M. Tech. Business Administration / The study was conducted at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) Business School in order to assess the degree of interest in the blended method of teaching and learning among Business School students. The study was based on a sample of size 50 students who were enrolled as Year III students while the study was being conducted at the Business School. Data was collected by using a structured, pre-tested and validated questionnaire of study from each of the 50 students who took part in the study. Data analyses were performed by using methods such as frequency tables, Fisher’s exact tests of associations and Marcov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms or Bayesian analysis.

Digital learning is becoming increasingly prevalent in colleges and universities in the United States (Allen & Seaman, 2013; Godev, 2014), including in the social field of second language learning. In larger language programs in particular, online and blended (partially online) courses are gaining popularity, such as the recently cited "hybrid revolution in Spanish-language learning" (Long, 2014, p. 1). Administrators look to digital solutions to tight finances, a lack of classroom space, and student demands. A current challenge in the field is helping instructors and students adapt to digital pedagogy and a new perspective: Technology provides innovative possibilities for instruction and interaction, not solely a distance replication of face-to-face courses (Blake, 2009, 2013, 2014; Goertler, 2011, 2014). To be successful, digital learning must include pedagogically sound course design and adequate support for both instructors and learners, requirements that may make this trend not as economical as originally believed (Godev, 2014).Responding to Hermosilla's (2014) declaration that "a pending task is to gather accurate data on existing hybrid Spanish programs in US colleges and universities in order to carry out comparative studies" (p. 3), this dissertation examines lower-division blended courses of languages other than English currently or recently taught at U.S. colleges and universities. The dissertation follows Wu's (2015) assumption that the courses appearing in the prior research literature might not be representative of the vast number of blended courses that now exist. The dissertation draws upon an original survey of 121 instructor and administrator participants representing 52 language programs and 13 languages, interviews with 21 of these participants, and surveys of 35 students in 4 participants' classes. Conducted using mixed methods and thematic analysis, the dissertation provides information about blended course designs so that other institutions can learn from them and emulate them. The study explores the choices that underlie the selection and development of curricula, materials, and technologies in blended language courses; student, instructor, and administrator perspectives on these courses; and support (training, professional development, and resources) available to participants. Most participants (98 in total) reported being very or somewhat satisfied with the current setup of their blended courses. Variables correlated with instructor satisfaction included a greater number of years of instruction (overall and in the blended format), instructors' amount of influence over the curriculum and materials, their choice of teaching blended classes, and the availability of technology training in their programs. Themes emerging from the interviews included an emphasis on the communicative approach, the use of textbook website packages and (in a few cases) open educational resources, a frustration with inadequate student preparation, instructor autonomy, and varying levels of support for instructors and students. Blended courses in basic language programs are best served when instructors choose their level of technological integration, contribute to the course design, and are offered preparation and support related to both technology and teaching methods. The study recommends ways that institutions, departments, instructors, and students of languages can make the most of digital pedagogy, not only in officially blended courses, but also in courses across the spectrum of technological integration, from fully face-to-face to fully online. Useful strategies include selecting and creating technological materials that align with the skills that instructors and administrators want students to develop, providing training and support for both pedagogy and technology to new and continuing instructors, and offering technological support to students. The lessons of this study are applicable not only to courses that are officially blended, but also to all language programs considering or evaluating new technological integrations.

Taking an action research approach, this study explores the experiences of three intakes of undergraduate students who worked in a cohort-based learning environment where team work and classroom participation was expected. This educational setting required students from diverse backgrounds to work closely together on campus during the intense one-year program. To facilitate in the development of a face-to-face learning community, where individual differences could be celebrated and problems could be solved in an open, trusting environment, an online bridging course was developed. Aimed at decreasing the incidence of minority group marginalization and reduce feelings of isolation, the bridging course provided activities directed towards encouraging students to begin to develop an inclusive learning community prior to their arrival on campus. Exploring how online transitional activities had contributed to the development of a face-to-face learning community, as well as perceived disadvantages to that model, key stakeholders' perceptions were obtained through focus groups, interviews, and surveys. Findings include: (a) an enhanced understanding of the ways in which an online course can be used to aid in the development of a learning community for oncampus students; (b) a heightened awareness of challenges faced by those working in a learning community; (c) a systematic approach to the development of learning communities. This research suggests that an online bridging course can be an effective way for on-campus students to start developing a learning community.

