggest that students might respond more favorably to blended learning when instructors use smaller segments of online units rather than entire units that take several hours to complete.

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