Factors Incluencing The Effectiveness Of Blended Learning Among Students In Uniten, Muadzam

Blended learning

Blended learning is defined as learner-centred education, self-guided, flexible and multi-modal approach to learn (Ma’arop & Embi, 2016). Blended learning is determined as the combination of traditional eye-to-eye and distance learning (Kazu & Demirkol, 2014). It has unique characteristic as one learning program used two modes of deliveries to optimise learning outcome and cost of delivery (Akkoyunlu & Soylu, 2006).

Blended learning provides benefit to both lecturers and students (Kalantarrashidi, Mohammadpour, & Sahraei, 2015). Online learning programs enable lecturer who are unable to attend face to face learning to correspond with their teaching process. Hence, the content of study is efficiently delivered. It also provides access to the students in classes even when the lecturers are not available, (Means, Toyama, Murphy, & Baki, 2013). Students are also capable to balance their workloads and complete their assessment suitable in time and locations (Abd Ghani, Raja Hussin, & Abd Khalid, 2015). Blended learning is implemented in order to improve discipline, raises connection and flexibility, as well as to enhance cost effectiveness (Bower, Dalgarno, Kennedy, Lee, & Kenney, 2015).

Class environment

Class environment is the main component in teaching and learning. They are categorised into; (i) physical setting and (ii) physiological environment. Physical settings such as classroom size, structure of classroom and multimedia have been provided for the purpose of learning. On the other hand, physiological environment can be classified as communication among students and lecturers, participation rates and lecturer support (Baker, 2010).

Class environment is the support provided by the administrators. It involved non academics staff to ensure the class environment is ready for teaching and learning process. Technical support such as facilities availabilities like computer and Wi-Fi also important to enhance the effectiveness of blended learning, (Wong, Hamzah, & Hamzah, 2014). Flexibility has been added in traditional face to face learning processes throughout blended learning (Thi Thai, Wever, & Valcke, 2017). Blended learning has the facilities to fit the essential of times (Kazu & Demirkol, 2014). The implementation of technology need to be considered to ensure it meets the need of users (Bawaneh, 2011).

Teaching methods.

Most students use that blended learning in their education are familiar with both traditional methods and online learning system (Makhdoom, Khosshal, Algaidi, Heissam, & Zolaly, 2013). Both lecturers and students were trained and familiar with blended learning system. The lecturers as tutor have access to all groups of students to monitor their progress. Blended learning also implements students-centred approach that put the student at the centre in learning and teaching method (Balakrishnan & Puteh, 2014). The lecturers act as facilitators who monitors the students’ improvements in term of their communication skills and collaboration in group activities.

Blended learning able to improve learning skills where students gain knowledge from direct experience rather than follow instructions or being spoon-feed (Nah, Chone, Teck Heng, Marimuthu, & Foo Terng, 2015). Likewise, social media account is used as a medium in delivering blended learning activities. The learning and teaching process occurred in social media group also involved both lecturers and students. This shows that education is not as rigid with book and assignment. By applying flexibility in teaching methods, students able to enjoy teaching and learning process.

Hypothesis development.

Sample selection and data collection.

This research population are focusing on the private university students who uses blended learning as their learning style. We chose University Tenaga Nasional, Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Campus (UNITEN KSHAS) as our targeted population as UNITEN KSHAS has incorporated blended learning in their teaching and learning processes. Moreover, the students are also familiar with this teaching style as well.

This research uses simple random sampling as the type of studies. Simple random sampling is a subset of a statistical population in which each member of the subset has an equal probability being chosen. The group of population in this study are undergraduate students from all courses in UNITEN KSHAS. There are 2765 students in UNITEN, KHSAS. However, only 200 questionnaires manage to be distributed to the respondents and 9 questionnaires need to be excluded due to incomplete data. The questionnaires were distributed to all degree students from 1st year until 4th year. This is to ensure that respondents had equal chances to answer the questionnaires survey.

The method of data collection for this study is survey research method. The purpose of survey research is to gather the data from students by utilising the questionnaire from several main source articles. There are four sections in the questionnaire; Section A which been modified from Finley (2017), on demographic information such as gender, age, year of studies, courses and experience of using blended learning. Section B and C was adopted from Larsen (2012) and it relates to the class environment and teaching methods that influence the effectiveness of blended learning. In section D, the respondent need to answer five questions on effectiveness of blended learning based on their learning experience.

In this study, the independent variables are class environment and teaching method, and the dependent variable is the effectiveness of blended learning. The internal data used to measure class environment, teaching method and the effectiveness of blended learning among the UNITEN KHSAS’s students is based on Likert scale.

Descriptive analysis result

Descriptive analysis is used for all demographic variables. It shows the respondents characteristics based on gender, age, year of studies, courses, and experience using blended learning. By measuring a large numbers of people, descriptive analysis will help this research to simplify in a practical way.

Reliability of the result.

Reliability of the questionnaire for both dependent and independent variables are measures using SPSS, the Cronbach’s Alpha was obtained and presented in the tables below. The Cronbach’s Alpha is reliability coefficient that indicates how well the items in a set are positively correlated to one another (Sekaran & Bougie, 2013).

Table 06 below shows that Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient high internal consistency, where for each variable, the Cronbach Alpha range 0.804 to 0.879. Overall, the variables are considered as good with the variables α value more than 0.6. Thus, no question was deleted due to acceptable value of Cronbach’s Alpha.

Normality test result.

The sampling frequency is tested for normality. The normality of the sample is construed from the values of the Kolmogorov and Saphiro-Wilk. If the p-value is less than the alpha level of 0.05, then data is not from a normally distributed population and the other way around in case it is greater than five percent. Details of the normality test findings are shown in table 7 below:

From Table 7 , the overall results show that the distribution of the sample is not normally distributed. Thus, a non- parametric test will be used to test the relationship between the variable.

Correlation analysis result.

Correlation analysis was conducted to test relationship between the class environment, and teaching method with effectiveness of blended learning. As the collected samples are not normally distributed, non-parametric statistic technique; Spearman’s Rho Correlation is employed to examine the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. Table 8 below are the result:

The result of this research shows that the independent variable has a positive relationship with dependent variable. From Table 8 , it shows that the correlation result for class environment is 0.656 significant at 0.01 levels. It implies that there is a significant positive relationship between class environment and effectiveness of blended learning. Thus, hypothesis 1 is accepted. The findings are similar with previous findings by Bucholz and Sheffler (2009) where class environment can improve student’s ability to learn and feel comfortable as well as being a good member of the class. Similarly, Comey (2009) stated that, students can interact more during the process of learning as they could form a great group as blended style has been employed. Smith (2011) added that, good class environment leads to cooperative learning in which the students work in a group and has an interest to settle their work accordingly. Other studies also mentioned that students are more satisfied and happy by using online learning rather than face-to-face learning (Kalantarrashidi et al, 2015).

From Table 08 , the result for teaching method correlation coefficient is 0.644 at 0.01 significant levels. Based on the result, hypothesis 2 is accepted. The finding is similar with previous research by Alshwiah (2009) who reflects the performance of student through blended style which leads to good results. Wu and Patel (2016) also discovered a positive relationship between the findings, in which the students will be exposed with new knowledge through a mixed method learning and they will be provide with a good opportunity and able to understand their own solid skills. Other than that, Abd Rahman et al. (2015) stated the teaching method in blended learning can be done by online course or face-to-face learning for varied purposes including the dynamic of discussion, the readiness of student to share their ideas and participation in collaborative activities.