Blended learning is the term used for a course with online and on-campus components. Multiple different versions have proliferated across higher education during the past decade. As with any new learning modality there are many issues which need to be addressed when considering a move of an entire institution's curriculum in this direction. The problem identified for investigation was the phenomenon of transitional change of DeVry University's instructional modality from a traditional on-campus to a blended on-campus experience. The explanatory case study explored the phenomenon through two main factors including the impact of the change on the culture of the university and the change in time format for the courses. Eight themes were analyzed and addressed including course format changes, communicating the change, training faculty, common course shell, workload changes, cultural impacts, communication and evaluation of the transition. The university went from a traditional 15- to 8-week course format while making the transition to blended learning. Reasons given for this schedule change were investigated. When creating a large institutional change communication is a key factor and how the change was communicated to both faculty and students is explored. Training faculty for the new blended environment as well as the introduction to a common course shell for all courses is analyzed. The perceived workload of both faculty and students in the new blended learning environment in regard to faculty course load taught and student credit hours taken is considered. The impacts on culture were addressed during the transition including faculty, students and administration impacts. A comparison is given for communication between faculty and students in the new blended learning environment. The evaluation considered the hiatus of rolling out the common course shells to faculty and students is given as well as the planned assessment for the blended learning environment.

Blended learning has sometimes been calledthe best of both worlds, combining the advantages of face-to-face instruction with the advantages of online learning. It has been in existence for over a decade, and more research needed to be done to determine its efficacy and desirability for community colleges. The goal of this dissertation was to document the ways in which blended learning has changed the community college learning experience. The investigation took place at Ulster County Community College, a small rural college in upstate New York. A mixed method, triangulation design was used. Quantitative data were collected from the college's student database regarding final grades in each of the three delivery modes (face-to-face, blended, and fully online). An analysis of variance looked at difference in achievement among the three modalities. No statistically significant difference was found. Archival end-of-semester student questionnaires were analyzed and it was found that even in the early years of blended learning, students were generally satisfied and appreciated the convenience of the blended modality. Qualitative data were collected through a student focus group and faculty interviews. Student priorities were teacher presence, faculty skill at teaching blended classes, and the support that was available to them from the faculty and administration. Faculty voiced concerns with transitioning from teaching face-to-face or online to teaching blended. The results suggest that it is not the modality of the course that determines whether or not a student is successful; teacher presence, whether online or in person, is a strong indicator of student success and satisfaction. An instructor who is well-versed in the pedagogy of blended learning, a course with skillfully designed and integrated online components, and an administration that provides channels for technical support, combine to provide students with a successful blended learning experience.

This paper concerns with blended learning and with its usage in education and development of managers. The paper brings out survey of existing approaches to blended learning and list of forms and methods which are used in this educational concept. Part of this paper is proposal for blended learning utilization in process of inovation of teaching methods at FM VŠE Jindřichův Hradec.

Master of Education (MEd) Research Report University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, 2016 / This study investigates the impact of the Flipped Learning Model (FLM) on the teaching practices of four educators in a private school in Johannesburg. It investigates the pedagogic processes and experiences of these educators’ respective attempts to shift from their standard educator-centered methodologies to the FLM’s highly collaborative and blended methodology. In so doing, the study exposes the educators’ resistance to the primary assumptions of constructivist epistemologically informed pedagogies. It also demonstrates the extent to which epistemological assumptions underpinning the ‘official curriculum’ are imbued within the dominant pedagogic discourse and aligned with educators’ beliefs and professional identities. The study exposes the necessity for transformations in educators’ traditional thinking, epistemological assumptions, perceptions, attitudes and roles to occur before any substantial attempts to introduce the FLM in ‘classrooms’ are made. Furthermore, the FLM takes for granted the ease of embedding technology in the teaching/learning process. This study exposes the relationship between a lack of technological familiarity/ know-how and the strength of resistance to ‘flipping the classroom’. South African educators work in an environment that promotes very strong boundaries between: classroom/home; educator/learner; and schoolwork/homework. Flipping, weakening or altering these, challenges educators’ strongly held notions of what it means to be a professional educator. It is within this context that Bernstein’s work with respect to the development of such seminal concepts as ‘pedagogic device’, ‘classification’ and ‘framing’ provided the language of description and analytical basis for this research study. / MT2017

