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The aim of this study was to implement an approach of blended instruction for in-service bilingual teacher-training program to investigate its feasibility based on the perceptions of the participants regarding their familiarity with bilingual education and their satisfaction with the integration of technological tools used in the blended instruction. The framework of this study focused on three characteristics of blended instruction including clear establishment and progress toward curriculum design and objectives, creating an interactive learning environment and enhancing effective interaction among participants, instructors and content by providing a variety of individual and collaborative learning activities planned by the instructors or supported by technological tools. In addition, a mentor system with a tutor and an assistant was offered for giving instructors and participants instructional and technical support during the learning process. The participants' positive responses confirmed the effectiveness of the training program in that participants become familiar with the integration of subject knowledge and language instruction into bilingual education and can make use of technological tools in the blended instruction to facilitate their learning and the completion of the assigned tasks. A blended instruction of the online programs for training in-service teachers in bilingual education was proposed and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study focused on paragraph writing abilities as it is a fundamental skill for academic and professional success. Improving paragraph writing lays the groundwork for addressing advanced writing tasks and is vital for effective global communication in English. The objective of this study was, therefore, to examine effects of blended instruction on students’ paragraph writing performance at Pharma College Hawassa Campus, Ethiopia. A quasi-experimental design was used to attain this objective. A sample of 54 first-year pharmacy department (26 control and 28 experimental) students was taken purposefully. The control group attended conventional, face-to-face approach; whereas experimental group received instruction using blended learning approach via Google Classroom, which incorporated collaborative writing that allowed for peer interaction and scaffolding, extensive online resources for independent learning, face-to-face support, and feedback. Pre-test and post-test paragraph writing were conducted to test effects of blended instruction, and effect size was computed to measure the magnitude of intervention. Furthermore, students’ questionnaire was used to collect data on participants’ backgrounds and experiences. Results revealed improvements in both groups; however, overall, the experimental group in post-test demonstrated significantly better paragraph writing with a large effect size. Regression analysis highlighted flexibility, collaborative tasks, and instant feedback as key contributors to improvement, whereas impact of authentic materials and face-to-face interactions was comparatively less. Finally, the researchers recommended EFL teachers should benefit from applying blended instruction, which may in turn improve students’ paragraph writing performance in English language in the Ethiopian context.

Copyright of e-Education Research is the property of Northwest Normal University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The goal of this study was to investigate the influence of flipped, face-to-face, and blended instruction on EFL intermediate introverted and extroverted learners' pronunciation ability. To fulfill the objectives of the study, 60 EFL intermediate-level learners were selected from English language institutes of Esfahan City. Then, they were randomly allotted into a face-to-face, flipped, and blended group. Each group included 20 learners. After that, the Eysenck Personality Inventory was distributed among the learners of each group. As a result, the learners of each group were divided into an extroverted group and an introverted group. The next time, the pronunciation pretest was given to the learners of the three groups separately. Subsequently, the learners of the flipped group were provided with the pronunciation instruction three days before coming to their classes, and then during class time, they performed various activities and exercises regarding the content. In the face-to-face class, the learners received the traditional instruction of pronunciation. In addition, in the blended group, during online training the researcher taught the instructional content via the social media of Eita, and during face-to-face training, the learners were required to do the related exercises and activities of their book. After instruction, the pronunciation posttest was administered among the three groups. Then, the acquired data were analyzed through statistical techniques like the analysis of two-variable variance and the analysis of one-way variance. The findings showed that the three instruction approaches could positively increase the extroverted participants’ pronunciation ability but the flipped group attained more advancement in pronunciation learning. EFL instructors, learners, and syllabus designers can benefit from the findings of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Higher Education & Science / Yüksekögretim ve Bilim Dergisi is the property of Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit Universitesi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent developments in technology have affected various aspects of human life, including education. These technological advancements have resulted in the introduction of new trends in teaching methodology. These trends include pure online instruction, mixed online and face-to-face instruction (blended), etc. In order to identify the efficacy of such kinds of instruction in comparison with traditional methods, this quasi-experimental study was conducted to explore the effects of virtual vs. blended-language instruction on the development of listening and reading skills by Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To achieve this goal, 60 intermediate EFL learners were selected to participate in two experimental (virtual and blended) and one control (traditional face-to-face) groups. After the provision of the treatments in experimental (reading and listening through virtual and blended methods of instruction) and control (reading and listening through traditional method) groups, a post-test was conducted to measure the attainment of the participants in each language skill. The results revealed that both virtual and blended methods of instruction could lead to better reading and listening performances. However, the difference between the effect of each treatment was more tangible in one skill scores (reading in the virtual group and listening in the blended group). The point worth noting is that the blended group could significantly outperform the other two groups. Comparing the results of all post-tests in reading and listening, it was revealed that blended instruction could result in better reading and listening; however, reading skill was more affected due to the higher mean difference between pre-test and post-test scores. This study has some implications for language teachers in taking advantage of technology in education in a balance with their traditional styles of teaching.

