Blended Learning: The Perceptions of First-year Geography Students

Mitchell, Phillipa; Forer, Pip

doi:10.1080/03098260902982484

Cited by 97 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…There is also evidence that students themselves like lectures as a teaching mechanism. For example, a recent study of geography students (Mitchell & Forer, 2010) found that the large majority of students described lectures as a good way to learn information. Charlton (2006) has argued that this might be expected because lectures exploit a basic human preference to have direct contact in a situation involving communication.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Lecturing and other face-to-face teaching – too much or too little? An assessment based on student feedback and fail rates

Symonds

2014

Higher Education Research & Development

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Institutes of higher learning are tending to reduce the amount of face-to-face teaching that they offer, and particularly through the traditional pedagogical method of lecturing. There is ongoing debate about the educational value of lectures as a teaching approach, in terms of both whether they facilitate understanding of subject material and whether they augment the student educational experience. In this study, student evaluation of teaching scores plus academic outcome (percentage of students who fail) was assessed for 236 course units offered by a science faculty at an Australian university over the course of one year. These measures were related to the degree to which lectures and other face-to-face teaching were used in these units, controlling for factors such as class size, school and year level. An information-theoretic model selection approach was employed to identify the best models and predictors of student assessments and fail rates. All the top models of student feedback included a measure reflecting amount of face-to-face teaching, with the evaluation of quality of teaching being higher in units with higher proportions of lectures. However, these models explained only 12-20% of the variation in student evaluation scores, suggesting that many other factors come into play. By contrast, units with fewer lectures have lower failure rates. These results suggest that moving away from lectures and face-to-face teaching may not harm, and indeed may improve the number of students who pass the subject, but that this may be incurred at the expense of greater dissatisfaction in students' learning experience.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Lecturing and other face-to-face teaching – too much or too little? An assessment based on student feedback and fail rates

Symonds

2014

Higher Education Research & Development

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“…Mitchell and Forer (2010) reported a marked increase in levels of student flexibility and choice towards the BL program implemented, observing that students acknowledged learning could occur in multiple contexts, supplemented by valuable points of physical contact. They also noted benefits from the BL program on students' perspectives on or behaviour toward approaching learning, where ready access to resources seemed to correlate with confidence, learning, and the use of technologies.…”

Section: Learners' Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Blended learning: Deficits and prospects in higher education

Medina

2018

AJET

118

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This article examines the nature and evolution of the term blended learning (BL), which encompasses numerous connotations, including its conception as a strategy, delivery mode, opportunity, educational shift, or pedagogical approach. Although much has been said in this field, very few studies examine the different types of blends behind their implementation. To address this gap in the literature, the article indicates types of blends and analyses the characteristics of BL, its benefits and limitations, supported by a review of literature, and an analysis of a sample of BL cases in higher education language-teaching worldwide. Additional data were also gathered through a questionnaire administered to language department chairs. Data were triangulated and analysed using the grounded theory approach. The article closes with an examination of different levels of blending, the various perspectives within the educational community on its use, and a discussion of its future applicability, especially in higher education.

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“…Drawing on constructivist learning theory, blended learning gives students more control over what material they access and at what pace they review material—allowing them to concentrate on material they find difficult and move quickly through material they understand easily (Cook, 2007). Students value the ability to choose between different learning mechanisms to best suit their learning needs, and appreciate the flexibility in time and place allowed with online learning (Mitchell and Forer, 2010). One student explained, “We could visualize what you guys did on video and then apply it to what we were doing [in the laboratory] so that it was easier to identify the forest floor types.” Referring to the different decomposer communities in relation to the forest floor type, another student said, “The decomposer part is [harder] to memorize for me—whether you have fauna or fungi—I think it's very clear on the website.”…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blending Multimedia and Face-to-Face Teaching to Enhance Learning about the Forest Floor

Hoffman

Kržić

Nashon

et al. 2017

Natural Sciences Education

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Core Ideas Forest floor is essential to forest ecosystems, but classification is difficult. Multimedia and face‐to‐face learning can teach visual tasks like soil classification. Students identified repeated visualizations and collaboration as important. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods of assessment gives deeper insights. The forest floor is essential to functional, healthy forests. It is important for forestry professionals to understand, describe, and classify forest floors. We developed a Forest Floor educational resource, blending web‐based multimedia and face‐to‐face teaching. The objectives of this study were to (1) develop blended‐learning activities to teach forest floor description and classification and (2) assess student perceptions of the blended‐learning method using exploratory factor analysis and group interviews. We used a Likert scale survey instrument to assess student perceptions of their learning, and investigated underlying factors through exploratory factor analysis of survey results and the manifestation of factors in focus group interviews. Five implicit factors were interpreted: (1) satisfaction with the Forest Floor resource as a learning enhancement; (2) response to presentation of concepts using a blended learning method; (3) student self‐assessment of learning; (4) student learning preferences in accessing materials; and (5) website usability. Ninety‐four percent of students agreed or strongly agreed that the Forest Floor resource was helpful for learning forest floor concepts, 79% that describing samples in class was essential for understanding the properties of organic horizons, and 81% that they were able to relate information in the Forest Floor resource to samples used in a face‐to face activity, demonstrating that students tended to prefer learning information from videos and in collaboration with other students, and felt positive about their knowledge of the new material.

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Blended Learning: The Perceptions of First-year Geography Students

Cited by 97 publications

References 14 publications

Lecturing and other face-to-face teaching – too much or too little? An assessment based on student feedback and fail rates

Lecturing and other face-to-face teaching – too much or too little? An assessment based on student feedback and fail rates

Blended learning: Deficits and prospects in higher education

Blending Multimedia and Face-to-Face Teaching to Enhance Learning about the Forest Floor

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