A presença das tecnologias digitais e da Internet vem se intensificando em diferentes contextos de nossas vidas: pessoal, profissional e acadêmico. Isso vem trazendo mudanças nas práticas sociais, e nos traz questionamentos, particularmente, sobre as influências das Tecnologias Digitais da Informação e da Comunicação (TDIC) e da Internet no processo de ensino-aprendizagem e nas práticas profissionais do professor. No contexto educacional, observamos a adoção de modalidades híbridas no ensino-aprendizagem, pela associação de aulas presenciais a Ambientes Virtuais de Aprendizagem (AVA), o que traz para o professor o desafio de configurar sua sala virtual, de definir as atividades a serem realizadas com o uso de ferramentas e recursos do ambiente assim como a inclusão de tecnologias. Considerando todos esses aspectos, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi o de investigar como se deu a articulação das duas modalidades de ensino, presencial e virtual através das atividades propostas; a relação entre as atividades e o uso de ferramentas e participação dos alunos em relação ao uso do ambiente associado às aulas presenciais. Nossas reflexões se basearam no referencial teórico que discute a evolução das (Tecnologias da Informação e da Comunicação (TIC) (MONEREO; COLL, 2010); as características das TDIC (LÉVY, 1999; GABRIEL, 2013) e da Internet (CASTELLS, 2003); as orientações teórico-metodológicas que norteiam os cursos on-line (KENSKI; SCHULTZ, 2015); as características das ferramentas digitais e dos AVA (MONEREO; COLL, 2010; TORI 2010; FILATRO, 2008); as características do ensino híbrido (MORAN, 2015; VALENTE, 2014; NISSEN, 2007; STAKER; HORN, 2012; BACICH; TANZI NETO; TREVISAN, 2015) e a formação do professor para atuar nesses contextos (PERRENOUD, 2002, 2010; MAYRINK; ALBUQUERQUE-COSTA, 2013, 2017; MORAN, 2015). Para o desenvolvimento da pesquisa, realizamos um estudo do caso, de natureza qualitativa-interpretativista, que considera as especificidades do contexto, ou seja, a observação da sala virtual na Plataforma Moodle de uma disciplina de formação inicial de professores, de um curso de Graduação em Letras Francês/Português de uma universidade pública do estado de São Paulo. Os dados que constituem o corpus de análise desta pesquisa foram coletados por meio de anotações de observações das aulas presenciais; registros das telas do curso no Moodle; entrevista com a professora responsável pela disciplina; dois questionários com os alunos, o primeiro para constituição do perfil do grupo, e segundo para conhecer seu ponto de vista sobre a disciplina desenvolvida na modalidade híbrida. Os resultados de nossas análises mostraram que a modalidade híbrida pode ser concebida sob diferentes aspectos segundo o contexto no qual ele é proposto. No caso desta pesquisa, as particularidades da disciplina e da sala virtual conferiram ao trabalho realizado características voltadas à organização e funcionalidade dos dois espaços presencial e virtual assim como a valorização dos aspectos interativos e de autonomia dos alunos quando utilizaram as ferramentas do Moodle. A noção de híbrido permaneceu geral, de acordo com a definição de Tori (2015). A contribuição da pesquisa se dá no âmbito da formação de professores para atuar em contextos híbridos, na medida em que, é necessário reconhecer que cada vez mais as TDIC, estão integradas ao cotidiano do ensino-aprendizagem tornando possível o desenvolvimento de novas maneiras de ensinar e aprender próprias ao século XXI. / The presence of digital technologies and Internet has been intensifying in diferente contexts of our lives: personal, professional and academic. This has brought changes in social practices, and brings us questions, particularly, about the influences of Digital Technologies of Information and Communication (DTIC) and about the Internet in the teaching-learning process and in the professional practices of a teacher. In the educational context, we observe the adoption of blended-learning programs, by the association of in-person classes to Virtual Learning Environments (VLE), which brings to the teacher the challenge of configuring his virtual room, of defining the activities to be performed with the use of environmental tools and resources, as well as the inclusion of technologies. Considering all these aspects, the objective of this research was to investigate the articulation of two blended-learning programs, in-person and virtual, through the proposed activities; the relationship between the activities and use of tools and the participation of students in relation to the use of this kind of environment associated to in-person lessons. Our reflections were based on the theoretical framework that discusses the evolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) (MONEREO; COLL, 2010); the characteristics of DTIC (LÉVY, 1999; GABRIEL, 2013) and Internet (CASTELLS, 2003); the theoretical-methodological guidelines that guide the online courses (KENSKI; SCHULTZ, 2015); the characteristics of the digital tools and LVE (MONEREO; COLL, 2010; TORI, 2010; FILATRO, 2008); the characteristics of blended learning (MORAN, 2015; VALENTE, 2014; NISSEN, 2007; STAKER; HORN, 2012; BACICH; TANZI NETO; TREVISAN, 2015) and teacher training to work in these contexts (PERRENOUD, 2002, 2010; MAYRINK; ALBUQUERQUE-COSTA, 2013, 2015, 2017; MORAN, 2015). For the development of the research, we carried out a qualitative-interpretive nature case study that considers the particularities of the context, that is, the observation of the virtual room in the Moodle Platform of an initial teacher training course, from a Bachelor\'s degree in Language and Literature qualification in French and Portuguese at a public university in the state of São Paulo. The data that constitute the corpus of analysis of this research were collected through annotations and observations of in-person classes; prints of course screens in Moodle; interview with the responsible teacher for the discipline; two questionnaires with the students, the first one to form the profile of the group, and the second one to know their point of view about the discipline developed in the blendedlearning programs. The results of our analyzes point out that the blended-learning.

