The purpose of this qualitative thesis research was to explore the state of distance education in Saudi universities. The research focused on teaching and learning from the perspectives of the universities’ instructors as well as expert designers from the Ministry of Education working in distance education. By using a multiple case studies approach, this study aimed to understand the opportunities and challenges faced in the development of online learning environments at Saudi universities from an ethical and cultural perspectives. Data collection methods consisted of 28 in-depth, one-on-one interviews as well a thematic analysis of 152 supporting documents related to the universities’ strategies to deliver online learning. The advanced findings revealed how the recent integration of a blended learning model has helped to contribute to a shift in the Saudi distance education system, as it moves from a teacher-centered approach to a learner-centered approach. Furthermore, drawing on Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions and Social Construction of Technology (SCOT), the study uncovers complex interactions between the Saudi learning culture, technology integration, and ethical issues. This research contributes unique knowledge about the state of online learning development in Saudi higher education to help enhance distance education development in Saudi Arabia, as well as in other areas of the world where similar distance education development initiatives are underway.

Der Bericht beschreibt die Evaluation des Blended Learning-Angebots TASKtrain. Im Zentrum steht eine benutzerorientierte Analyse des E-Learning-Angebots TASKtrain (siehe https://bildungsportal.sachsen.de/opal/auth/RepositoryEntry/6838648833?sess=true). Das E-Learning-Angebot wurde gemeinsam vom Medienzentrum der TU Dresden und von der Professur für Allgemeine Pädagogik der Universität Leipzig im Projekt TASKtrain - Kompetenzorientierte Qualifizierung von Hochschullehrenden zur Konzeption und Erstellung von E-Prüfungsaufgaben entwickelt und erprobt (siehe http://tu-dresden.de/die_tu_dresden/zentrale_einrichtungen/mz/weiterbildungen_schulungen/tasktrain). Dieses Projekt wurde mit finanzieller Unterstützung des SMWK realisiert.

As distance learning evolved, course designers and teachers quickly recognized the value of integrating online features into the classroom. The result was blended learning, a combination of online and face-to-face components. This complex and dynamic new form of education has raised many questions about the role of computer-mediated communication in education and has provided new opportunities for extending research in learning and communication. The purpose of the study was to determine whether a blended class will produce different (and possibly better) results in terms of student perceptions of the overall learning experience and student satisfaction than traditional lecture-based face-to-face instruction or learning that is delivered entirely online. The main goals of this study were to compare the effectiveness of face-to-face, online, and blended instruction, and to examine the role of interactions in the effectiveness of each educational method. While each form of instruction received very positive feedback from both students and instructors and the newly introduced blended courses proved very successful in terms of overall satisfaction with the learning experience, the traditional lecture-based courses produced more positive attitudes toward the subject matter. The possible causes of these discrepancies between some of the quantitative and qualitative results point toward the role of previous experience with online learning, cognitive development, and learning styles.

The rapid growth of online and blended learning environments in both higher education and K-12, along with the development of innovative game based, narrative driven, problem-based learning (PBL) systems known as Alternate Reality Games (AltRG), has led to the need to understand student’s abilities to self-regulate their learning behaviors and practices in these novel environments. This study examines student reflections and e-mails related to self-regulatory practices for learning across two different course designs for an Internet-based course in computer applications. Both designs leverage PBL but apply different levels of abstraction related to content and the need to self-regulate. The study looked specifically at how students communicated about learning across these environments, what student communications indicated about student readiness for university online learning and how instructional design and methods of instruction shaped student expressions of learning and self-regulation. The research design follows an ethnographic and case study approach as two designs and four sections are examined. Data was collected from student blog posts, email messages and semi-structured interviews. Atlas.TI was used to code the data using constant comparative analysis. A sequential analysis was applied using an a priori structure for self-regulation and post hoc analysis for emergent codes that resulted in the following categories: distraction, group experience, motivation, emotion, prior experiences, and time. Results indicated qualitative differences between the two designs related to student communications for learning and self-regulation. Findings were reported for both the a priori and post hoc analysis. Additionally, two major findings are reported as emerging themes. These are presented and discussed as The Expectation Gap and Different Designs, Different Outcomes.

