The Impact of Blended Learning on Female

Student-Teachers in Kuwait

A Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of

Philosophy

By

Omar Ghaith

School of Sport and Education

Brunel University
 Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I wish to give thanks to the Almighty God, for giving me the power and
the will to complete this work.

I also would like to extend my sincerest thanks and appreciation to my supervisor, Prof. Mike
Watts, for his support, guidance and valuable feedback as well as helping me accomplish this
study. My thanks also go out to my second supervisor, Sue Collins, for her encouragement,
not to mention her review and useful comments.

I would like to thank all the students as well as the academic staff of the Department of
Curriculum and Instruction at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait for their cooperation.
Thank you to the e-learning centre at Kuwait University for providing me with the space to
develop the course (304) on the Blackboard.

To the research administrator at the School of Sports and Education at Brunel University,
Julie Bradshaw, thank you for the support, direction and assistance which were very much
needed during my study.

I would like to extend my gratitude to all members of my family, particularly my parents,

sisters and brothers for their encouragement and endless prayers for my success.

Finally, how could I forget to thank my wife, Safeyah, for her patience and support for me
during my journey with this PhD programme. To my kids, Anas, Osamah and Sharifah, who
missed out on a lot of quality time with dad during my study, especially in the final year - I
thank all four of you for your patience and understanding.

I
 Abstract

This study aims to identify the effect of using the blended learning method on students’
academic achievement and satisfaction level in a university course for female student
teachers who follow the General Teaching Method Course (304) at the College of Basic
Education in Kuwait. The content of the course (304) was based on the five stages of the
ADDIE instructional design model, comprising five phases: (1) Analysis, (2) Design, (3)
Development, (4) Implementation, and (5) Evaluation.

The research questions of the study can be summarised in two main questions:

1. What is the effect of using the method of blended learning in the General
Teaching Method Course (304) on students’ academic achievement, compared to
using face–to–face approaches to learning alone?

2. What is the effect of using the method of blended learning in the General
Teaching Method Course (304) on students’ satisfaction, compared to using
face–to-face approaches to learning alone?

The researcher answered these questions through a mixed method research approach using
the Explanatory Sequential Design, in order to determine the nature and objectives of the
study. In this, the researcher started with the collection and analysis of quantitative data
(using a quasi-experimental approach), which has priority for addressing the two research
questions, and then followed this with the collection and analysis of qualitative data (using
group interviews) to help explain the quantitative results.

The researcher identified the study sample as 96 female students’ teachers at the College
of Basic Education in Kuwait. The sample consisted of a first experimental group (n= 39)
who followed the General Teaching Method Course (304) by blended learning using virtual
learning environment (VLE) of Blackboard, a second experimental group (n=31) who
followed the course (304) by blended learning using personal learning environment (PLE) of
Facebook, and the control group (n= 26) who followed the course (304) using face-to-face
approaches to learning alone.

II
 The dependent variables were academic achievement (as assessed in the course’s mid-
term, final and practical exams) and students’ satisfaction (as assessed by the questionnaire,
giving a total mark and 3 sub-marks in reference to the students’ satisfaction about the
teaching method of the course, the content of the course, and the instructor's support during
the course).

When answering the first question of the research, the study found that there was a
significant difference in both mid-term and final tests between the first experimental group
(studying through the blended learning method using VLE of Blackboard) and the control
group (studying through face-to-face learning alone). However, there was no significant
difference in both mid-term and final tests between the second experimental group (studying
through the blended learning method using PLE of Facebook) and the control group. And
there was also no significant difference in the practical test between the two experimental
groups (each separately) and the control group.

When answering the second question of the research, the study found that there was a
significant difference in the teaching method dimension of the satisfaction questionnaire
between the two experimental groups (each separately) and the control group. And there was
also a significant difference in the instructor’s support dimension of the satisfaction
questionnaire between the first experimental group and the control group, but no significant
difference was found between the second experimental group and the control group. There
was also no significant difference in the course content dimension of the satisfaction
questionnaire between the two experimental groups (each separately) and the control group.

III
 Table of Contents

Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................... I
Abstract....................................................................................................................................II
Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. IV
List of Tables ........................................................................................................................VII
List of Figures..................................................................................................................... VIII
List of Terms ......................................................................................................................... IX

Chapter 1: Preface to the Study .............................................................................................1

1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................1
1.2 Problem of the Study...................................................................................................4
1.3 The Study Hypotheses:................................................................................................7
1.4 Aims of the Study........................................................................................................7
1.5 Importance of the Study ..............................................................................................7

Chapter 2: Education in Kuwait ............................................................................................9

2.1 The emergence of education and its development in Kuwait .....................................9
2.2 Goals of the educational system in the State of Kuwait............................................12
2.3 Description of the educational system in the State of Kuwait ..................................13
2.4 Higher Education.......................................................................................................14
2.4.1 Kuwait University..............................................................................................15
2.4.2 Public Authority for Applied Education ............................................................16
2.5 Education crisis in Kuwait ........................................................................................17
2.5.1 Main problems and negative aspects of education in Kuwait............................19
2.5.2 Views of Kuwaiti specialist educators on education reform .............................27
2.6 Technology and E-learning in Kuwait ......................................................................28
2.6.1 Objectives of E-learning in Kuwait ...................................................................29
2.6.2 Strategy of E-learning in the State of Kuwait ....................................................30
2.6.3 Model of applying e-learning in the state of Kuwait .........................................31
2.6.4 Description of operational framework for projects of e-learning in Kuwait .....32

Chapter 3: Review of Related Literature ............................................................................46

3.1 Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs)....................................................................46
3.1.1 The Concept of Virtual Learning Environment .................................................46
3.1.2 Advantages of Virtual leaning environments ....................................................47

IV
 3.1.3 Examples of virtual learning environments .......................................................48
3.2 Personal Learning Environments (PLEs)..................................................................53
3.2.1 What are personal learning environments?........................................................53
3.2.2 How can to create a personal learning environment? ........................................55
3.2.3 What are the necessary tools for creating personal learning environments? .....55
3.2.4 Using Facebook in Education as a Personal Learning Environment:................56
3.3 Blended Learning ......................................................................................................59
3.3.1 The concept of blended learning........................................................................60
3.3.2 Why Is Designed Blended Learning Important? ...............................................63
3.3.3 Blended learning success factors: ......................................................................70
3.3.4 Challenges and difficulties faced by blended learning ......................................71
3.4 Instructional Design and Blended Learning..............................................................72
3.4.1 ADDIE Model....................................................................................................73
3.4.2 Methods or Types of designing Blended Learning............................................75
3.4.3 Instructional design and learning theories .........................................................76
3.4.4 The role of the teacher and the student in both Behaviourism and
Constructivism: ................................................................................................................77
3.4.5 Motivation..........................................................................................................78
3.4.6 Motivation in designing Blended learning.........................................................78
3.5 Activities in Blended Learning and Online learning.................................................80
3.5.1 The Concept of Activities ..................................................................................81
3.5.2 Importance of activities in Blended Learning and through the Internet ............81
3.5.3 Examples of activities in blended learning and learning using the internet ......83
3.5.4 Feedback on Activities in the Blended Learning Environment .........................86
3.6 Interaction in Blended Learning and online learning................................................89
3.6.1 Importance of interaction in blended learning and online learning ...................90
3.6.2 Types of Interactions..........................................................................................93
3.6.3 Educational activities and their role in supporting interaction in blended
learning 97

Chapter 4: Research Methodology.....................................................................................105

4.1 Research Method.....................................................................................................105
4.2 Study Variables .......................................................................................................107
4.2.1 Independent Variables .....................................................................................107
4.2.2 Dependent variables.........................................................................................107
4.2.3 Control Variables .............................................................................................107
4.3 Study Population .....................................................................................................108

