IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?

IS BLENDED TEACHING A WAY TO GO FOR FUTURE HIGHER EDUCATION?

ANALYSIS OF STUDENT EXPERIENCES

By:

Course: Professional Analytical Skills

Professor

2020-21 2nd Semester

University

Word Count: 2,946

Date
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?2

Table of Contents
1: Introduction:............................................................................................................................................2
2: Literature Review....................................................................................................................................4
2.1: Blended Learning..............................................................................................................................4
2.2: Future of Higher Education...............................................................................................................4
3: Methodology and Research Design.........................................................................................................5
3.1: Methods...........................................................................................................................................6
3.2: Data Collection.................................................................................................................................6
3.3: Tool of Analysis.................................................................................................................................6
3.4: Data analysis and representation of findings....................................................................................6
3.4.1: Descriptive statistics..................................................................................................................7
3.4.2: Correlation.................................................................................................................................7
3.4.3: Regression.................................................................................................................................7
3.5: Findings............................................................................................................................................8
4: Conclusion..............................................................................................................................................9
4.1: Limitations........................................................................................................................................9
5: References...............................................................................................................................................9
6: APPENDIX..............................................................................................................................................10
Appendix A: Survey Questions of Questionnaire...................................................................................10
APPENDIX B: CRONBACH's Alpha...........................................................................................................12
APPENDIX C: Correlation.......................................................................................................................14
APPENDIX D: Regression........................................................................................................................17
Appendix E: PSEUDO R-SQUARE............................................................................................................20
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?3

Is Blended Teaching a way to go for Future Higher Education? Analysis of Student Experience

1: Introduction

Teaching and learning in higher institutions is a central issue during the COVID-19

pandemic. This brings us to our research question of whether blended teaching a way to go for

the future of higher education? The question is vital to provide a long-lasting solution if another

incident occurs, which may impend learning. Due to the laid protocols to combat the disease,

students in universities and colleges can't attend physical classes. At the same time, Mishra

(2020) believes that tutors cannot conduct their teachings in the education systems heavily

dependent on their presence. Both instructors and students have to be at the same place and time

for it to happen. The education system is more on giving face-to-face instructions and their time

of contact is crucial in learning (Mishra, 2020). In that case, teaching and offering direct

instructions to learners become an issue during this period of global disaster. For this reasons,

there is a dire need to introduce new approaches to imparting knowledge and ensuring all the

guidelines to combat the disease are uphold and learning continues as usual.

Due to the lockdowns of higher learning institutions, it is crucial to investigate whether

blended education is the way for the future. Hybrid learning is growing in popularity in the

typical school of the future, although many institutions face challenges of acquiring the

appropriate technologies to teach and provide online exams. The common types of blended

learning are; flex, rotation, and flipped classrooms (Mishra, 2020). It combines online teaching

and learning methods with classrooms enabling tutors flexibility and student experiences. Since
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?4

it is a new approach being made familiar to learners and teachers, many find it. According to

Mishra (2020), schools have to part with a lot of money to ensure a successful transition from

traditional to modern learning and teaching, which requires sophisticated technologies to ensure

online interactions. Although there are setbacks to this method, the benefit of this research

outcome outweighs the problems. Some of the fruits of this transition are student satisfaction,

effectiveness, flexibility, better communication; it helps maintain focus, ease accessibility of

resources, time efficiency, and higher performance. In that case, this new way of learning is the

future for higher education due to the pandemic and benefits outlined.

2: Literature Review

2.1: Blended Learning

Several researchers have gathered comprehensive investigations on blended learning

issues (BL) and their impact on the future of higher education. Dziuban et al. (2018) discover

that innovative and transformative research on hybrid education can enhance effectiveness.

According to Dziuban et al. (2018), the results from BL have the power to improve learners'

satisfaction, their sense of community, and success. In their methodology, Dziuban et al. (2018)

compare traditional and e-learning approaches of withdrawal and success rates in blended

learning. Students can rate their education experiences by assigning grades or binary variables

(Dziuban et al., 2018). One Dziuban et al. (2018) uses classification and regression tree (CART)

analysis. Dziuban et al. (2018) believe that decision trees are practical steps for achieving goods

results in studies. However, this method is not effective in the Likert questionnaire, meaning it is

not appropriate in our study. Also, CART focuses on homogeneous assessment, data splitting,

and pruning, which is impossible for our sample data.