To provide teaching assistance to secondary school mathematics teachers in ethnic areas and improve the teaching effectiveness of mathematics courses, a hybrid teaching model based on deep learning algorithms is proposed. Convolutional neural networks and joint probability matrix decomposition are fused to design teaching resource recommendation methods, and hybrid teaching is carried out according to three stages: before, during, and after class. The overall mean of the questionnaire for the experimental class improved from 2.39 to 3.01, and the pass rate, merit rate, and mean score of mathematics scores increased by 13.79%, 9.02%, and 15.17 points, respectively. This method enables educational technology to be effective in mathematics curriculum and improve the quality and information of mathematics education in ethnic areas.

Recent developments in technology have affected various aspects of human life, including education. These technological advancements have resulted in the introduction of new trends in teaching methodology. These trends include pure online instruction, mixed online and face-to-face instruction (blended), etc. In order to identify the efficacy of such kinds of instruction in comparison with traditional methods, this quasi-experimental study was conducted to explore the effects of virtual vs. blended-language instruction on the development of listening and reading skills by Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To achieve this goal, 60 intermediate EFL learners were selected to participate in two experimental (virtual and blended) and one control (traditional face-to-face) groups. After the provision of the treatments in experimental (reading and listening through virtual and blended methods of instruction) and control (reading and listening through traditional method) groups, a post-test was conducted to measure the attainment of the participants in each language skill. The results revealed that both virtual and blended methods of instruction could lead to better reading and listening performances. However, the difference between the effect of each treatment was more tangible in one skill scores (reading in the virtual group and listening in the blended group). The point worth noting is that the blended group could significantly outperform the other two groups. Comparing the results of all post-tests in reading and listening, it was revealed that blended instruction could result in better reading and listening; however, reading skill was more affected due to the higher mean difference between pre-test and post-test scores. This study has some implications for language teachers in taking advantage of technology in education in a balance with their traditional styles of teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development and extensive application of information and communication technologies has facilitated blended instruction, which is regarded as the "new normal" in the field of modern education and has become the focus of academic research. This study thus explored the influencing mechanism of blended instruction on students' learning effectiveness from the perspective of complementarity and conflict with the support of flow. This study collected 349 survey data from universities in Southwest China that adopted a blended instruction mode and analyzed them using the structural equation model. The results demonstrated that complementary advantages and practical conflicts in blended instruction influenced students' flow experience during the learning process. Flow experience plays an important role in blended instruction and influences positively students' cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement. Learning engagement impacted positively students' learning effectiveness. In addition, self-efficacy positively moderated the relationship between students' learning engagement and learning effectiveness in blended instruction. These findings contribute to related research on blended instruction. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology has changed the practices related to teaching and learning mathematics in schools. The demand for learning mathematics in virtual environments is increasing in the 21st-century classroom. There has been widespread expansion of the use of technology in education. This column reviews three types of instruction—synchronous, asynchronous, and blended—and provides applied examples regarding the use of virtual manipulatives in teaching mathematics to students with learning disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the most important foreign language in China, English poses great challenge for teachers to improve the performance of ESL (English as a second language) learners through in-class instruction. Blended, explicit, and implicit instruction are three widely used approaches in English class teaching, and it may be difficult to choose which one should be used in class to help the English language learners. With audio synthesis technology applied as an enhancement for teaching, this study aims to research the three effects on English pronunciation teaching in aspects of the performance and satisfaction of English language learners. 