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 4.4 Study Sample...........................................................................................................108
4.5 Tools of Study .........................................................................................................108
4.5.1 Mid-term and final theory tests of the (304) course ........................................108
4.5.2 Practical exam of course (304) ........................................................................109
4.5.3 Students’ satisfaction questionnaire.................................................................110
4.5.4 Interviews.........................................................................................................112
4.6 The implementation process (procedures) of the study ..........................................113
4.7 Challenges and difficulties I encountered ...............................................................116
4.8 Instructional Design of the General Teaching Method Course (304) .....................118
4.8.1 Analysis phase .................................................................................................119
4.8.2 Design Phase....................................................................................................123
4.8.3 Development Phase..........................................................................................133
4.8.4 Implementation phase ......................................................................................134
4.8.5 Evaluation phase ..............................................................................................134
4.9 The Statistical Methods...........................................................................................134

Chapter 5: Results of the study...........................................................................................136

5.1 Verification of dependency of study data on the normal distribution.....................136
5.2 Equality of the experimental and control groups in terms of the control variables 137
5.3 Results related to the first hypothesis......................................................................139
5.4 Results related to the second hypothesis .................................................................144
5.5 Results obtained from group interviews .................................................................151
5.5.1 The positive comments of the teaching method of the course (304) according to
the students’ points of view ...........................................................................................152
5.5.2 The positive comments of the content of the course (304) according to the
students’ points of view .................................................................................................159
5.5.3 The positive comments of Instructor’s Support of the course (304) according to
the students’ points of view ...........................................................................................160
5.5.4 The negative comments about the Course (304) according to the students’
points of view:................................................................................................................162
5.5.5 Results of the question submitted to the students at the end of the interview: 164

Chapter 6: Discussion of Results ........................................................................................167

6.1 Discussing results related to the first hypothesis ....................................................167
6.2 Discussing results related to the second hypothesis:...............................................173

Chapter 7: Summary of Results, Conclusions, and Recommendations..........................178

7.1 Summary of the purpose and questions of the study...............................................178

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 7.2 Summary of the study variables ..............................................................................179
7.3 Summary of results from the study: ........................................................................179
7.4 Validity and reliability of the results:......................................................................180
7.5 Limitations ..............................................................................................................181
7.6 Contribution ............................................................................................................182
7.7 Recommendations and suggestions.........................................................................183
7.8 Conclusions .............................................................................................................184

References .............................................................................................................................187
Appendices............................................................................................................................199
Appendix 1: Approval letter from the Research Ethics Committee of Brunel University 199
Appendix 2: Letter from my research Supervisor to the College of Basic Education.......200
Appendix 3: Letter of consent from the Dean of the College of Basic Education ............201
Appendix 4: Letter to the Kuwait Cultural Office in London ...........................................202
Appendix 5: Letter of consent from Kuwait Cultural Office in London ...........................203
Appendix 6: Letter to Kuwait University for developing a space for the Course (304) on
Blackboard .........................................................................................................................204
Appendix 7: Information sheet and a consent form for the students .................................205
Appendix 8: Mid-term Test of the Course (304) ...............................................................206
Appendix 9: Practical Test of the Course (304).................................................................210
Appendix 10: Student Satisfaction Questionnaire .............................................................211
Appendix 11: example of one groups’ interview...............................................................215

List of Tables

Table (1): the official age for enrolling at the appropriate educational stage ..........................14
Table (2): The differences between behaviourist and constructivist theories..........................77
Table (3): Cronbach's Alpha values for the dimensions of satisfaction ................................111
Table (4): assessment method for the course (304) ...............................................................133
Table (5): shows test results for the dependence on the normal distribution of the three groups
and for the whole sample .......................................................................................................137
Table (6): results of the chi square test for the differences between the groups as per academic
discipline and marital status...................................................................................................138
Table (7): Results of F-test for the differences between the groups as per GPA for both
college and high school and students’ use of computers and internet ...................................138

VII
Table (8): Summary of results of the Multivariate Analysis of Variance MANOVA, F test
and its significance for the first hypothesis............................................................................140
Table (9): Summary of results of One-Way ANOVA, for the first hypothesis .....................141
Table (10): Test results of the Pairwise Comparisons between the three groups for academic
achievement using Scheffe’ Test ...........................................................................................142
Table (11): Summary of the Multivariate Analysis of Variance MANOVA, F test and its
significance for the second hypothesis ..................................................................................145
Table (12): Summary of results from one-way analysis of variance ANOVA for the second
hypothesis ..............................................................................................................................147
Table (13): Test results of the Pairwise Comparisons test between the three groups for the
Satisfaction using Scheffe’ Test.............................................................................................148

List of Figures
Figure (1): Project of My Bag is in My Pocket .......................................................................39
Figure (2): Content of e-book (project of flash memory) ........................................................40
Figure (3): VLE of the future...................................................................................................54
Figure (4): ADDIE Model .......................................................................................................74
Figure (5): The Explanatory Sequential Design ....................................................................106
Figure (6): Design of the control group with a post-test........................................................106
Figure (7): The negative teacher ............................................................................................126
Figure (8): A bored student in class.......................................................................................126
Figure (9): Another bored student in class.............................................................................127
Figure (10): Communication Tools in the (304) Course on Blackboard ...............................128
Figure (11): Groups’ Pages Tool in the (304) Course on Blackboard ...................................128
Figure (12): Questions to the Instructor Section on Facebook ..............................................129
Figure (13): Discussion Section on Facebook .......................................................................129
Figure (14): Chat Tool in the (304) Course on Blackboard...................................................130
Figure (15): Chat using meeboo program for the Facebook group .......................................130
Figure (16): Self-assessment questions and direct feedback .................................................132
Figure (17): Estimate for the means of mid-term test by groups for the first hypothesis......143
Figure (18): Estimate for the means of the final test by groups for the first hypothesis .......143
Figure (19): estimate for the means of the practical test by groups for the first hypothesis..144

VIII
Figure (20): Estimate for the teaching method dimension mean by groups for the second
hypothesis ..............................................................................................................................149
Figure (21): Estimate for the content dimension mean by groups for the second hypothesis
................................................................................................................................................150
Figure (22): estimate for the instructor support dimension mean by groups for the second
hypothesis ..............................................................................................................................150
Figure (23): Positives (students’ opinions) obtained from group interviews ........................152

List of Terms
 Distance Learning: Al-Taheeh (2004) defines distance learning as learning through
cancelling distances of time and place that separate learners and teachers, using certain
methods that approach these distances and cancel their consequent effects.

 Face-to-Face Learning: It means the traditional learning method which is the familiar
methods used in universities, namely, the attendance by students and meeting with their
teachers inside classrooms in a specific time and place.

 Virtual Learning Environment (VLE): Kuit and Fell (2010) defined it as a collection
of integrated learning support tools which typically comes as a single, commercially
available product such as Blackboard or else available as an open source, e.g. Moodle.
In the current study, the VLE used was ‘Blackboard’, which is a system that allows
distance learning via the internet. This system enables the teacher to construct a
comprehensive learning environment, design electronic academic courses, and find
means of direct and indirect contact between students, teacher and their courses using
development tools available in that environment.

 Personal Learning Environment (PLE): Van Harmelen (2008) defined personal

learning environment as a system that helps learners take control of and manage their
own learning. In the current study, the PLE used was Facebook, which is a widely used
free-access social networking website that is operated and privately owned by the
Facebook company. It allows users to create their own profiles, make friends, find old
friends, and exchange information, messages, personal photos, videos, and comments
on specific subjects.

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 Blended Learning Method: This is a learning method that depends on blending
distance learning and face-to-face learning. Students would attend in classrooms, meet
their teachers and at the same time are followed remotely and taught electronically via
the internet. In the current study, distance learning is carried out via the internet using
the VLE of Blackboard and PLE of Facebook.

