Blended Learning Outcome vs. Traditional Learning Outcome

Abstract

The development of education technology and education teaching strategies and approaches affected students learning and teachers teaching strategies, blended learning approach has developed through the last two decades, however it is not a preference for many teachers and students, the researcher of this study used the quantitative experimental method. The sample of this study was two sections (30 students each) of female students at College of Science & Arts Muhayil who were studying Basic English Course as university general requirement. One group was taught using the traditional approach, the second group was taught using the blended learning approach for eight weeks. The instrument for the study was a test which was taken at the end of the 8 th week, and the test was analyzed using t-test value to find the effect of blended learning on students learning outcome, the analysis showed that there is a positive impact on students learning outcome for those who were taught by blended learning approach compared to those who were taught by traditional approach. The researcher of this study recommended making use of any means of technology available in teaching to support teaching performance and to have best desired learning outcome.

Full text

International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL)
Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2015, PP 75-78
ISSN 2347-3126 (Print) & ISSN 2347-3134 (Online)
www.arcjournals.org
©ARC Page | 75
Blended Learning Outcome vs. Traditional Learning Outcome
Mona M. Hamad
Department of English, College of Science & Arts / Muhayil
King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia, Muhayil
monahamed65@hotmail.com, mmabdulaziz1@kku.edu.sa
Abstract: The development of education technology and education teaching strategies and approaches
affected students learning and teachers teaching strategies, blended learning approach has developed
through the last two decades, however it is not a preference for many teachers and students, the researcher
of this study used the quantitative experimental method. The sample of this study was two sections (30
students each) of female students at College of Science & Arts Muhayil who were studying Basic English
Course as university general requirement. One group was taught using the traditional approach, the second
group was taught using the blended learning approach for eight weeks. The instrument for the study was a
test which was taken at the end of the 8th week, and the test was analyzed using t- test value to find the effect
of blended learning on students learning outcome, the analysis showed that there is a positive impact on
students learning outcome for those who were taught by blended learning approach compared to those who
were taught by traditional approach. The researcher of this study recommended making use of any means
of technology available in teaching to support teaching performance and to have best desired learning
outcome.
Keywords: Blended Learning, Outcome, Traditional Learning.
1. INTRODUCTION
Education systems and styles have developed rapidly in last decades, the traditional approaches
and methods are affected with technology invention and started to vanish as Jeanne
Lam(2014)stated traditional learning has been the majority learning mode until the end of last
century. ... the advent of using internet technology, e-learning has been intensively used in higher
education.., KheFoon Hew Wing Sum Cheung (2014) said blended learning is any time a student
learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in
part through the Internet with some element of student control over time, place, and/or pace
“Blended Learning” has been used to describe a sort of teaching using face-to-face and fully
online education, whileJan Welker, Lisa Berardino(2005)showed that Blended learning is any
combined use of electronic learning tools that supplement but do not replace face-to-face learning.
Harvey Singh (2003) stated that the original use of the phrase “blended learning” was often
associated with simply linking traditional classroom training to e-learning activities, such as
asynchronous work (typically accessed by learners outside the class at their own time and pace).
However, the term has evolved to encompass a much richer set of learning strategies or
“dimensions”.
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has changed its educational system of ministry of higher education to
be adapted to the global development and gained no efforts to supply universities with all
resources needed for teaching and learning, so e-learning, blackboard collaborate and blended
learning became a necessity for better learning, this study is done by the researcher to find the
impact of blended learning on learning outcome.
The problem of this research appeared when the researcher of this paper has come to teach a
course of Basic English as university general education requirement, the students background of
English language was very weak, and they were very reluctant to blended learning , using the
blackboard and e-learning , asking for traditional methods of teaching using the whiteboard and
markers, saying that they don‟t need to pay effort for a subject that is only university general
education requirement and they have a strong believing that their knowledge of the subject will
vanish with the end of the exam, and they don‟t need it in their specialization which is Arabic,