120 English learners in China were equally divided into three groups which were instructed by blended, explicit, and implicit instruction respectively. Based on the data collected by test and questionnaire in pre-test, in-test, and post-test, the results show that the blended instruction performs best in aspects of the improvement of performance and the class satisfaction. These findings indicate the great potential of blended instruction in English language teaching and more investment should be taken to promote its application to help the Chinese to better acquire this important language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blended instruction integrating off-line and on-line teaching has become an important instrument for promoting educational reform and innovation. However, the results of current empirical studies diverge on the effect of blended instruction on student performance, which necessitates further research on the effectiveness of blended instruction and related factors. This study, using an evidence-based meta-analytical approach, conducts a quantitative analysis of 106 experimental and quasi-experimental studies published from January 2000 to September 2021 in China and abroad, and systematically examines the effectiveness of blended instruction. The research finds that: i) The summary effect size (ES) of the included sample is 0.669 (n=142), indicating that blended instruction has above-moderate positive effects on student performance, especially on student learning motivation and academic emotions and attitude; ii) In terms of education levels, experimental periods and class sizes, blended instruction has the most significant positive effect on junior and senior secondary school students, on a teaching period from one to three months, and on a class size of 51 to 100 students; iii) Regarding the proportion and interactive patterns of online teaching, 50% composition of online teaching and synchronous or synchronous + asynchronous interaction exert the most significant positive effects on student learning. iv) Teaching methods including task-driven learning, role-playing, inquiry-based teaching, and case-based teaching have greater positive effects on student performance than other methods. Group study yields a greater effect on promoting student learning compared to individual study. Based on the findings, the present study also makes suggestions for the effective practice of blended instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As higher education faces declines in federal funding and enrollment, academic programs are increasingly tasked with examining their recruitment and admissions practices, mode and flexibility of delivery, and student retention. In particular, some programs may encounter pressure to introduce part-time or distance learning options into traditionally full-time, on-campus programs. Concurrently, the field of school psychology suffers from a critical nationwide shortage, which further strengthens the impetus for programs to attract and successfully prepare graduate students in greater numbers. In this article, we examine various metrics of student success from one graduate program that concurrently offered program curriculum in two blended delivery formats. In particular, we examine (a) enrollments; (b) timely remediation; (c) retention and degree completion; and (d) intern performance and post-graduation employment across the two delivery formats. We discuss potential benefits and challenges of distance education in school psychology training and offer recommendations for balancing quality and accessibility in curriculum delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic presented instructors and learners with novel challenges related to the delivery and consumption of instructional content. Within academic libraries, these changes have resulted in an expanded reliance on asynchronous learning content delivered through a variety of instructional approaches. The study described herein was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a blended and flipped program of information literacy (IL) instruction. Deploying a pre/post-test methodology within a quasi-experimental study of student learning outcomes, this research compares achievement across two cohorts of students receiving IL instruction as part of a first-year writing program (FYWP) requirement. While one cohort participated in a multi-shot, in-person, synchronous instructional program during the pre-pandemic period, another cohort participated in a blended and flipped instructional program delivered under pandemic-related restrictions. Comparative analysis revealed net positive achievement outcomes for both the pre-pandemic and pandemic cohorts, as well as interesting points of contrast between the two groups. In particular, students in the pandemic cohort arrived to their first year with less research experience than their pre-pandemic peers—signaling a gap in knowledge that pandemic-era library instruction must overcome. Fortunately, the blended and flipped instructional program experienced by the pandemic cohort proved successful in helping those students overcome their research experience gap, while delivering additional benefits that help confirm previous research in this area of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the characteristics of cryptography course, a hybrid teaching method was designed through the network platform. In order to get the implementation effect of teaching, the evaluation is made from five aspects: teaching method, teaching content, teaching attitude, teaching environment and comprehensive evaluation. The evaluation results show that students' learning effect is improved after using the blended teaching method. The feedback results suggest that we should constantly optimize the teaching content and teaching methods; improve the ability to control the classroom, guide students to learn; teamwork can improve efficiency and reduce the intensity of teachers. These results provide useful help for further improving the practical teaching of cryptography.