 General Teaching Method Course (304): This is one of the academic theoretical
courses that are taught in the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training at
the College of Basic Education, Curriculum and Instruction Department, Kuwait. The
targets of this course include preparing student teachers for the teaching profession
through training them in basic teaching strategies, methodologies, and skills. This is a
general compulsory course (module) for all students who register at the College of
Basic Education.

 Academic Achievement: By this term, the researcher means the numerical quantitative
information acquired by students directly from the academic content, whether through
the face-to-face learning method or the blended learning method. In the current study,
academic achievement was measured via the mid-term, final and practical tests of
module (304) of the academic term 2009-2010, which assesses students’ assimilation of
knowledge, concepts, and skills related to the content of the General Teaching Method
Course (304).

 Students' Satisfaction: It means the level of students’ satisfaction in relation to the

teaching method, the content of the course, and the instructor's support of the course.
This was assessed through a questionnaire.

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Chapter 1: Preface to the Study

1.1 Introduction

The contemporary world is undergoing changes in various aspects of life, and the last
decade of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century have witnessed
tremendous advances, especially in the field of information and communication technology,
changes that continue to grow day after day, and accelerating at a very fast pace. And the
educational field is one of the most prominent areas affected by these new technologies, which
has led to the emergence of multiple forms of learning such as Distance Learning, Distance
learning is a way of delivering education, mostly at the college level, where students do not have
to physically attend class.

Interest in distance learning has grown rapidly since the advent of the Internet. This
method of learning has witnessed significant advancement with the growth of the web itself.
When the Internet was first introduced, the means used in distance learning was limited to text
alone. However, with rapid technological development, multi-media applications have started to
play a significant role in supporting the educational process (Georgouli, 2011; Al-Khalifa,
2008).

As the world today is witnessing rapid changes as a result of scientific and technological
advancements, it has thus become necessary for the educational process to cope with these
changes, and to face up to potential problems such as the increasing numbers of students,
shortage of teachers, and the enormous distances involved with learning.

Therefore, many educational institutions across the world have applied distance learning and
online programmes using the Internet which have brought about many changes in that regard
(Littlejohn and Pegler, 2007). Alongside this is the rapid development of what is called Virtual
Learning Environments (VLE), which Kuit and Fell (2010) consider as a collection of combined
learning support tools which typically come as a single, commercially available product such as

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Blackboard or else available as an open source, e.g. Moodle. VLEs are like classes similar to the
traditional classes since both teacher and student would still need to attend. However, these
attend on-line with no restrictions in terms of time or place. Through these virtual classes,
courses are updated so that students can gather through networks to participate in educational
settings where the student becomes the centre of attention who tries to learn, understand and
acquire information within such an environment.

Thus, new concepts of learning, based on the internet, have crystallised; for
example, Web 2.0 which has become a key technology that supports publishing content over the
Internet. Web 2.0 refers to an expected second generation of web technology that allows people
to create, publish, exchange, share, and cooperate on information (knowledge) in a new way of
communication and collaboration. Web 2.0 technology makes the web no longer an area just for
browsing but also for creating and sharing.

These recent changes in the web have affected educators and students in terms of the
methods they use for teaching and learning. We have begun to see the adoption of new
approaches towards the use of technologies for teaching and learning in online environments; for
example, personal learning environments (PLE) which Van Harmelen (2008) has defined as
systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning. PLE gives learners the
ability to build on their personalised educational landmark in order to improve their skills and
knowledge.

Nevertheless, the lack of student-teacher direct contact (in contrast to face-to-face

learning) remains one of the disadvantages of distance learning via the Internet. That is because
such a lack of direct contact will affect the level and progress of a lot of students who are not
used to self-learning via the Internet without direct contact, physically attendance and interaction
with the teacher. Al-Taheeh (2004) recognises this as one of the most negative aspects of
distance learning, especially for Kuwaiti students who are not used to the methods of distance
learning, the majority of them do not have the skills to help them do so. This becomes more
acute when the distance learning course needs direct practice and practical application between

2
teacher and students. Another disadvantage of distance learning via the Internet is the possibility
for cheating during exams, for it is very difficult to ensure that the person who is taking the
exam is indeed the actual student and not someone else (Al-Aurini, 2005; Al-Mousa, 2005).

One of the best ways to deal with the previously stated drawbacks of distance learning is
to convert them into positives using blended learning. Colis and Moonen (2001) define blended
learning as the blending of on-line learning and face-to-face learning, whereby education is
carried out both on-line and off-line in the more traditional classes.

This blended learning would help solve many of the disadvantages of distance learning
via the internet, such as the lack of direct student-teacher contact and students cheating in exams,
in addition to the problems of face-to-face learning such as the lack of student-teacher contact
outside the classroom. By virtue of this kind of learning, there is communication and direct
interaction between students and teachers during classes. At the same time, teachers can
communicate with their students indirectly via the web, or through VLE, which enables teachers
to provide a complete on-line educational syllabus for the course. Students have access to
lessons and learning objectives, do their homework, send assignments, participate in discussion
forums or though the PLE, all of which help them take control of and manage their own
learning. In this way, students are provided with the needed support to set their own learning
goals, manage their learning in terms of its content and process, and all the while communicating
with others in the process of learning.

Among the theories of learning related to blended learning is the constructivist theory.
Constructivism is “a student-centred philosophy that emphasises hands on learning and students
actively participating in lessons” (Ganly, 2007). This theory supports to a large extent the
modern teaching methods which depend on the use of technology in teaching and learning such
as blended learning and through focusing (in this theory) on the effective positive role of the
student during the learning process. In blended learning, the student will have to actively
participate and engage through the practicing of many diverse educational activities in blended
learning courses. Moreover, the constructivist theory considers the role of the teacher as a

3
facilitator and manager. In blended learning, the role of the teacher is the same to a large extent.
Here, the teacher in blended learning courses takes on the role of guide and advisor, and provides
an opportunity for students to interact positively in the educational activities of the course,
thereby encouraging discussion among learners. As such, the learner becomes the centre of the
educational process, far more positive and effective than being negative.

From such a perspective, this study is an attempt to trace the effect of using the method of
blended learning (blending distance learning, using the virtual learning environment [VLE] of
Blackboard, personal learning environment [PLE] of Facebook and face-to-face learning) on the
academic achievement of female students’ teachers at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait.
This will be done in terms of the General Teaching Method Course (304) compared to face-to-
face learning alone. The study also aims to identify the effect of using the blended learning
method on students’ course satisfaction compared to face-to-face learning alone. Putting together
the course content was based on the appropriate instructional design for the course’s targets
using the five stages in the ADDIE instructional design model. The ADDIE model is a
systematic instructional design model consisting of five phases: (1) Analysis, (2) Design, (3)
Development, (4) Implementation, and (5) Evaluation. This design included activities,
interactive learning materials, feedback, self-assessment questions, as well as some suitable
multi-media.

1.2 Problem of the Study

Many countries today are seeking to develop their education systems through the use of
these technologies and methods of modern learning (such as blended learning in the field of
education) in order to keep pace with technological developments and to achieve satisfactory
results, as education is considered a real investment for any country and its people. And this
invites making good use of the technology in preparing student teachers, curriculum
development and the diversity of teaching methods, in an attempt to develop the educational
process and to provide better learning and education.

4
 Education in Kuwait is not in isolation from these global developments, for the Kuwaiti
government as represented by its Ministry of Education is determined to take advantage of e-
learning and blended learning and to employ them in the learning and teaching process.

On the other hand, education in Kuwait suffers from major problems. In a new extended
study conducted by the Alqabas newspaper (2012) on education in Kuwait, its findings point to a
decline in the level of education compared to what it was in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and that
education in Kuwait suffers from major problems, most of them in the area of curriculum and
teacher preparation. This was confirmed by a recent report published by the Alqabas newspaper
(2012) for the ex-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, who serves and works as a
consultant for the Kuwaiti government. Mr. Blair confirmed in his recent report that the current
education system in Kuwait is unable to prepare a workforce to cope with the challenges of the
future, unless the Kuwaiti government, as represented by the Ministry of Education and the
institutions of higher education, makes drastic changes to its educational system.