 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?5

2.2: Future of Higher Education

The future of hybrid learning is heavily dependent on ICT, technology, and students' and

teachers' ability to adapt to the modern way of teaching. According to Mishra (2020), the Indian

government is more prepared to improve ICT to adopt blended learning. Mishra (2020) believes

that this integration with e-learning will be possible by 2022 as a policy to deliver teaching and

learning. Mishra (2020) argues that improving access to the internet has positive impacts

necessary to support tools for learners and tutors. About 33% of American campus and college

students, according to Mishra (2020), take an online course while still studying under the old

system of education. Chan (2019 p5) discovers that higher education institutions in Hong Kong

adopt online teaching and learning due to the rapid advancement in technologies to engender

transformation practices. Chan (2019 p.5) also believes that combining face-to-face and online

approaches with technology can enhance efficiency and ensure effectiveness in student

experiences. However, access to innovations and educational technologies pose a significant

challenge with this nontraditional learning approach (Dziuban et al., 2018). Scherer et al. (2021)

argue that although these modes of teaching have now two decades in higher educations, their

adaptations and implementations have taken quite a long time leading to inconsistencies. The

future of modern university learning depends on high transformations and integrations of

technologies in traditional teaching methods.

Research questions

1. Is blended teaching a way to go for the future of higher education?

 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?6

2. Can student experiences give answers on whether blended teaching is a way to go

for the future of higher education?

Hypothesis

Null hypothesis H0: blended teaching is not a way to go for the future of higher education

Alternative hypothesis H1: Blended teaching a way to go for future higher education

In this study, we employ the most common standard significance level 𝛂= 0.05, implying

that this is the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis in case we find it to be true. This is

also the probability of committing a type-1 error. A significance level of 0.05 gives 5%, which

provides the risk of concluding that there is a difference when it does not exist in reality. If we

perform our calculations in SPSS and find a p-value <0.05, then the H0 is rejected and alternative

accepted at a 95% confidence interval.

3: Methodology and Research Design

3.1: Methods

In this study, a logistic regression method determines students' performance in blended

learning, the dependent variable (DV). The scientific research adopts a qualitative instead of a

quantitative methodology of regression. A qualitative approach intends to understand the

investigation's complex reality and actions of student's experiences in the context of e-learning

(Queirós, Faria, and Almeida, 2017). According to Queirós, Faria, and Almeida (2017), a

quantitative method wants to get reliable and accurate answers that enable statistical analysis.

However, Queirós, Faria, and Almeida (2017) believe that both strategies offer techniques,

limits, and potentialities open to exploration and only known to the scientists.
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?7

This research using such a methodology will ensure that it sticks to deep understanding

rather than numerical aspects in quantitative. No quantification is required making the research

the object and subject in the study. Experiences of students on e-learning platforms and learners

Experience from Teachers in the same predicts the DV. A Likert scale in which respondents give

their responses enables the researchers to employ this technique. We also ensure the reliability of

our data by estimating their coefficients for indication of internal consistency of scale

(Cronbach's). Correlation analysis between the variables will determine the strengths of their

relationships. The equation for predicting the research question is Students performance in

Blended learning (SP) = β0 + β1 SETBL+ β2SBE +μi.

3.2: Data Collection

In this research, primary data collection occurs from students' experiences in various

institutions across the United States. An online Likert questionnaire is helpful to manage the

data. A sample of 60 respondents undergoes random selection from ongoing students in multiple

universities and campuses. A survey questionnaire is sent to each one of them through email and

expected back after one week. The scale range is from 1 to 5, where each value shows the level

of students' agreement to blended learning experiences. It is qualitative data that is categorical.

This implies that the responses have ordinal measurement levels. They describe the responder's

characteristics of agreeing to research questions in the questionnaire. Data entry into Microsoft

Excel from the questionnaires takes place after all receipt of the online survey. Students'

Performance in Blended learning is the dependent variable, while the two predictors are their

Experience from Teachers and the platform.

 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?8

3.3: Tool of Analysis

In this study, we use the IBM SPSS statistical software ver20 for analysis. The tool is

vital for determining the ordinal logistic regression, setting the data to be ordinal and is fast.

However, Microsoft excel plays a crucial role in entering data from the questionnaires and

importing it to the analytical tool. It is essential for coding the ordinal scale.

3.4: Data analysis and representation of findings

Data analysis deals with the interpretation of a variety of qualitative and quantitative data.

It also interprets the crucial information and findings associated with research questions. To

analyze the qualitative data, IBM SPSS Ver20 is employed; this statistical software enables

regression, correlation, and ANOVA analysis as it provides a variety of services that simplify

coding data and making calculations.

3.4.1: Descriptive statistics

We note that there are no missing values from the descriptive table_ Data collected show

students' performance experience in blended teaching has a Likert scale of 3.07. This implies a

ratio of four occurs for the DV. The rest of SBE=2.55 and SETBL= 2.073, which are the

predictor variables.

3.4.2: Correlation
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?9

Scatterplots and non-parametric Spearman correlation coefficient calculations occur to

investigate any significant relationship (appendix C). This would support H1only. A scatterplot

visually represented students' performance based on their experiences with teachers and a

blended learning and teaching environment. It shows the strengths of the relationship between

the dependent and independent variables.