MonaM. Hamad
International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL) Page | 76
moreover, they complained about the net access in their areas although they have electronic lab at
university. The researcher of this study hypothesizes that blended learning will motivate the
students towards learning English Language, moreover, it will affect learning outcome positively.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Gustavo Zurita, Beatriz Hasbun, Nelson Baloian,Oscar Jerez (2005) in their study showed that
there is a significant increase in meaningful learning by the end of the course taught using blended
learning beside the potential that blended learning environments offer for higher education.
Mukaddes Erdem, Pınar NuhoğluKibar (2014) in their study which has been done to determine
students‟ opinions on blended learning and its implementation stated that students have also
positive opinions on the blended learning, while MswaziTshabalala, Charity Ndeya-Ndereyaand
Tiana van der Merwe (2014) in their study that investigated the perceptions academic staff have
about blended learning and to identify challenges facing academic staff that affected the adoption
of blended learning in a faculty of education at a developing university in South Africa, pointed
that there are various perceptions and practical problems hindering academic staff from adopting
blended learning. Also Ibrahim YasarKazu, Mehmet Demirkol (2014) in their study analyzes the
students‟ academic performance by comparing the blended learning environment and traditional
learning environment and found that the final test grades, the experiment group using the blended
learning has been found more successful than the control group using the traditional environment.
Another study for BaharIsiguzel (2014)to determine the effects on motivation and success within
the application of blended learning environments in the foreign language class revealed that
students attending the German classes in blended learning environments have more success and
higher motivation compared to the control group attending German language classes in the
traditional learning environment. R.Obiedat, L. Nasir Eddeen, O. Harfoushi, A. Koury, M. AL-
Hamarsheh, and N. AlAssaf (2014 ), in their study is to evaluate the effectiveness of blended
learning on the academic achievement ofstudents in the University of Jordan reported that there is
a significant and positive impact of blended learning on academic achievement of the students in
university of Jordan, another paper for BiljanaVitošević, Anita Janković, ZdravkoVitošević
(2014) in Serbia about is based on piloting of blended learning as a transformative learning
process in order to keep pace with technological innovation, showed that blended learning is a
good choice for the students who are professionally engaged in sports and they can follow the
course and complete their assignments in addition to sports commitments. Harvey Singh (2003)
stated: Blended learning programs may include several forms of learning tools, such as real-time
virtual/ collaboration software, self-paced web-based courses, electronic performance support
systems (EPSS) embedded within the job-task environment, and knowledge management systems.
Blended learning mixes various event-based activities, including face-to-face classrooms, live e-
learning, and self-paced learning.
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Data Collection
This study has been carried at College of Science & Arts / Muhayil of King Khalid University in
the second semester of academic Year 2013- 2014
3.2. Population of the Study
60 female students studying in two sections at College of Science & Arts / Muhayil - from Arabic
department who were studying Basic English course as university general requirement were the
sample of this study.
3.3. Study Instrument
A paper test was the instrument of this study, the students were divided to two sections (groups),
one section was taught by traditional approach using the white board and markers, and the second
was taught using blended learning approach for 8weeks. Each section consist of 30 students, they
were taught the same subject -content and at the end of the 8th week the students in both sections
have taken the same test, (regular paper test) the results of the two tests were analyzed using
independent T- test to identify significant of the tests results difference of learning outcome of
both approaches.