The proposals and solutions in the study by Alqabas (2012) and the report of Tony Blair
focused on the importance of Kuwaiti teachers’ preparation and on the use of e-learning and
blended learning, benefiting from its advantages to the process of learning and teaching, and to
the teacher preparation programmes at the College of Education.

Therefore, higher educational institutions and the Ministry of Education in Kuwait are
working at the moment to prepare a major project for the application of blended learning in the
educational process (to be dealt with later in the chapter on Education in Kuwait), to cope with
both global and modern developments so as to achieve satisfactory results, and thus become one
of the key solutions to the problems afflicting the education system in Kuwait.

Students aspiring to be teachers in public education (under the supervision of the State of
Kuwait) do their educational preparation in either of two educational institutions, the College of
Basic Education under the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training and the College
of Education at Kuwait University. These institutions offer programmes with suitable content for
aspiring teachers but when I look at the reality in the approach and the method of teaching used
to deliver this content to students’ teachers, I found that most of the academic staff still use

5
traditional teaching methods without taking advantage of the new teaching methods such as
blended learning using VLE or PLE. Also, in Kuwaiti schools, the study by Alqabas (2012)
found that teachers in Kuwait do not use the latest methods of teaching.

From the curriculums at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait and from knowledge
and information provided by aspiring teachers, I found that the curriculums include information
about e-learning and online learning through certain modules that are only studied theoretically.
However, I think the most important thing is to be able to use this information and these new
methods in practice, in addition to studying them as theoretical concepts.

In this study, the blended learning method using VLE and PLE was applied at the
College of Basic Education in Kuwait through a General Teaching Method Course (304), aiming
at preparing adult female student teachers to qualify for the profession of teaching through
acquiring basic teaching strategies, methodologies and skills. This blended learning method is
aims to enhance the effectiveness and performance of student teachers, providing a new
generation of teachers with modern teaching methodologies.

The potential for this blended learning method is to increase the effectiveness of student
teachers and their performance, as there is evidence on the feasibility of the use of blended
learning method in terms of its effect on both academic achievement and student satisfaction
(Alvarez, 2005; deGula, 2004; Khan, 2005). However, such evidence is from research conducted
in different environments and countries, which is likely to be different to the impact of blended
learning on the Kuwaiti situation. Therefore, the problem of the current study can be
crystallised into two main questions:

1. What is the effect of using the method of blended learning of the course (304) on
academic achievement of the female student-teachers, as compared to face – to–
face learning alone?
2. What is the effect of using the method of blended learning of the course (304) on
female student-teachers’ satisfaction, as compared to face –to-face learning alone?

6
1.3 The Study Hypotheses:
1. The use of the Blended Learning method in the General Teaching Method Course (304)
leads to better academic achievement for female student-teachers as compared with the
face to face learning alone.

2. Using the method of blended learning in the General Teaching Methods Course (304)
leads to better satisfaction for female student-teachers compared with the method of face
to face learning alone.

1.4 Aims of the Study

The current study aims at the following:

 Identify the effect of blended learning on academic achievement in a university course for
female student-teachers of Education College

 Identify whether the blended learning method is suitable for the female student-teachers of
Education College, and whether the difficulties facing students affect their level of
satisfaction about the course and its teaching methodologies.

1.5 Importance of the Study

 To my knowledge, Kuwaiti researchers have so far failed to tackle the subject of blended
learning using VLE and PLE. Thus, the current study constitutes a new addition to Arab
and Kuwaiti studies relating to the effect of blended learning on academic achievement of
female university students of Education College. This may be one of the pioneer studies to
tackle such a subject in Kuwait.

 Aligning the project with the desire of Kuwait’s Ministry of Education and the Public
Authority for Applied Education and Training for the use and application of blended
learning in the country’s education system.

 Contribute to the use and application of blended learning on student teachers whose
preparation is now a key focus of the State of Kuwait. And as pointed out by some recent

7
 studies regarding weaknesses in the programmes to prepare them, one of which is a lack of
use of modern methods in their teaching in the College of Basic Education under the Public
Authority for Applied Education and Training or in the College of Education at Kuwait
University.

 Kuwait University seeks to discover the effects and results of adopting blended learning on
some different electronically-developed courses.

 The current study constitutes a primary step towards activating the blended learning
method in education, which will pave the way for other studies, tackling different aspects
in their fields.

This chapter has introduced the main focus of the study (blended learning) and its importance. It
also pointed out the effectiveness of blended learning when used as a delivery method. However,
in other countries and environments, the level of efficiency differs from the Kuwaiti educational
environment, which thereby highlights the aim of the study, namely, identifying the effect of
using blended learning on academic achievement and satisfaction in a university course for
female student-teachers at Education College, Kuwait. The study hypothesis assumes that “using
the method of blended learning in the General Teaching Methods Course (304) leads to better
achievement and satisfaction for female student-teachers when compared with the method of
face-to-face learning alone”.

8
Chapter Two: Education in Kuwait
This chapter deals with several topics related to the issue of education in the State of Kuwait,
topics that include the emergence of education and its development, the educational goals of the
educational system, a description of the educational system of the State of Kuwait, before
moving to higher education in Kuwait. Then, I will look at the education crisis in Kuwait and the
problems being faced by the current education system. At the end of the chapter, I will discuss
the issue of e-learning in Kuwait, as well as the vision and projects of the Ministry of Education
in Kuwait regarding e-learning.

2.1 The emergence of education and its development in Kuwait

Throughout Kuwait's history, religious education in Kuwait was largely done in the mosque.
Ancient education was done within the corners and pillars of mosques, where seminars were held
and various issues of science and knowledge were discussed. This kind of education remained
prevalent until the stage of Kettateeb which took place in 1887. Kettateeb are special places for
the education of boys and girls and learning the basics of the Arabic language, especially reading
and writing, mathematics, and the Quran. These Kettatib were managed by what is known as
"Almullah" or "Almutawa" which currently serves as a teacher.

Then, formal education started in Kuwait in 1911 with the opening of Al-Mubarakiya School, the
first private regular school in Kuwait. Traders oversaw the management of the school,
exchanging their contributions with donations from good people. Due to the increasing number
of students, the evolution of life economically and socially and, on the basis of the importance of
the development of formal education, the Al-Ahmadiyya School was opened in 1921. This
school signaled a new shift in the field of education in the state.

Education in Kuwait was limited to this type of school until 1936, when the state of Kuwait
became responsible for education and began its national mission in the field of education with
the establishment of the Knowledge Council under the chairmanship of Sheikh Abdullah Al-
Jaber. This Knowledge Council took over the process of educational planning, and the state
began funding educational projects in various parts of the country in an effort to make education

9
free for all Kuwaiti citizens. This council formed the nucleus of the Ministry of Education which
was established in 1962, immediately after independence (Khalaf, 2011).

The education sector has seen a remarkable development from the 1940s until 1954, when the
state decided to review the overall educational experience, and then set up plans and new
programmes for the advancement of the educational process and the need to respond to the
requirements of social and cultural development which was witnessed in Kuwait in the 1960s.

In 1961, after abolition of the British protection agreement by Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Al-
Sabah, the Kuwaiti government was formed, including the Ministry of Knowledge, which
changed its name to the Ministry of Instruction and Education in 1962, and then to the Ministry
of Education in 1965. A Board of Education was formed, and the overall objectives of the
Ministry of Education were set in 1967. In 1982, the Public Authority for Applied Education and
Training was established. And the Compulsory Education Law for all Kuwaitis was applied in
1995.

