Manuscript Title:

TEACHERS’ REFLECTIONS UPON THE NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF BLENDED LEARNING

Author:

RIZWANA WAHID, SHANJIDA HALIM, TANZINA HALIM

DOI Number:

DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/PVJBE

Published : 2022-02-10

About the author(s)

1. RIZWANA WAHID - Faculty of Languages & Translation, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
2. SHANJIDA HALIM - Faculty of Languages & Translation, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
3. TANZINA HALIM - Faculty of Languages & Translation, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.

Full Text : PDF

Abstract

Although blended learning (BL) is quite popular in education, and developments in technology encourage teacher educators to apply blended learning in their classrooms, one of the most important debates is: compared to a traditional classroom environment, whether students can learn better at the online learning environment or not. There are many studies conducted on the usefulness of blended learning but the effectiveness of blended learning is still controversial. This paper focuses on the negative impacts of blended learning on students observed by teachers. The research aims to investigate the issues and challenges of blended learning and the role of institutions that adopt blended learning as a modern educational strategy in higher education. This research bases itself on the analysis, observations of teachers, and their experiences. The participants were 50 university teachers. The instruments used were questionnaires seeking the answers to research questions based on teachers' observations and experiences of using blended learning during the normal situation or the unpredictable situation. After the data collection, descriptive analysis was made using the software, SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions). The results advocated that teachers found blended learning useful but at the same time, it has negative sides too. This study reported these negative impacts of blended learning such as technical problems including poor internet connectivity, high maintenance cost/lower-income students, challenging for teachers as it needs time for preparation, some students prefer to ask questions to teachers face-toface instead of asking in online sessions, for some students, the learning process may become doubtful through blended learning and some instructors' ineffective communication. In the end, this research attempted to contribute some recommendations to cope up with the negative impact of blended learning.


Keywords

Blended learning, eLearning, hybrid learning, negative impact, reflection, teaching, technology