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of blended instruction approach on students’ academic performance and their satisfaction. The research method is quasi-experimental in which the pretest-posttest with the control group design is employed. The population and sample comprises of Educational undergraduates of University of Isfahan who enrolled in “Integration of Information and Communication Technologies into Curriculum” unit (n=36). The participants assigned randomly into two groups; the treatment group received instruction in blended mode using Moodle, while the control group received instruction in the conventional way. In order to evaluate the students’ academic performance, a teacher made test is performed two times, i.e. at the beginning and end of semester. The reliability of the instrument determined by means of the Cronbach’s alpha (0/83) and its validity considered through content validity. Students’ satisfaction scores, however, extracted from the UoI Office of Monitoring and Evaluation records in Golestan System regarding the instructor evaluation. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance method. Based on the research findings, although blended instruction did not affected students’ academic performance significantly (p

There has been a growing interest in the literature on blended instruction. While the prevailing research has focused mainly on recommendations for course design, implementation, and possible benefits, student perceptions about blended instruction have not been researched as thoroughly. This paper explored graduate teacher candidates' perceptions and experiences with blended instruction through a qualitative case study method. Primary data were collected through in-depth focus group interviews with 12 teacher candidates, and class observations were used as secondary data sources. The analysis of the data revealed that regardless of ineffectual online teaching at times, disconnect between face-to-face and online sessions, and ineffective use of technology, graduate students prefer blended instruction mainly due to its flexibility. Although the study focuses on teacher education, our findings can apply to other disciplines interested in enhancing blended instruction by improving connections between face-to-face and online sessions, using technology more intentionally, and connecting theory to practice. The current study occurred prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, thereby offering a baseline to institutions who are concerned about strategically implementing alternative course-delivery modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This book contains instructional materials, pedagogical techniques and hands-on activities for technology-enhanced science education. These educational resources were presented at the 2009 SOCR Continuing Statistics Education Workshop entitled “It's Online, Therefore it Exists! 2009 SOCR Continuing Statistics Education Training & Development Workshop,” which took place at the University of California, Los Angeles, August 10-12, 2009. This book was written to provide modern pedagogical perspective into technology-enhanced blended learning and instruction. It reflects the direction of amalgamation of knowledge from multiple disciplines with recent open networking and technological advances. This trend is anticipated to accelerate in the next decade with seamless integration of open-access data, learning materials, computational resources and collaborative environments connected via language, platform and geo-politically agnostic interfaces. There are four novel features of this book – it is community-built, completely free-open-access (in terms of use and contributions), blends concepts with technology and it is electronically available online in multilingual format. This book covers the narrow scientific area of probability and statistics education; however, the principles we promote in the book can easily be extended to all other science and technology fields.

The Statistics Online Computational Resource (www.SOCR.ucla.edu) provides one of the largest collections of free Internet-based resources for probability and statistics education. SOCR develops, validates and disseminates two core types of materials – instructional resources and computational libraries.

Contemporary science education at all levels presents several critical pedagogical and social challenges to educators and learners alike. Among these challenges are the widening Intergenerational Information Technology (IIT) divide and the need for a comprehensive and balanced multidisciplinary training. In the past few years, it has become clear that one significant hurdle impedes the efforts to integrate information technology in the classroom – the Intergenerational IT divide. The IIT gap eflects a different growing misalignment between providers and recipients of the science and technology educational content in terms of the expected vs. supplied, needed vs. perceived and contextual vs. abstract specialized learning. The common K12 teacher or college instructor is much less familiar with, and slower to adapt to, the new ether of communication and novel IT resources. The transfer and blending of data, research challenges and methodologies between diverse areas of science is also critical in motivating wider spectra of students, demonstrating crossdisciplinary methodological concepts and synergies, as well as for engaging students in research projects. This article discusses the problems faced by modern science educators and suggests some methods and vision for coping with the increasing IIT divide and the social need to train “complete” and broadly educated citizens.