In 1966, the Kuwait University and the Teachers’ Training Institute were established, and in the
same year the management of high school education was set up, one of whose duties was the
supervision and guidance of high school education and the Teachers’ Training Institute. A
process was also initiated for establishing health, trade, and technology institutes to meet the
growing need of the country especially in terms of scientific disciplines (Ministry of Education
Website).

Based on the above, the history of education in Kuwait can be divided into five key stages
(Khalaf, 2011):

1. Stage of religious education that existed before the emergence of Ketateeb in 1887.
Education at this stage was mainly in mosques, places of worship, and was mostly of a
religious nature.

2. Stage of Ketateeb, which began in 1887 and lasted until the establishment of the Al-
Mubarakiya School in 1911. Education in this period was very simple and limited to what the

10
 child receives from his/her parents and Kettateeb, where the Mullah or Mutawa made a
significant impact in the education of children and teaching them the Koran and the basics of
reading, writing, and mathematics.

3. Private education, which began in 1911, lasted until the establishment of the Knowledge
Council in 1936. This stage began with the establishment of the Al-Mubarakiyah School in
response to traders who need clerks and accountants to manage their trade which was
constantly expanding. Therefore, this school was aimed at preparing commercial clerks to do
trading, upon which Kuwait's economy depended at the time. This school was supported
through donations that were collected from Kuwaiti merchants. The Al-Ahmadiyya School
was opened in 1922 to support the Al-Mubarakiyah School in preparing graduates needed by
society.

4. The stage of public education began in 1936 and continued until 1956. The state then
dominated education, developing it, and directing its course and funding to respond to the
requirements of the new phase resulting from developments and events that represented the
emergence of the state and the country's independence, not to mention the development of
various aspects of its life. This period was characterised by the establishment of the
Knowledge Council in 1939, while the first school for girls was established in 1937, and thus
Kuwaiti girls entered education for the first time. This period also witnessed the flow and
export of oil, and this led to the development of education in Kuwait rather quickly.
Therefore, this period is dubbed "the establishment of schools", where schools became
widespread. In this period, there were two educational consultants who came from outside
Kuwait (Qabbani and Akrawi). These two studied the state of the country and offered a
number of proposals for developing education in Kuwait.

5. The stage of modern education began in 1956 and still continues today. This stage is
characterized by large directives for the development of education, updating the curriculum,
making and setting goals in terms of the requirements of comprehensive development in the
community. This is when the country began working to prepare educational plans in order to
develop its education system.

11
2.2 Goals of the educational system in the State of Kuwait
Kuwait’s educational goals reflect the philosophy of its educational system, and embody the
kind of education the community wants. The country's constitution, the Islamic faith, the nature
of society and its needs - all of these make up the primary sources of educational goals in the
State of Kuwait. The educational goals are meant to respond to the needs of humanity and
civilization as well as the aspirations of the community.

The basic premises of the pillars of educational philosophy are derived from Kuwait’s
educational goals which can be summarised as follows (website of the Ministry of Education):
 The nature of Kuwaiti society and its religion, philosophy and cultural heritage.
 The Islamic faith and its comprehensive approach to the human situation, the universe and
life as a whole.
 The Arabic heritage, contemporary issues, hopes and trends into the future.
 The nature of the times in which we live.
 The needs of the individual and the characteristics of growth.
 Contemporary trends in education.

We can, in this context, review some of the educational objectives according to its derived
sources (Ministry of Education Website):

Some educational goals are derived from the nature of Kuwaiti society, its religion and
philosophy:
 Belief in the principles of the Islamic religion, such that these principles become a way of
thinking and a way of life for the individual’s behaviour and his social relationships.
 Definition of Arab-Islamic heritage, social customs and traditions and the work to support it.
 Strengthen the bonds of solidarity, brotherhood and the spirit of family among people and to
get rid of any intolerance due to sectarian, regional, tribal or caste.

Some educational goals relating to the growth of learners:

 Helping individuals to achieve proper mental growth.
 Helping individuals to achieve proper physical growth.

12
 Creating opportunities for individuals by ensuring a proper emotional maturity.

Educational goals derived from contemporary trends in education

 The development of the ability to practise self-learning.
 Helping individuals to lifelong learning.
 To benefit from modern technologies in the field of education.

2.3 Description of the educational system in the State of Kuwait

The educational system in Kuwait includes a variety of paths to cover the multiple needs of
students of various ages. The educational ladder begins with the nursery (two levels for two
years) which is an optional stage. And then, compulsory education begins for Kuwaitis at the
primary school stage (from the first to the fifth grade for five years), and then the secondary
stage (from sixth grade to ninth grade for four years). Then comes the high school level (from
tenth grade to twelfth grade for three years) and this stage is no longer compulsory. The
educational ladder has been modified in 2004-2005 from four years for each stage (4.4.4) to five
years in the primary school, four years in secondary school, and three years in high school
(5.4.3). Compulsory education for Kuwaitis runs from primary school (six years old) to the end
of secondary school (fourteen years old).

The educational ladder applies to the government’s general education schools as well as private
education schools. ‘Arab’ is used to teach the curriculum of the Ministry of Education in
government schools, and with respect to private schools ('foreign'), they teach their educational
curricula following the curriculum provided in their countries of origin. The other educational
programmes are available in the institutes of religious education, special education schools, adult
education centres and literacy centres.

With regard to education beyond high school, the student can continue in education programs
through studying at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training for two years to get
a diploma or for four years to get a Bachelor's degree. The student could also after high school
enrol at Kuwait University, the Institute of Music, the Institute of Performing Arts, one of the

13
country’s private universities, or join institutes and colleges specialized in military and police, or
can even complete his studies outside the State of Kuwait.

The following table shows the official age for enrolling at the appropriate educational stage:

Table (1): the official age for enrolling at the appropriate educational stage

Official school age Educational stage

4–5 Nursery
6-7-8-9-10 Primary school
11-12-13-14 Secondary school
15-16-17 High School
18-19-20-21 College or University

Education in Kuwait is free for all Kuwaitis from nursery to high school, as well as for a
certain class of non-Kuwaitis such as children of Kuwaiti mothers or students from Arab Gulf
countries. Private schools take in both Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis for a fee determined by the
school.

2.4 Higher Education

Both Kuwait University and the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training are the
main government educational institutions under the Ministry of Education and Ministry of
Higher Education in the State of Kuwait. And there are four private universities: American
University, Arab Open University, Gulf University for Science and Technology, and the
American University of the Middle East.

For colleges of education that prepare and graduate student teachers in the State of Kuwait, there
are two major colleges. The first is the College of Basic Education (where the current study was
carried out) which comes under the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, and
the other is the College of Education at the University of Kuwait.

14
 2.4.1 Kuwait University

Kuwait University is the first public university in the State of Kuwait which was established in
1966. It consists of 16 colleges and various general services and work centres. Kuwait University
seeks to provide world-class education, and is committed to advancing, preserving, and
disseminating knowledge, in addition to preparing educated, enlightened and qualified human
resources in order to contribute to society’s developmental needs.

College of Education at the University of Kuwait

The College of Education was established by the Emiri Decree in May 1980, and opened for
classes in September 1981. It received its first cohort of students for the first semester of the
academic year 1981/1982.

College Objectives
Firstly: To provide the high-efficiency manpower needed to work in the educational field which
includes:

1. Prepare female student teachers for nurseries and kindergartens.

2. Prepare student teachers for primary schools.
3. Prepare student teachers for secondary and high schools in all disciplines.
4. Preparation of administrators in all stages of schooling.
5. Preparation of technical supervisors to work at all stages and disciplines.
6. Preparation of specialists in the following areas:
 Educational research.
 Build and develop curricula.
 Educational techniques.
 Educational measurement and evaluation.
 Educational and psychological counselling.
 Adult education.
 Educational planning.
 Special education.