3.4.3: Regression

This undergoes research investigations to find if there could be any experiences

predictions or assumptions using the ordinal regression approach. The aim was to discover if

more than two parameters predict each other. The blended teaching student's performance

would be the dependent variable, and the two attributes of Experience are the independent

variable. The Nagelkerke statistical value is 0.195. This indicates that the model explains 19.5%

of the variance of the dependent variable (appendix E).

3.5: Findings

Results show in the descriptive data that SP (M=3.07; SD= 1.274; VAR=1.623), SBE

(M=2.55; SD=1.268; VAR=1.608) and SETBL (M=2.07; SD=1.133;VAR=1.284). Data

collected show students' performance in the blended teaching has a Likert scale of 3.77,

approximately 4. This implies a scale of four for the DV occurs—the rest of SBE=3.67 and

SETBL= 3.53, which are the predictor variables. In the reliability table of Appendix B, the grand

mean is 3.66. Appendix C shows correlation tables and scatterplots. There is a negative

correlation between SP=1 and SETBL=-0.037. correlation coefficient of SP and SBE are

positive with the predictor variable having 0.005.test of normality for SP Likert scale
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?10

measurements have significance as follows from 1 to 5 range; Strongly disagree=0.062,

disagree=0.146, Undecided= 0.137,Agree= 0.001 and Strongly Agree= 0.003.

Regression tables under Appendix D indicate various values of F-test, Significance, R-

square, adjusted R-square, Beta coefficients, and residuals. These tests are at 95% CI, which

results in F=0.053, sig=0.048 for the regression residual, Beta are 3.3949, -0.018, and -0.032 for

those three variables. The variables significance (sig) in the coefficients (Appendix D) are SP=

0.00, SBE=0.043 and SETBL= 0.063. A scatterplot of the DV shows the uniformity of

distribution when sketching of the line of fit occurs. A histogram of the SP parameter produces a

symmetric graph. The Pseudo R-square shows a Nagelkerke = 0.195. These are the results from

tables of analysis using the SPSS statistical software.

4: Conclusion

Overall, our research findings suggest that blended teaching in higher education is the

way to analyze student experiences. However, challenges of technology, adaptability of students

from traditional teaching methods to modern e-learning pose a significant concern in this study.

With a p-value<0.048, the data proves substantial to our research. Student experience with

teachers in the online teaching and learning platform is scoreless in significance level and does

not contribute much to the dependent variable. A weak negative correlation is noted between the

two parameters too. The SBE has a strong relationship with DV according to their correlations.

This implies it contributes a lot to future higher education in hybrid learning. A Nagelkerke value

of 0.195 represents 19.5%, indicating the percentage of variance which the DV explains.

Learners find difficulty transitioning to these modernity's, and lack of IT knowledge is due to
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?11

slow adaptation. To ensure better e-learning, and experiences institutions of higher learning need

to upgrade their technologies.

4.1: Limitations

The limits to this research are getting the proper responses from students. To determine

their authentic experiences in the e-learning platforms is a problem since some of their answers

on the Likert scale questionnaire may not be honest. From the 60 questionnaires sent to students

in various universities and colleges, 90% of them returned dully filled with 10%having some

gaps. This provides drawbacks to our study.

5: References

Queirós, A., Faria, D. and Almeida, F., 2017. Strengths and limitations of qualitative and quantitative
research methods. European Journal of Education Studies.
https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/download/1017/2934

Chan, E.Y.M., 2019. Blended learning dilemma: Teacher education in the confucian heritage
culture. Australian Journal of Teacher Education (Online), 44(1), pp.36-51.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?url=https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi%3Farticle
%3D3984%26context%3Dajte&hl=en&sa=T&oi=gsb-
gga&ct=res&cd=0&d=1576437562875741025&ei=J2yNYJK4M8KLy9YPwJeMmAE&scisig=AAG
Bfm0w_q-Y9fwIw1mm8HiMQi6lFAOFRQ

Dziuban, C., Graham, C.R., Moskal, P.D., Norberg, A. and Sicilia, N., 2018. Blended learning: the new
normal and emerging technologies. International journal of educational technology in Higher
education, 15(1), pp.1-16. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?
url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41239-017-0087-5&hl=en&sa=T&oi=gsb-
gga&ct=res&cd=0&d=3972238831207270953&ei=aGeNYMuJMeTTsQKDs6nIDQ&scisig=AAGBf
m3FC1tRYS5_m_PdFfVNHSp-e1Ralw

Mishra, S., 2020. India: Blended learning is the way forward after the pandemic. University World News.
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200528134934520
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?12