This multiple-article dissertation explores K-12 blended teacher preparation. A literature review describes research trends from 88 articles published in peer-reviewed journals. It reports that current K-12 blended teacher preparation research focuses on explorations of blended teaching literature; professional development and coursework used for blended teacher preparation; defining, developing, and implementing blended teaching competencies; and measuring blended teaching readiness. The literature review suggests that additional work is needed to uncover specific practices that K-12 blended teachers are using across disciplines and grade levels, as well as whether there are specific pedagogies that seem to be effective within specific disciplines and grade levels. The second article provides insight into these K-12 blended pedagogies. Researchers gathered more than 1500 examples of K-12 blended teaching practices, strategies, resources, and school profiles from The Learning Accelerator (TLA) to uncover how practices of blended teachers relate to proposed competencies for blended teacher preparation. Coding a representative sample of resources (372 of the 959 relevant resources, providing a confidence interval of 95% +/- 4) revealed that some technology skills seen as foundational to blended teaching readiness and some blended teaching competencies may be less important for K-12 blended teachers than others. Future research should address whether the skills that appear to be less emphasized from the artifact analysis are less used in practice or seek to identify specific pedagogical practices around the skills and competencies that this analysis identified as important to K-12 blended teaching. The final article presents best practices and experiences within the blended competency area of personalization. Researchers conducted interviews with 62 blended teachers with various levels of blended teaching experience across 10 different content areas and all K-12 grade levels. Researchers found that teachers provide students with personalization across students' time, place, pace, path, and goals for learning within their classes' learning objectives, assessments, and instructional activities. These findings provide a foundational framework for describing the ways in which blended learning can facilitate personalization.

Actualmente la incorporación de las tecnologías de la información y comunicación (TIC) en los programas educativos ha cobrado especial relevancia, bajo el supuesto de que estas herramientas pueden promover una mejor calidad educativa y facilitar el aprendizaje, además de contribuir a reducir la brecha digital. Con la presente tesis se logró demostrar cual es nivel de comunicación que tienen los niños antes y después de aplicar el sistema tutorial multimedia. Asimismo se presenta un marco teórico e investigaciones anteriores en los que se basó la innovación que propone esta investigación para sistemas de aprendizaje. A continuación se detalla la metodología de Brian Blum propuesta para el desarrollo del sistema tutorial multimedia abarcando el análisis, diseño educativo e interactivo, desarrollo, producción y pruebas del sistema. Esta metodología permitió el desarrollo de un sistema más interactivo y entretenido para los niños; así como una herramienta esencial para el docente al momento de impartir sus clases. Finalmente se concluye que el sistema tutorial multimedia basado en tecnología b-learning, es un sistema de aprendizaje que en relación a las estrategias de enseñanza tradicional contribuyó a mejorar el proceso de comunicación de los niños especiales del Colegio de Educación Especial Nº2 Niño Jesús de Praga.