The 2007 joint SOCR/CAUSEway continuing education workshop demonstrates the functionality, utilization and assessment of the current SOCR (http://www.SOCR.ucla.edu) and CAUSEweb (www.CAUSEweb.org) resources. The workshop and this handbook are most value to advance placement (AP) teachers and college instructors of probability and statistics classes who have interests in exploring novel IT-based approaches for enhancing statistics education. This handbook provides the complete Workshop program (http://wiki.stat.ucla.edu/socr/index.php/SOCR_Events_Aug2007) and instructional materials presented by the Workshop instructors. New strategies for integration of computers, modern pedagogical approaches, the Internet and new student assessment techniques are presented on the handbook.

A student-choice model course redesign was used to counteract a large increase in student enrollment, improve the quality of instruction, and preserve student success. This model is an instructional technique that allows students to choose how to engage in a course. Using this model in a first-semester college-level general chemistry course, online options were created to augment the traditional face-to-face course. The traditional lecture time was reduced from 3 to 2 h per week while the traditional recitation time was increased from 1 to 2 h per week. The recitation component was also transitioned from a supplemental lecture session into a problem-solving active-learning component. A mandatory rotation between face-to-face and online options at the start of the semester was necessary to assist students in making an informed choice about what options best fit their needs. Pre- and post-redesign student performance data (2008–2016) and post-redesign student enrollment data (2012–2016) were evaluated. Course performance was maintained and often improved in post-redesign years, and was generally equivalent in the different course combinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the literature calling for comparisons among technology-enhanced or active-learning pedagogies, a blended versus flipped instructional comparison was made for numerical methods coursework using three engineering schools with diverse student demographics. This study contributes to needed comparisons of enhanced instructional approaches in STEM and presents a rigorous and adaptable methodology for doing so. Our flipped classroom consisted mostly of in-class active learning, with micro-lectures as needed, and technology used both in and out of class, including for expected pre-class review of new content. Our blended classroom consisted mostly of lecture with some in-class active learning, and technology utilized both in and out of class. However, students were not expected to review new content before class. We compared blended vs. flipped instruction based upon multiple-choice and free-response questions on the final exam as well as the perceived classroom environment. This was done for students as a whole as well as for under-represented minorities (URMs), females, community college transfers, and Pell Grant recipients. Students provided feedback via focus groups and surveys. Upon combining data from the schools, the blended instruction was associated with slightly greater achievement on the multiple-choice questions across various demographics, but the differences were not statistically significant, and the effects were small. Our free-response final exam and classroom environment data aligned, with blended instruction showing more promise at two schools. The students identified demanding expectations with flipped instruction but pointed to benefits, such as enhanced learning or learning processes, preparation, and engagement. These results aligned with our focus group and instructor interview data. Thus, in general, it may be possible to use either instructional approach with the expectation of similar outcomes in final exam scores or the perceived classroom environment, keeping in mind the students qualitatively identified benefits with flipped instruction. Nonetheless, there were some large differences for the schools individually, suggesting further research with different demographics.

The objective of this research and development was to develop an effective blended instructional model via weblog to enhance English summary writing ability of Thai undergraduate students. A sample group in the English program of Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University was studied in academic year 2010-2013. The research instruments were an effective semi-structured interview form, the learning and instructional record format, the test of English summary writing ability, and the English summary writing criterion. The data were analyzed by percentage, means, standard deviation, and the t-test. It was found that the blended instructional model via weblog comprised three stages of blended activities: extracting information via face to face instruction, summarizing via weblog, and publishing on weblog. It was named “S2A Model.” The model was effective in enhancing the university students’ English summary writing ability as the post-test scores of the students met the set criterion of the study.

