Nurturing Social Presence in a Blended Learning Environment

The ambition of this development study is to explore the opportunity to put the knowledge gained during the COVID-19 pandemic into practice in a blended, post-COVID, learning environment. The focus is to explore how a combination of digital and face-to-face activities may allow for fostering social presence among undergraduate students. The Social Presence model and the five elements of Affective Association, Community of Cohesion, Instructor Investment, Interaction Intensity, and Knowledge and Experience, encompass the theoretical framework of the study. The contextual setting is the first course of The Marketing Programme at Linnaeus University in Sweden, a bachelor program with a 50% Swedish intake and 50% international intake. Given the diverse background of the students in this course, challenges are typically encountered in relation to community building. Empirical data was collected during the fall of 2022 among the enrolled students using an online questionnaire. While the results from this study should be seen as preliminary, they offer an inspiring glimpse of how to nurture social presence in a blended learning environment. Copyright © 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Teachers' and students' perceptions and practices in promoting a sense of community for blended education

Blended learning is not a new concept, but has attracted increased interest among higher education institutions in preparing for future education. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many teachers have gained extensive experience with online and digital education. Yet, maintaining social engagement amongst and with students, while motivating them to actively participate in their learning, remains a momentous challenge for teachers working in a blended learning environment [1]. Poor social interactions cause a negative impact on the quality of blended learning [2], culminating in students feeling lonely, isolated, and losing motivation [3]. As such, a sense of community will be crucial, but may be difficult to achieve due to limited physical classroom time. This study addresses students' and teachers' viewpoints, and seeks to answer the question: What are the perceptions and practices of students and teachers regarding promoting a sense of community in a blended learning environment? A qualitative methodology is utilized, including non-participant observation, document analysis, and interviews for data collection and analysis. Firstly, the findings of this study enhance our understanding of teachers' perceptions, practices, and challenges for cultivating SoC. Secondly, this study provides information for professional development of teachers that carry out blended education. Finally, we hope this study can support higher education institutions in preparing and reshaping for the future. © 2022 SEFI 2022 - 50th Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education, Proceedings. All rights reserved.

Evidence-Based Practice to the Forefront: A Case Study of Engineering Team Project-Based Learning in an Online Learning Environment

Approaches such as problem and project-based learning (PBL) are the cornerstone of modern engineering curricula. With a growing need to move these student-centred active learning curricula to online and blended learning environments due to issues including increasing cohort sizes and limited budgets, it is essential that instructional designers in engineering education understand the impacts that these differing mediums may have on student collaboration. This study is the beginning of a body of work with the aim to develop effective teaching and learning strategies for team project-based learning in online and blended learning environments. This case study was carried out in an Irish university in 2021 in a first-year engineering module during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study followed an explanatory mixed methods design in which a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were utilised to collect data. The research data was gathered in two phases. Phase 1 included a questionnaire with both closed- and open-ended questions (N=94). Phase 2 was based on semi-structured interviews (N=7). This paper will focus on the qualitative datasets, including the open-ended questions and interviews. After completing a thematic analysis, we identified six themes and eighteen sub-themes that affect students' perceptions of team project-based learning (PBL) in an online environment. Each of these themes are discussed within this paper. The paper concludes with an outline of future research plans for the ongoing project. © 2022 SEFI 2022 - 50th Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education, Proceedings. All rights reserved.

Blended Learning Environments: An Exploratory Study of e-Learning Implementation in Nigeria Tertiary Institutions Due to COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic has changed the landscape of education globally, posing restrictions and widespread closure of schools, thereby, introducing the paradigm shift from Physical to Virtual, and then blended (Mix mode) learning environments. Hence, teaching and learning process should evolve to accommodate the new normal. It is important to create efficacious virtual learning, however, the behavioral responses of the end-users (students) towards the implementation and adoption of a virtual learning environment are necessary. This paper, therefore, aim to examine students' perception, preferences, and adoption of technology-enabled virtual learning environments and causal factors in process of implementing virtual classes in Nigeria's tertiary institutions. The study seeks to explore the behavioral characteristics of students in virtual classes. The population of the study consists of eight hundred (800) students selected using the non-probability sampling technique. The results of the study reveal that most students still prefer physical to virtual classes. Students faced a series of difficulties during virtual classes which might lead to student failure. It is significant to know that virtual classes cannot replace physical classes but are complementary. © 2022 IEEE.

Developments and Emerging Trends of Blended Learning A Document Co-citation Analysis (2003–2020)

This study aims to analyze and visualize the research hotspots, evolution, and emerging trends of blended learning in a holistic way. In this study, 1657 bibliometric records together with 48310 citations are collected from SCIE, SSCI and A&HCI databases. CiteSpace is adopted in the analysis and visualization. Results show: enhancing collaborative learning, pattern, and teacher training are the research hotspots in Period I, instructor perception, possible future direction, and research trend are the research hotspots in Period II, general science classroom, blended learning environment, and measuring student engagement are the research hotspots in Period III;the themes of covid-19 remain similar along the development, while the themes of digital health education change a lot;blended learning environment, online component, covid-19 pandemic, procrastinating behavior, active blended learning, and observed learning orientation are the emerging trends. These findings could provide research directions for future studies in blended learning. © 2021. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning.All Rights Reserved