Under den rådande situationen med pandemin Covid-19 skedde en digitalisering i snabb takt. Denna typ av tvångsdigitalisering har förändrat arbetsmarknaden och genomförandet av utbildningar. Marknaden är enligt tidigare forskning ofta negativt inställd till digital undervisning. Hur väl stämmer företags behov överens med digitala utbildningars utbildningsplan? Syftet är att undersöka hur digitala utbildningar på universitetsnivå riktade mot praktiska yrken kan optimeras för att digitala studenter ska nå högre studieresultat och samtidigt möta marknadens uppleva behov. För att uppfylla syftet genomförs en tvådelad empirisk undersökning det vill säga semistrukturerade intervjuer med praktiskt inriktat företagsunderlag, dess upplevda behov vid nyanställning och genom kartläggning av olika utbildningsplaner analyseras hur digitala utbildningar kan utvecklas.  Det finns utbildningsformer som bättre lämpar sig för digitala studier och det finns utbildningsformer som är bättre lämpade för skolsalsundervisning. Den mest lämpliga utbildningsformen utifrån resultatet av datainsamlingen är ett mellanting mellan digital och skolsalsundervisning, så kallad blended learning som kan skapa förutsättningar för ett mer utvecklat lärande i framtiden. Blended learning innebär att det finns både inslag av digital och fysisk närvaro, där det går att anpassa vilken form som väljs till de olika momenten som ska genomföras. Samhället som utvecklas idag kräver en större digital kompetens vilket resulterar i en större digital mognad, därför är en viktig aspekt att diskutera hur framtidens utbildning ska utformas för att på så sätt uppnå de modifierade kunskapskraven som krävs. / During the current situation with the pandemic Covid-19, digitization took place at a rapid pace. This type of forced digitization has changed the labor market and how to conduct education. According to previous research, the market is often negative about digital education. How well do companies' requirements match the digital education curriculum? The purpose is to investigate how digital education at university level aimed at practical professions can be optimized for digital students to achieve higher study results and at the same time meet the market's perceived needs. To fulfill the purpose, a two-part empirical study is conducted, semi-structured interviews with a practically oriented business basis regarding its perceived needs and through mapping of curriculum, digital education and how it can be developed is analyzed. There are forms of education that are better suited for digital studies and there are forms of education that are better suited for classroom teaching. The most suitable form of education based on the results of data collection is something in between digital and classroom teaching, so-called blended learning, which can create conditions for more developed learning in the future. Blended learning means that there are elements of both digital and physical presence, where it is possible to adapt which form is chosen to the various steps to be carried out. The society that is developing today requires a greater digital competence, which results in a greater digital maturity, therefore an important aspect is to discuss how the education of the future should be designed in order in this way to achieve the modified knowledge requirements required.

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / The COVID-19 pandemic challenged higher education institutions to close their campuses for the purpose of managing and controlling the spread of the coronavirus during the national lockdown. Institutions had to migrate from blended learning and teaching to emergency online learning and teaching only, posing challenges to the learning experiences of student social workers. This study aimed to explore and describe the experiences of student social workers and educators regarding online learning and teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the influence of socioeconomic factors on student social workers’ academic experiences.

Although varying models of blended learning are being adopted in schools, research on the effect of blended learning on students in different subjects and grade levels has not been examined. This naturalistic, quasi-experimental study examined the effect of the rotation model of blended learning at the middle school level on students' language arts performance to determine how the rotation model of blended learning compares to the traditional model of learning. The study's theoretical framework consisted of Mayer's cognitive theory of multimedia learning and Bloom's theory of mastery learning. The population consisted of 979 non-Title 1, Georgia public middle school students within the same middle school in a metropolitan school district during the 2013-2014 school year. The sample size was 237 sixth graders, 255 seventh graders, and 272 eighth graders. The specific data collected were Criteria Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) scores for all sample students. Data analysis consisted of both stepwise multiple regression and two-way ANOVA. The study found no significant difference in academic achievement of special education or regular education students. However, gifted students who participated in the blended model of instruction performed at a lower level than those who participated in the traditional model of instruction. Educational stakeholders may use this study, and others like it, to make decisions on the adoption of educational models at the middle school level that are beneficial, as well as to avoid models for subgroups that might be harmful.

Social interaction is key to students' learning in blending learning discussions. Although there is research on interactions in online courses and traditional classes, there is little on whether blended learning discussions are meeting students' social interaction and educational development needs. The purpose of this multicase study was to examine attitudes of first-year and final-year business and technology students and faculty members for patterns of interaction and knowledge construction. The study was conducted in the northeastern United States. Piaget's cognitive constructivism, Vygotsky's social constructivism, and Knowles's andragogy constituted the conceptual framework. Using maximum variation sampling, participants were 8 students and 4 faculty for 2 first-year and 2 final-year classes. Data sources were interviews and discussion responses coded using Straus and Corbin's open, axial, and selective coding procedures. Coded data were analyzed using Merriam's cross-case analysis method. The business students displayed the first three phases of knowledge construction: (a) sharing and comparing (b) discovery and exploration, and (c) negotiation of meaning; the technical students progressed to the fourth phase: testing and modification of proposed synthesis. Knowledge construction often occurred in a positive, challenging form of interaction. The professors expressed that gender, VoiceThread media, and discussion content influenced students' learning. These findings contribute to positive social change by informing stronger learning processes that students and teachers can use in their blended learning classes to facilitate collective knowledge construction.