15
Secondly: To develop awareness of educational scientific research through investment in results
especially in terms of problems faced in the field. This includes:

1. Providing scientific activities that help develop awareness in educational research and its
importance in continuing research.
2. Provide the necessary resources that could benefit educational research.
3. Interest in encouraging individuals and social research in terms of the College’s academic
staff within its academic departments.
4. Interest in graduate studies and academic staff supervision of Masters and PhD studies.
5. Exchange experiences in the field of educational research with educational institutions
locally, regionally and globally.

Thirdly: To meet the needs of the community of educational services and other areas of social
activity of an educational nature. This includes:

1. Cooperation with the Ministry of Education and other social institutions.

2. Contribute to the activities of public education.
3. Contribute to lifelong learning activities.
4. Participate in implementing community development plans in the field of education.

2.4.2 Public Authority for Applied Education

The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training seeks to achieve the goal for which
it was established, which is providing the technical workforce responsive to the requirements of
national, social and economic development. It was established in December 1982. And the main
aim of this authority is to develop and raise the efficiency of its outputs, making sure they would
be eligible to work in different labour market sectors and contribute effectively to the
development of the national economy. It also aims at modifying the demographics of the country
by providing training programs and curricula that keep pace with global requirements in this era
of globalization, which would raise the level of skills and knowledge needed to make sure
trainees take their suitable place in the labour market. The Public Authority for Applied
Education and Training comprises 4 colleges and 8 institutes.

16
College of Basic Education - Public Authority for Applied Education and Training

Since 1950, various efforts have been made to prepare teachers for primary school stages and
nurseries, culminating in 1963 when it opened an institute of teachers. A system of acceptance
was then set up which made the acquiring of a secondary school certificate an entry requirement
to such an institute, and the duration of the study was 4 years, after which graduates were
awarded a Diploma from the Institute of Teachers which qualified them to teach in primary
schools.

At that time, the institute of teachers was included in a number of disciplines such as the art of
education, physical education, in addition to the general division or branch. But in 1972, the
Institute of Education was opened for teachers, and a system of acceptance was required to
obtain the certificate of secondary school, and the duration of the study was two years, after
which graduates are awarded a Diploma of the Institute of Education which qualifies them to
teach in primary schools.

Studying at the Institute of Education was extended since 1986 to become a 4-year programme
instead of two, and the institute included many different disciplines, thereby gaining its new
name of College of Basic Education (the current name of the college). And its graduates are
awarded a Bachelor degree in Education. The College currently comprises 17 scientific
departments.

The College of Basic Education aims at the same objectives mentioned in the context of the
College of Education at Kuwait University, but the focus here is more on preparing student
teachers to be able to teach in primary schools.

2.5 Education crisis in Kuwait

Tony Blair’s vision about education in Kuwait: In short ... You are in danger!
Kuwait became famous in the past for being the School of the Arab world, where the education
system was the most developed and advanced in the region, and attracted students from various

17
Arab countries to pursue their higher education in Kuwait. Unfortunately, it is no longer the case
for the current education system which is struggling to be able to prepare a workforce of
Kuwaitis to keep up with the challenges of the future. If the system of education continues to
work according to its current form, Then Kuwait would have no opportunity to develop a modern
economy where citizens are ready for jobs with high double value. This is the contention of the
former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair (who is working as a consultant for the Kuwaiti
government), in terms of his vision for Kuwait in 2030. He is convinced that the current
education system in Kuwait is unable to prepare the workforce to cope with the challenges of the
future. The report of Tony Blair recommended for both public and higher education the need to
take strong and effective procedures; otherwise, continued inaction will inevitably put Kuwait's
future at risk (Al-Qabas newspaper, 2012).

Also, according to the report by Tony Blair (2012), this is despite the fact that spending on
education in Kuwait is almost the highest in the world. For example, the spending size ranges
from 6.2% to 8.3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) compared with 3.1% in Singapore and
1.3% in the United Arab Emirates. And yet, the education system in Kuwait suffers from major
problems. The report also pointed to the indifference of the Kuwaiti government in relation to the
teaching profession at least at the level of cost-effective material and morale, as he exposed the
existence of a problem in the Kuwaiti teacher’s preparation.

Tony Blair emphasizes the importance of paying attention to higher education in Kuwait and
says that any future vision of Kuwait requires a university sector at the highest level of quality
and efficiency which produces outputs and graduates who are creative with real talent. However,
the current situation is one of the lowest levels of participation in higher education, which is
accompanied by a question mark over the quality and efficiency of higher education in Kuwait.

Al-Qabas newspaper (2012) conducted an extensive scientific study through a professor of

Curriculum and Instruction, Fawzi Ayoub, on education in Kuwait. The study addressed the
imbalance in the two main pillars of education, the curriculum and the teacher in Kuwait. The
preparation and the application of the study took a full year with the participation of a number of
specialists in the field. The study found that formal education in Kuwait is suffering from a

18
major crisis, and that there is a decline in the level of education compared to levels in the 1960s
and 1970s.

The study by Al-Qabas newspaper (2012) and Tony Blair (2012) indicated that Kuwait has
achieved modest results in international tests to measure the academic achievement of students in
mathematics, science, and English.

Indeed, a rich country and sparsely populated such as Kuwait can be one of the best in the field
of education, providing the best model in the Arab region due to its long experience in education
at the Arab level. Kuwait is spending billions of dollars on education without leading to the
corresponding quality results. And according to a United Nations report in 2008, Kuwait comes
at the forefront of countries with the most spending on education, compared to a significant
reduction in the level of educational outcomes.

Education in Kuwait started before the discovery of oil and the establishment of the
independent state with ambition, hope and determination as shown by Kuwaitis of eras gone by.
Then, the stage of the high achievements came after the discovery of oil and after independence,
education became free and available to all Kuwaitis; therefore, educational justice and equal
opportunities for all were achieved to a large extent, with focus on the quality of education. And
this situation continued until the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the subsequent problems
that led to a clear decline in the level of education provided by schools and formal educational
institutions in Kuwait.

After the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation, there were many attempts to reform
education in Kuwait and to restore its previous glory in the field. In this context, the Kuwaiti
government adopted in 2003 the Strategy of Education Development 2005 to 2025, but the many
initiatives which aimed at promoting education in Kuwait did not succeed in addressing the
education crisis in its depth and core. In addition, these initiatives were only partial or limited at
times.

2.5.1 Main problems and negative aspects of education in Kuwait

19
There are a number of problems and negative aspects that adversely affect the educational
process in Kuwait, but I am going to focus here solely on the main problems:

2.5.1.1 Political crisis and the absence of vision

The semi-permanent political tension in the relationship between the Ministry of Education
(government) and parliament due to exaggeration by some members of house in their demands
and criticisms is exerting undue pressure on officials of the Ministry of Education. And this has
impeded the work of the Minister of Education and educational officials most of the time. The
direct interventions of politics and politicians in the educational affairs of the nation have had
negative effects on Kuwait’s education.

The study by the Al-Qabas newspaper (2012) indicated that elite educators who work as
academics in the College of Education at Kuwait University and in the College of Basic
Education under the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training in Kuwait ought to
consider the education crisis in the country as a crisis of educational politics, and that there is a
huge imbalance in educational politics which has been pursued by successive Kuwaiti
governments. Many university professors and researchers in the field of education in Kuwait talk
about a real problem with the country’s educational policy, and that the government of Kuwait is
the main reason for it, as it is ultimately responsible for the problems suffered by the education
sector. This is either because the Kuwaiti government has no educational policy, or because the
follow-up of the educational plans (where they exist) often stumbles for various reasons, and
attempts at implementing it are not continued from the era to another or from one government to
another. Besides, the government has not determined its educational priorities clearly, either
because such attempt at reform was often partial and limited, or it tries to change formality
without the real substance of education.