Scherer, R., Howard, S.K., Tondeur, J. and Siddiq, F., 2021. Profiling teachers' readiness for online
teaching and learning in higher education: Who's ready?. Computers in Human Behavior, 118,
p.106675. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?
url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563220304222&hl=en&sa=T&oi=gsb-
gga&ct=res&cd=0&d=17403056177842913278&ei=s2yNYKCUA4LCsQLWloeIBw&scisig=AAGBf
m1JZuO9Zd0JyO5MeTrxl8i91SY2xQ
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?13

6: APPENDIX

Appendix A: Survey Questions of Questionnaire

Variables Items Agreement scale

S D U A SA
D
1 2 3 4 5
Students Performance in Blended learning (SP) SP1 Blended
learning
environment
conditions
bring out the
bests in us
SP2 The quality
teaching
enables my
grades to
improve
SP3 My institution
has high online
technology
that provides a
high student
experience
SP4 Students
perform better
despite the
change of
learning
program
traditional to
modern
SP5 I have to
achieve
understood
the concepts
taught within
the given
teaching
durations
Students Experience from Teachers in blended SETBL My teachers
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?14

Learning(SETBL) 1 welcome and

accept my
relevant ideas
during online
classes
SETBL My teacher
2 and I ask for
solutions
whenever a
significant
decision arises
SETBL My teacher
3 seeks different
ways of solving
problems
during online
lectures
SETBL My teacher
4 encourages
discussions
SETBL My tutor
5 consults me
about online
class schedules
decision
making
Students Blended Experience in online learning (SBE) SBE 1 Lack of IT
knowledge,
discipline, and
access
SBE 2 Better
communicatio
n and
collaboration
SBE 3 Blended
learning offers
richer
experiences to
students
SBE 4 It ensures a
sound
understanding
of course
content and in-
depth resource
about a topic
SBE5 It has outdated
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?15

online tools
Likert Scale:
1= Strongly Disagree
2= Disagree
3=Undecided
4= Agree
5= Strongly Agree
Students performance in Blended learning(SP)= β0 + β1
SETBL+ β2SBE +μi
Normally Distributed Not normally Distributed
Likert Scale Data Likert Scale Data
(Parametric method) (Non-Parametric
Method)

Linear Regression Ordinal Regression

Pearson correlation Spearman Rank

Correlation

APPENDIX B: CRONBACH's Alpha

 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?16

APPENDIX C: Correlation

1.Scatterplots for correlation

IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?17
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?18

2.Correlation tables

Correlations

SP SETBL SBE
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 -.037 .005

SP Sig. (2-tailed) . .778 .970

N 60 60 60

Correlation Coefficient -.037 1.000 -.062

Spearman's rho SETBL Sig. (2-tailed) .778 . .639

N 60 60 60

Correlation Coefficient .005 -.062 1.000

SBE Sig. (2-tailed) .970 .639 .

N 60 60 60
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?19

Correlations

SP SETBL SBE
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 -.037 .005

SP Sig. (2-tailed) . .778 .970

N 60 60 60

Correlation Coefficient -.037 1.000 -.062

Spearman's rho SETBL Sig. (2-tailed) .778 . .639

N 60 60 60

Correlation Coefficient .005 -.062 1.000

SBE Sig. (2-tailed) .970 .639 .

N 60 60 60

Tests of Normality

SETBL Kolmogorov-Smirnova Shapiro-Wilk

Statistic Df Sig. Statistic df Sig.

Strongly Disagree .304 7 .049 .819 7 .062

Disagree .300 5 .161 .833 5 .146

SP Undecided .245 12 .044 .895 12 .137

Agree .331 21 .000 .802 21 .001

Strongly Agree .373 15 .000 .794 15 .003

a. Lilliefors Significance Correction

Correlations

SP SETBL SBE
SP 1.000 -.020 -.037
Pearson Correlation SETBL -.020 1.000 -.080
SBE -.037 -.080 1.000
SP . .440 .391
Sig. (1-tailed) SETBL .440 . .272
SBE .391 .272 .
SP 60 60 60

N SETBL 60 60 60

SBE 60 60 60
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?20

APPENDIX D: Regression

1.Model summary picture

Coefficientsa

Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized t Sig.

Coefficients

B Std. Error Beta

(Constant) 3.050 .450 6.779 .000

1 SETBL .089 .135 .088 .658 .513

SBE -.101 .151 -.090 -.672 .504

a. Dependent Variable: SP1

4.Scatterplots for SP
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?21

5. P-P SP Regression
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?22

6. An Histogram for SP
 IS Blended Teaching a way to go for Future of Higher Education?23

Appendix E: PSEUDO R-SQUARE

Pseudo R-Square

Cox and Snell .179

Nagelkerke .195
McFadden .079

Link function: Logit.