Blended Learning Outcome vs. Traditional Learning Outcome
International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL) Page | 77
3.4. Data Analysis
After having the paper test in the 8th week the test results were analyzed, to validate the
hypothesis of the study “blended learning will motivate the students towards learning English
Language, moreover it will affect learning outcome positively” the researcher applied the T-test to
compare between the two sections results who are studying same Basic English language course
by finding the mean difference of the two sections learnt by traditional approach and blended
learning approach. See (Table 1) and (Figure1)
Table1. The difference between students learning outcome
Prediction
Reality of
. 0.05
Sig(one-tailed)
df
Value of (T)
calculated
Std.
Deviation
Mean
Sections of the
study
High value
significant
0.001
58
4.589
3.56693
17.3667
Experimental
Section
2.73672
13.6000
Control Section
Fig1. The difference between students learning outcome
The results in the table above which reflects using T- test of two independent sections shows the
differences between students learning outcome learning Basic English course using the traditional
approach and the blended learning approach, we find that the in dependent sample t-test
calculated was (4.589) with (58) degree of frequency, and Sig(one-tailed)(0.001) which approve
there is a significant difference between the students outcome learnt Basic English Language
course for those who learnt by blended learning approach to those who learnt by traditional
approach with (0.001) degree of frequency.
It also shows that there is significant differences between the average of students learning
outcome who are studying Basic English language course using the blended learning approach,
compared to students who are studying the same subject learnt by the traditional approach.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results of this study showed that there is a better learning outcome for those who learnt using
blended learning compared to the learning outcome of those who learnt by traditional approach,
these result agrees with Gustavo Zurita, Beatriz Hasbun, Nelson Baloian , Oscar Jerez which also
showed that there is a significant increase in meaningful learning by the end of the course taught
using blended learning, and it also agrees with Ibrahim YasarKazu, Mehmet Demirkol performan-
ce by comparing the blended learning environment and traditional learning environment and
found that the performance of, the experiment group using the blended learning was more
successful than the control group using the traditional Environment, moreover. The result of this
study got agreement with. R.Obiedat, L.Nasir Eddeen, O.Harfoushi, A.Koury, M. AL-Hamarsheh,
and N. AlAssaf, result which approve that there is a significant and positive impact of blended
learning on academic achievement of Jordan university students.
5. CONCLUSION
Although the students were reluctant to using blended learning approach and electronic
homework at the beginning, they became more motivated to be taught using blended learning
approach at the end of the study, they became very enthusiastic to be taught by blended learning

MonaM. Hamad
International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL) Page | 78
approach when they got their test‟s results and developed their English language skills, that some
students claimed that they have never thought they will be able to use English language in their
daily life, moreover, they started to complain if the lesson is not taught by blended learning
approach after 8th week. The result of this study should motivate all teachers to use blended
learning in their teaching to have best teaching performance and desired learning outcome.
REFERENCES
BaharIsiguzel,” The Blended Learning environment on Foreign Language Process: A Balance for
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BiljanaVitošević, Anita Janković, ZdravkoVitošević “Piloting of Blended Learning: Implementat-
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November - December 2003, Volume 43, Number 6, Pages 51-54 http://www.
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AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Mona M. Hamad Sudanese, holder of Ph.D. in Education (Curriculum &
Teaching Methods of English Language 2009, from Al–ZaiemAzhhri
University Sudan, Khartoum, I worked as English language teacher for the
Ministry of General Education (Secondary level), Sudan from 1996 till 2010 ,
then English language supervisor from 2010-2012. I also served as a part-time
assistant professor for Al-ZaiemAzhhri University Sudan, Khartoum from
2010-2012. Now I „ve been working for king Khalid University since 2012 ,
College of Science & Arts, Muhayil, English department, I also teach English Language Teaching
Methods course for diploma program, I published two books 1-Revision papers for Secondary
Students 2-Special Teaching Methods .
I also published three papers 1-Reasons Behind the Failure of Teaching Sudan Practical
Integrated National English (SPINE 5) In Sudan- published in (English Language Teaching Vol.
8, No. 2, January 20, 2015) http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n2p143 2- Contrastive Linguistic
“English Phonology vs. Arabic Phonology Published in (International Journal of English and
Practice 2014)http://www.pakinsight.com/?ic=archive&journal=61&month=04-2014&issue=43-
Factors Negatively Affect Speaking Skills at Saudi Colleges for Girls in the South(English
Language Teaching VOL.6 No.12, 2013) http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v6n12p87