It is clear that there is a lack of vision and educational planning by the Kuwaiti government, as
represented by the Ministry of Education in its effort to develop education in Kuwait. Any
development without a clear and steady vision will be tainted with confusion and ending up with
wasted efforts. Most educational development operations in Kuwait are in accordance with
directions of the Minister of Education and his collaborators in the ministry, which either take

20
the form of ideas and projects that depart with the minister when he eventually leaves office or
the process of implementing these projects changes. Dr. Ghazi Al-Rashidi (2012), Professor at
the College of Education at Kuwait University, noted that attempts to reform education in
Kuwait does not reflect the vision of the state as much as expressing the vision of only a few
people.

2.5.1.2 Problem with the curriculum

Kuwait shares with a lot of Arab countries their general education features, which the third
report of the Arab Human Development described in just three words: lack of quality
(Almughaidi, 2009). The report explains that one of the special features of education in the Arab
world is that the curriculum, methods of teaching and assessment methods are dedicated to
indoctrination, receiving and saving information, but does not allow for much dialogue,
discussions and exploratory active learning, let alone opening the door for students to enjoy the
freedom of critical thinking.

The curricula in all grades in Kuwait are many but weak and do not keep pace with students'
abilities, and do not develop their talents. Most of them depend on the theoretical aspects and not
the practical. It is dominated by significant redundancies and repetition due to ideas from the past
and working in accordance with an ancient educational mentality in an era of speeds and flow of
knowledge and information which is called globalization (Report of the Committee for the
Development of Education, Al-Jarida newspaper, No. 22, 26/06/2007).
It emphasizes what came up in a survey conducted by Al-Qabas Newspaper on 100 teachers
from various schools in Kuwait. 77% of the teachers confirmed that they cannot teach all the
subjects’ content in the curriculum because of the immense size of the curriculum and frequent
use of information. Only 23% said that they completed teaching the entire curriculum. 62% of
the same sample confirmed that the curriculum of the Ministry of Education needed further
review and adjustment (Al-Qabas newspaper, 2012).

The limitations of curriculum quality may exhaust the educational process in the country, and the
first victim of this problem is the students. Difficulty with the curriculum, forcing students to
save the information, lack of use of new educational means and methods of teaching, all make

21
the students bored and keep them away from studying, and then the negative effects begin with
failure among students.

The study by Al-Qabas newspaper (2012) has pointed clearly to the existence of an imbalance in
the course content of Kuwait’s curriculum of education which seems to favour language and
heritage subjects such as Islamic Education, Arabic Language and History at the expense of
more scientific subjects such as Maths, Science and ICT. It is noticeable that the study time
dedicated to the first group of study materials is up to about 60% of the total teaching and study
time in the public education, versus 40% of the time dedicated to the second group of study
materials or study content. This imbalance in the study and teaching time for the sake of
indoctrinating linguistic and social heritage subjects belonging to a world of the past is at the
expense of scientific and technological subjects which belong to the world of the present and the
future. It will necessarily have a negative impact in terms of waste of effort, money and time,
which leads to being left behind as far as scientific progress and world culture are concerned.
This fact may explain the cause of mediocre results for Kuwaiti students in international
competitions for academic achievement in science, mathematics and English because the
timetable to teach these scientific courses is limited, and the lack of time for teaching science,
mathematics, ICT will only ensure that the achievement of Kuwaiti students continues to lag
behind those of American, English or Japanese students.

2.5.1.3 Problems of the teacher

A weak preparation of teachers in Kuwait’s colleges of education is considered one of the main
reasons for the problems of education in Kuwait. In this case, students teachers are taught in
colleges of education using purely traditional method of teaching that depends on saving the
information as well as indoctrination, while not allowing students to participate, debate, or even
dialogue. Thus, the student teacher acquires these traditional methods of teaching, and transfers
them as such in his field when he/she becomes a teacher, and teaches his/her students in schools
with very much the same traditional method of teaching.

The teacher is considered one of the main pillars in the development of the educational
process, and the success of any educational system depends on the level of teacher preparation.

22
So, it has become necessary to develop the educational institutions represented in the College of
Basic Education, the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, and the College of
Education at Kuwait University, all of which train, prepare and educate the student teachers of
the future and develop programs to prepare them towards achieving integral human development
and education’s desired goals.

It is necessary to draw the attention and focus to the development of teacher preparation
programmes in the colleges of education which ought to prepare them in a way that allows them
to meet the requirements of the modern era and thus translate the educational goals sought by
Kuwaiti society into practical reality.

In the report by Tony Blair which was published in the Al-Qabas newspaper (2012), he
mentioned there are two main factors that are driving the level of quality among teachers and
students’ achievements: firstly, to get the best people to take over the task of teaching; and
secondly, to train and prepare them to be active, effective and competent teachers. In Kuwait, the
process of choosing, employing and training teachers is inconsistent with or not in line with the
best systems of performance. This becomes evident in several ways as described in the
following:

 It is difficult to attract the best competencies to the profession of teaching. The social
status and financial compensation paid to teachers in Kuwait are low. The salary of a
teacher is similar and close to the salary of public sector employees who enjoy easier
working conditions. According to a Central Bank report, the initial salary for teachers in
Kuwait is almost 650 KD a month, while the average salary of government employees is
590 KD, in a time when teachers are working more hours and doing a very meaningful
job.

 The recruiting standard for students who want to be teachers is low. The average rate of
acceptance for students to enter the Colleges of Education at Kuwait University and the
Public Authority for Applied Education is also low: 71% compared to 89% for admission
to the College of Engineering, for example.

23
  Preparation and training are insufficient. At the College of Education at Kuwait
University, and the College of Basic Education in the Public Authority for Applied
Education, there is only one practical training course for one semester before graduation,
while the rest of the curriculum in the early years of study in the College of Education,
often involves theory curriculum and content which could be very far from the reality of
practical training for the teaching profession.

2.5.1.4 Problems in educational administration

The educational administration is considered one of the main causes of the educational crisis in
the country. The Al-Jarida newspaper (2007) reported that the educational report issued by the
National Commission for the Development of Education accused the educational administration
in Kuwait for idleness, corruption, and lack of discipline. Moreover, some of their leaders and
employees have abandoned their responsibilities, with a changing image of the school as an
educational institution, as well as poor process decision makers, the absence of research
foundations, and conflicting decisions. The academic professors of the colleges of education in
Kuwait find that the school administrators and educational leaders are generally ineffective in
performance their role within the educational institutions. The report attributed the main causes
of the deterioration of education in Kuwait to the absence of a long-term strategic vision for the
future in the Ministry of Education, not to mention the political inefficiency of educational
decision makers in successive ministries of education (Al-Jarida newspaper, 2007).

On the other hand, the academic staff of the colleges of education, as stated in the Al-Qabas
newspaper study (2012), consider their roles in the process of educational reform and
development as limited, and those who are education officials and responsible in the Ministry of
Education do not depend on them in this field. They also see that decisions taken for
development and educational reform are made individually, without planning, without thinking
or seeking to take advantage of the capabilities of those who are specialised representatives of
the academic staff at the colleges of education at Kuwait University and at the College of Basic
Education under the Public Authority for Applied Education. When those academic staff see that
there is a gap between them and the central administration of the Ministry of Education, the
officials in the Ministry of Education usually ignore the opinions of academic staff at the

24
colleges, and their research remain trapped in the ministry because leaders in the ministry do not
want others to interfere in their work, decisions and educational procedures. In other words,
these officials are not interested in scientific research, and do not use it or resort to it, unless the
educational problem becomes a major public opinion issue. In short, the vision of the academic
staff in the colleges of education and their relationship with the officials in the Ministry of
Education is often negative and based on suspicion, caution and lack of cooperation, either
because of a crisis of mutual trust between the two sides, or for lack of coordination and
communication between the colleges of education and the Ministry of Education (Al-Qabas
newspaper, 2012).