Given the increased interest in incorporating technology into university instruction, this exploratory archival study examined whether graduate students, most of whom were enrolled in a School Psychology program, performed better and evaluated instruction differently in a traditional face-to-face section (n = 35) or a hybrid section (n = 27) of a Child and Adolescent Psychopathology course. Results suggest that students receiving traditional and hybrid instruction performed similarly on their midterm exam, final exam, and overall course grade, and also provided similar ratings of various instructional aspects of the course (e.g., lectures, assignments, videos). Students in the hybrid section also provided written feedback that may be helpful to instructors who are considering incorporating technology into their courses. Themes discerned from students' feedback included: Convenience and Flexibility, Access to Online Lectures, Reflection Papers, Technology Challenges, and Amount of Material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study set out to explore Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions on the implementation of online EFL instruction. A mixed-methods design, including semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, was employed for the specific purposes of this study. A total of 242 EFL teachers participated in the questionnaire phase of the study. In addition, 46 EFL teachers participated in the interview phase of the study. The teachers worked at a number of universities, schools and language-teaching institutions in Iran. Results suggest that although the Iranian EFL teachers adopted moderately positive attitudes towards the implementation of online instruction, the majority of them preferred blended instruction to online instruction. At the same time, the study revealed that the implementation of online EFL instruction in Iran is challenging due to a number of perceived impediments and obstacles. The most considerable perceived challenges to the implementation of online EFL instruction comprise lack of online facilities and resources, lack of interaction in online instruction, cultural resistances to online instruction and teachers’ limited knowledge of online instruction. The findings of this study provided crucial insights into teachers’ perspectives on a number of measures that can be adopted to facilitate the integration of online instruction in the EFL context of Iran. The findings would provide valuable insights for educational authorities and course designers to integrate online instruction into the EFL curriculum.

Post-secondary educators are increasingly experimenting with the possibility of blending or replacing traditional lecture-based instruction with student-centered instruction. Although some studies have been completed, much remains to be learned about when and why student-centered instruction works and the effectiveness of specific approaches. The goal of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a student-centered instructional approach on students' engagement and achievement in a transformed electrical circuits course compared to the same course taught in a traditional lecture-based format. Two hundred and forty-three students participated in the study. Three surveys were administered during the semester, and participants' demographic information, prior learning outcomes, and course outcomes were collected after the semester was over. The results indicated that students in the student-centered section were significantly more engaged and achieved higher learning outcomes than students in the lecture-based section. The specific instructional strategies and technologies used in the student-centered section are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times, 'Blended Instruction' - an effective method of instructions utilizing e-Learning materials in English education - consists of an individual learning part, a collaborative learning part and a teacher instruction part. In the individual learning, students act out model dialogues in the WBT courseware which incorporated a high quantity of video and sound clips. In the collaborative learning, students perform the dialogues in pairs and assessed each other's performance. Our recent research in a high school showed that the skill of the students' oral reading was improved in most criteria of assessment through blended instruction. However, it is still not clear what kind of relationship exists between the development of the students' oral reading skills and their personalities. With this in mind, the authors have studied the effects of the blended instruction on the junior high school students' oral reading performance and their relationships to the five-factor model of personality. The result of the research shows that the skill of the students' oral reading was improved in most criteria of assessment and the blended instruction was effective for the personality group, 'Introverted unintelligent person' in the most categories of oral reading criteria as well as the personality group, 'Sociable hard-worker'. The important factor for that group in oral reading performance turned out to be 'Sense Reading'.

College and university instructors are increasingly incorporating online tools into face-to-face teaching approaches, such that blended instruction is forecasted to become “the new traditional model” ( Ross & Gage, 2006 , p. 168; Norberg, Dziuban, & Moskal, 2011; Watson, 2008 ). Yet, less than 5% of the scholarship on blending in higher education explores academic practice (e.g. teaching, curriculum design, professional development and training for instruction; Torrisi-Steele & Drew, 2013 ). This discussion reports the results of a systematic review of the literature on faculty member's adoption and use of online tools for face-to-face instruction. Six influences that cut across the literature are identified: faculty member's interactions with technology, academic workload, institutional environment, interactions with students, the instructor's attitudes and beliefs about teaching, and opportunities for professional development. Strengths and limitations of the literature and future directions for research on socio-technical systems of instruction are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blended, flipped, and semi-flipped instructional approaches were used in various sections of a numerical methods course for undergraduate mechanical engineers. During the spring of 2014, a blended approach was used; in the summer of 2014, a combination of blended and flipped instruction was used to deliver a semi-flipped course; and in the fall of 2014, a fully-flipped approach was taken. Blended instruction aims to integrate technology-driven instruction with face-to-face learning and is often used to enhance the traditional lecture. With "flipped" instruction, students practice skills during class after viewing or/and reading lecture content beforehand. To directly assess these instructional methods, we compared multiple-choice and free response results from identical final exams. We did this for all students as well as demographic segments of interest to our research, including underrepresented minorities and transfer students. We uncovered several differences having medium to large effect sizes, suggesting that some degree of flipped instruction may have been more beneficial than blended learning for both lower and higher-order skills development. The