The purpose of this research study was to determine K-12 school leaders' concepts of ability and technology readiness. The Theories of Intelligence Scale (TIS) was used to analyze concepts of ability and the Technology Readiness Index (TRI) 2.0 was used to analyze the technology readiness of K-12 school leaders. Data from the two instruments were used to determine if there was any relationship between K-12 school leaders' concept of ability and technology readiness. This analysis filled a blank spot in the research contributing to the literature on leadership, Mindset Theory (Dweck, 2006; Dweck, Chiu, & Hong, 1995), and Technology Readiness (Lin & Hsieh, 2012; Parasuraman, 2000). Furthermore it helped to determine the state of K-12 school leaders' status as 21st century leaders. The sample consisted of the school leaders of School District of Palm Beach County (SDPBC). This included 158 principals from 104 elementary, 31 middle, and 23 high schools. The researcher was a school district employee and therefore had access to the participants. Each of the four null hypotheses were rejected as SDPBC school leaders scored significantly higher on the TIS (p < .05) and TRI 2.0 (p < .01), there was a significant (p < .0125) positive relationship between TIS and the TRI 2.0, and that relationship was affected (p < .05) by gender, race, and experience. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

eLearning applications have penetrated the world of education as most higher education organizations all over the world choose to deploy eLearning applications. A review of literature and surveys performed confirmed that currently there is very little engagement of students in web-based eLearning applications, especially related to web-based constructive activities. In fact, eLearning platforms are mostly used as on-line repositories for a variety of course related documents without actively contributing to the learning process utilizing available modern learning methods. eLearning aims to actively engage students by making available learning content, but also through using interactive practices in the process of learning. Therefore, students in addition to access learning content may actively participate in the discovery of knowledge rather than being passive receptors to that content. Consequently, engagement of students to eLearning activities and content is important. Two surveys were undertaken in order to identify the reasons why web-based eLearning platforms fail to achieve both constructivist learning and the required engagement by both students and instructors. In addition to that, these surveys investigated and measured the level of interactivity of both students and instructors with on-line Information Technology (IT) services offered by both web-based and mobile applications and services. The rational was to investigate opportunities in creating a technology that can disseminate eLearning content that is mainly offered by institutional eLearning platforms and popular on-line services like social networks and communications services, in order to increase awareness, availability, and simplicity of eLearning activities and thus engagement to eLearning. The findings illustrated that most instructors fail to create and promptly support constructive eLearning activities largely because of the complexity and time required for such undertakings. Consequently, the critical student participant mass is not achieved. Additionally, it seems that most learning platforms rely on email messages and native applications’ notifications to update both students and instructors on new interactions. However, these channels of communication are not within the preferred communication channels and thus updates become outdated and fail to serve their purpose. Finally, web-based learning platforms seem to be oriented around laptop/desktop computer use (i.e. a full sized computer screen) rather than adopting and adapting to current mobile use of technology. The research presents a novel conceptual model of a mobile application that integrates and combines various already existing popular, on-line, web-based and mobile application services (communication, social media, voice command systems, etc.) including relative technologies (smart devices, mobile sensors, application servers), with institutional eLearning platforms. The aim is to increase the engagement of both students and instructors to eLearning, through constructive eLearning activities using a variety of existing popular technologies. This research shows that a Mobile Technology Enhanced Learning (mTEL) technology that integrates eLearning activities to both students and instructors will assist in increasing the awareness of learners to eLearning activities. At the same time, it offers the means to access, respond and participate in learning activities virtually from everywhere, thus making interaction ubiquitous, simpler and prompt, thus addressing key eLearning weaknesses leading to low engagement. These benefits are offered to both students and instructors, for a variety of eLearning activities and tools (positivistic and constructive). The research goes one step further by evaluating mTEL’s effectiveness. A conceptual novel model of a mobile application was designed and positively evaluated to contribute in the resolution of the major problem of low engagement of both students and instructors to eLearning. This is achieved by technologically enhancing mobile learning and introducing learning activities and materials at the current, highly populated on-line ecosystems where learners are already engaged instead of expecting them to directly interact with the institutional web-based platforms.