Blended learning

With blended learning, human resource practitioners now have a range of delivery modalities to meet various learning styles within an organization. But that is not enough. HR needs to match learning modalities (e.g., instructor-led,... 

Demtl, M., Motschnig-Pitiik, R. (2005). The role of structure, patterns, and people in blended learning. The Internet ondHigher Education, 8(2), 111 130.doi 10.1016/j.iheduc.2005.03.002. 

In the MENA region, TEL strategies such as e-leaming, mobile learning, online learning, and blended learning are somewhat new. As a result, there are marty barriers that must be overcome to make the implementation of TEL effective in MENA. Below are some critical barriers and suggestions on how to overcome the barriers. 

Francis, R., Shannon, S. J. (2013). Engaging with blended learning to improve students learning outcomes. European Journal of Engineering Education. doi 10.1080/03043797.2013.766679. Gitsaki, C., Robby, M., Priest, T., Ben-Chabane, Y. (2013). Researching the UAE iPad initiative. 

Active Blended Learning to Improve Stndents Motivation in Computer Programming Courses A Case Study... 

Active Blended Learning to Improve Students Motivation. .. 189... 

The main barrier for adopting blended learning in many countries in the Middle East is the low Internet penetration rate. While many countries enjoy a high rate of... 

Internet users, such as Israel, UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain, there are many other countries that have very low Internet penetration, such as Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. This is because of the high cost of Internet access, low speed, and quality (Mirza and Al-Abdulkareem 2011). In such countries, usage of blended learning will be limited to the minimum. For example, with low-bandwidth Internet connections, stndents will not be able to see supportive multimedia or download large materials. 

Currently, most universities use different tools, such as Blackboard, WebCT, or Moodle, to implement blended learning. However, the utilization of such systems is still kept to a minimum and is limited to posting lecture slides and homework sub-... 

Table 8.1 Tools to implement activities in blended learning...

To evaluate the effectiveness of our active blended learning, we have assessed its impact on stndents motivation and performance. The environment above was implemented in the programming concepts course at QU in fall 2012. This subject is compulsory for students in computer science and computer engineering majors, and it is the first major course where students study the C++ programming language. Two types of assessments were conducted direct assessment to investigate the effectiveness of these activities on students performance and indirect assessment to evaluate students motivation and satisfaction after their experience in this course. 

Assess Active Blended Learning s Impact on Students Performance... 

Generally, the activities in this blended learning improve students satisfaction, which can be deduced from students responses to questions 2 and 3. This satisfaction at the end of the semester (when the survey was conducted) represents an in-... 

Alebaikan, R., Troudi, S. (2010). Blended learning in Saudi Universities Challenges and perspectives. ALT-J. Research in Learning Technology, 18( 1), 49—59. 

Bonk, C. J., Graham, C. (2006). Handbook of blended learning Global perspectives, local designs. San Francisco Pfeiffer Publishing. 

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