students rated the classroom environment using Fraser's College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI). The three classroom environments were statistically similar with small effect sizes. However, there was a trend in lower ratings for the flipped and semi-flipped classrooms versus the blended classroom across the various environmental dimensions. This may indicate that blended instruction had the most desirable classroom environment. Based on an evaluation survey, only 38% of respondents preferred flipped instruction to usual methods, although 54% preferred active learning to lecture. In an open-ended question, the most frequently-stated benefits of flipped instruction involved enhanced learning or learning processes, and engagement and professional behaviors. These results aligned with our focus group results. This study is believed to be one of the first to compare these three modalities in a STEM course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While online instructional technologies are becoming more popular in higher education, educators’ opinions about online learning tend to be generally negative. Furthermore, many studies have failed to systematically examine the features that distinguish one instructional mode from another, which weakens possible explanations for why online instructional technology can be beneficial. The current study isolates three benefits of the authors’ particular online instructional technology: (1) providing flexibility in how students learn, (2) offering immediate and targeted feedback and (3) increasing student participation and engagement with instructional material. Maximum benefits were observed when students used the online instructional technology to prepare for their face-to-face class – that is, students with this blended instruction learned twice as much content in the same amount of time in comparison to students with face-to-face instruction alone, without creating an atypically high workload. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The action research study described in this report follows the design and implementation of a blended learning unit in a traditional English classroom. Twenty technical high school students in an 11th grade Honors English class engaged in a variety of internet-based activities in conjunction with traditional activities while studying The Great Gatsby. The instructor chose to use Coursesites.com for the learning management system, where students entered a virtual classroom to take surveys and quizzes; engaged in collaborative discussions in discussion forums, wikis, and blogs; and worked in collaborative online groups to create a final wiki or website. Use of internet resources, discussion forums, and other 21st century learning tools sparked new excitement for learning, and made an old favorite accessible to modern young minds.

This paper describes the collaboration between two university professors teaching two separate site-based courses in inclusion and diversity pedagogy linked by a common field experience in the same school. This collaborative model, so highly recommended in elementary as well as secondary settings, was implemented in two teacher-preparation courses on Inclusion and Diversity. The courses are taught on-site at a nearby elementary school in close proximity to the university campus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY This paper presents a new blended instruction model incorporating mobile-based e-Learning into a traditional nonwired classroom in foreign language teaching. The mobile tool adopted is iPod Touch. Our lesson was designed on the basis of the motivational model proposed by John M. Keller, which is widely known as the ARCS model. Our study considers the effect of this teaching model on students' vocabulary retention and oral speaking ability, and evaluates the course model in terms of the ARCS model, conducted at a Japanese national college of technology. The results suggest that the course stimulated the learners' interest sufficiently and changed the attitude of their learning strategies in a more communicative direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the term has roots in the training and development literature, blended learning has only recently begun to be studied in management education. This article examines the literatures of blended and fully online management education to determine whether there are factors that may influence instructional effectiveness that are unique to blended learning. The review provides tentative support for the premise that opportunities for enhanced learner control of the learning process and group cohesiveness and collaboration may be distinguishing advantages of blended learning in management education. The article concludes by discussing pressing research issues, including discovering optimal blends, differentiating from or integrating blending with the concept of “flipped classrooms,” distinguishing the effects of blending from other potential confounds, determining the effects of subject matter and program level, and seeking increased thought leadership on blended perspectives from classroom-based management education scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study set out to explore Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions on the implementation of online EFL instruction. A mixed-methods design, including semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, was employed for the specific purposes of this study. A total of 242 EFL teachers participated in the questionnaire phase of the study. In addition, 46 EFL teachers participated in the interview phase of the study. The teachers worked at a number of universities, schools and language-teaching institutions in Iran. Results suggest that although the Iranian EFL teachers adopted moderately positive attitudes towards the implementation of online instruction, the majority of them preferred blended instruction to online instruction. At the same time, the study revealed that the implementation of online EFL instruction in Iran is challenging due to a number of perceived impediments and obstacles. The most considerable perceived challenges to the implementation of online EFL instruction comprise lack of online facilities and resources, lack of interaction in online instruction, cultural resistances to online instruction and teachers’ limited knowledge of online instruction. The findings of this study provided crucial insights into teachers’ perspectives on a number of measures that can be adopted to facilitate the integration of online instruction in the EFL context of Iran. The findings would provide valuable insights for educational authorities and course designers to integrate online instruction into the EFL curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the effectiveness of using online instruction as a supplement to a face-to-face introductory technology education course. Survey data were collected from 46 pre-service teachers. Findings indicated that when traditional face-to-face instruction was combined with online components, learning was enhanced over a single delivery mode. However, the blended approach adopted in this course also brought unexpected challenges for both students and the instructor. The paper identified good teaching and learning practices arising from blended instruction and presented lessons learned for future design and implementation for blended instruction.

Data analysis requires subtle probability reasoning to answer questions like What is the chance of event A occurring, given that event B was observed? This generic question arises in discussions of many intriguing scientific questions such as What is the probability that an adolescent weighs between 120 and 140 pounds given that they are of average height? and What is the probability of (monetary) inflation exceeding 4% and housing price index below 110? To address such problems, learning some applied, theoretical or cross-disciplinary probability concepts is necessary. Teaching such courses can be improved by utilizing modern information technology resources. Students' understanding of multivariate distributions, conditional probabilities, correlation and causation can be significantly strengthened by employing interactive web-based science educational resources. Independent of the type of a probability course (e.g. majors, minors or service probability course, rigorous measure-theoretic, applied or statistics course) student motivation, learning experiences and knowledge retention may be enhanced by blending modern technological tools within the classical conceptual pedagogical models. We have designed, implemented and disseminated a portable open-source web-application for teaching multivariate distributions, marginal, joint and conditional probabilities using the special case of bivariate Normal distribution. A real adolescent height and weight dataset is used to demonstrate the classroom utilization of the new web-application to address problems of parameter estimation, univariate and multivariate inference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. There is currently a need to assess the effectiveness of and student comfort with content-based, online Spanish instruction at the university level. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to analyze students' perceptions of the effectiveness of a blended (face-to-face and online) university course in comparative Spanish grammar and the extent to which, if any, it had an impact on their perceived levels of instructional and linguistic comfort with online learning. Methods and Results. Nineteen students (N=19) completed the pre and post-course surveys which assessed their overall comfort levels associated with reading, writing and speaking Spanish within the context of the blended course design. In addition, students were asked to give their impressions and feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment at the conclusion of the course. Results indicate significant improvements in students' comfort levels related to (a) the course and the online design, (b) speaking Spanish and (c) using Blackboard to study Spanish. Students also concluded that their Spanish grammar improved and that they learned the course material, felt challenged, and enjoyed a sense of community. Conclusions. Given the prevalence of online classes and degree programs, this study supports the notion that online content in Spanish can be effectively designed in a manner that allows students to learn the material, which supports their overall language development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant biology is a basic course for students majoring in biological science. Under the guidance of developmental biology, we have constructed a comprehensive, systematic and dynamic new curriculum system for plant biology. There are still some problems existing in the current curriculum teaching mode, e.g. the students do not listen carefully to the lecture due to single classroom teaching mode, the mismatch between theoretical and experimental courses in terms of content and timing, the incomplete understanding on plants and the difficulty of integrating learning and practicing due to insufficient field practices. In view of these problems, a series of new teaching strategies for bioscience major of Harbin Institute of Technology were proposed and implemented. The combination of lectures and high quality massive open online courses (MOOC) were used for theoretical study, to which the flipped classroom was added. In addition, the theoretical study and the experiment work were combined. Moreover, the plant cognitive practices were carried out in the campus and the botanical garden in early spring, late spring and summer, respectively. Satisfactory results were achieved after two rounds of teaching practice, which fulfilled the education requirements and laid foundations for students to continue follow-up basic and professional courses.