In this regard, the central educational administration at the Ministry of Education have their
problems, but school administrations are also rife with their shortcomings and negative remarks
which can only emphasise the administrative weakness of this sector.

Various forms of weak school administration in Kuwaiti schools are many. Alsawy (as cited in
Khalaf, 2011) mentioned certain negative aspects that characterised school administrations in
Kuwait, including the school director’s lack of familiarity with the school administrative work to
be done, the lack of experience, failing to perform his duties, or the weakness of human relations
in the field of administration and its impact on the work between the director of the school and
the teachers. Alsawy mentioned that the widening of the gap between the school administration
and the teachers adversely affects the performance of the latter, and so he resorts to frequent
absences or frequent authorisation which makes him indifferent to developing his skills in
teaching and education. These have their effects on the level of academic achievement of
student; and so, the student resorts to frequent absences, and even depends on private lessons. All
of these combined have a negative impact on the educational process in the country (Khalaf,
2011).

2.5.1.5 The role of the family

Many Kuwaiti families do not anymore carry out duties towards their children. They are mired in
an easy life, thereby giving up their role and duty to follow their children and instil positive
values in them toward school, or encourage and motivate them to learn. They have hired out

25
these tasks to foreign domestic workers (maids) who unfortunately are now performing these
roles for most Kuwaiti families instead of the Kuwaiti mother or father.

The problems of education in Kuwait are many. In addition to what has been mentioned as
the main problems in education, there are also other problems that come as a result of the major
problems that have been looked at thus far, for example, the problem of frequent absences by
students, and the problem of having private one-to-one lessons. These problems come about as a
result of the difficulty relating to the curriculum, and the teacher's inability to deliver scientific
educational content to students. This has led to a large number of students in Kuwait having
private one-to-one lessons and hence frequent absences from school. Also, there is the problem
of a small number of students who enrol in higher education. Tony Blair has indicated in his
report that among the problems facing education in Kuwait is the low level of enrolment at
university or college compared to other Gulf countries. Blair has pointed out that the number of
Kuwaitis who have completed their university education has not exceeded 10%.

There are also problems such as the negative school environment, characterized by low
educational activities and weak incentives and the lack of effective teaching methods in the
classroom. There are in addition to the lack of scientific trips for students, as well as the lack of
laboratories and scientific equipment in schools. As well as the small number of actual hours of
teaching and learning, given that the academic school year in Kuwait is short (160 days only)
compared with 200 days in developed countries which are members of the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the total number of official study hours in
primary schools is 576 hours versus 815 hours in OECD countries. And in high school, there are
565 hours in Kuwait versus 718 hours in OECD countries. And in a report over the educational
indicators for the Ministry of Education in Kuwait in 2007 (p. 88), it reportedly confirmed that
the number of weeks of study in Kuwait is still less than six weeks compared to the number of
weeks of study in OECD countries. With such a low number of actual hours of teaching, the
educational process has turned into a race to teach the curriculum merely to save without
understanding it.

Finally, all educators in Kuwait agreed that students are not the real cause of the crisis and
problems in Kuwaiti education, with some having gone so far as saying that they consider the

26
student as a victim of the crisis and the problems in education, a victim of educational policy of
the state and victim of the curriculum, school administration, and teachers altogether (study of
Al-Qabas Newspaper, 2012).

2.5.2 Views of Kuwaiti specialist educators on education reform

To address these problems, specialists in the field of education in Kuwait, as stated in the
Al-Qabas newspaper study (2012) and the report of Tony Blair (2012), recommend the
following:
- The need to agree on an integrated strategy for education, and support it with legislation
and laws required for developing an education system (quantity and quality) that includes
all levels of education from nursery to university, connecting the goals and educational
programs with the goals of comprehensive development and labour market requirements.
And the Kuwaiti government, as represented by the Ministry of Education, has carried
out serious studies aimed at developing this integrated strategy and finding appropriate
solutions to these problems afflicting the education system in Kuwait.
- The appointment of a new Minister of Education who is interested in educational matters
and seeks reform and renewal.
- Attention to the teacher scientifically, morally, financially, technically and educationally
through professional preparation with ongoing follow-up and training.
- Purification of the school curricula of excessive padding inmost literary theory modules,
and a focus on science materials and educational activities, as well as attention to go
along with the era and its applications, and reliance on the development of methods of
scientific critical thinking, and integration into the modern education system.
- Take advantage of research and university studies about the issues of education in
Kuwait, especially the research and studies by the academic staff who specialise in the
field of education.
- The use of technology and e-learning in teaching (in addition to traditional learning)
because of the benefits and advantages of both approaches in education.
- The development of school buildings and transforming them into an attractive place for
students.

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 - Strengthening the relationship between home and school through regular meetings of the
students’ parents and teachers or any other innovative methods, and involving parents to
experience the educational problems and to contribute to the treatment of these problems
which relate to the students’ progress.
- Work on the reform and development of educational administrations, and going along
with the latest methods of management and administration in the field of education, and
to give greater freedom to the school administration to manage their school, and to apply
regulations in line with improving the quality of school administration, as well as
achieving education’s desired goals.

2.6 Technology and E-learning in Kuwait

Technology in Kuwait: The Alwatan Newspaper (2012) pointed to a study conducted by the
company and the website bayt.com, the largest and the most popular website on employment in
the Middle East. This study showed that the main reason for the use of technology and the
Internet in the State of Kuwait is to participate in online social activities via social networking
sites (at least three hours on average everyday). The study concluded that there is a clear trend in
Kuwait in favour of the use of social networking tools, and that social networking sites most
used by Kuwaitis are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. The study reported that
watching videos, listening to music and sharing photos via social networking tools are popular
daily activities for young Kuwaitis connected to the Internet. The study showed that the majority
of young males and females are using social networking tools via their smart phones for the
purposes of social and entertainment activities such as watching videos and sharing photos or
chatting with friends, and a proportion of them use the Internet for shopping and other online
activities like buying tickets. The Alqabas Newspaper (2012) pointed out that Kuwait is ranked
75 globally, and ranked 9 among Arab countries in terms of the use of information and
communication technology (according to the World Report on Information Technology for the
years 2011 and 2012, issued by the World Economic Forum). On the other hand, Kuwait is
ranked 95 globally in the readiness level of information and communication technology. And at
the level of individual use of information technology, Kuwait is ranked 45 in the world. It is also
ranked 128 in the world in terms of company readiness, and ranked 105 in the world in terms of
government readiness.

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The state of Kuwait seeks via its Ministry of Education and Higher Education to make use of e-
learning and its features, and to apply them in the learning and education process.
E-learning is defined by the Ministry of Education according to the e-learning strategy of the
state of Kuwait as learning that depends on technology such as computer, internet and
communication networks inside and outside the classrooms and under the direct supervision of
the educational authority which is also called the blended e-learning model.

2.6.1 Objectives of E-learning in Kuwait

In the previous definition, the objectives of e-learning were defined as those components forming
a part of the general framework of an effective educational environment at schools and
educational organisations in the state of Kuwait. These include the following:
1- Provide a unique educational model for the state of Kuwait which could become a
pioneer in the Arab world.
2- Develop society and create a cultural movement aiming to build a cognitive economy for
the state of Kuwait.
3- Improve learning and education by spreading the proper cultural recognition for
supporting educational programs and thus enriching the educational process in the state
of Kuwait.
4- Participate in programs of reform and development of education via communication and
information technologies as modern tools for providing a curriculum in all educational
levels with various activities and events, while working on development and updating
methods and styles of teaching, and playing an effective role in developing all elements
of a comprehensive educational system.
5- Spread a culture of self-learning within Kuwaiti society with schools students at its core.
6- Develop a technical Kuwaiti educational environment by adopting what technology has
achieved in the field of education and learning tools.
7- Enrich the educational environment with more resources and activities to facilitate both
processes of learning and education as well as the benefit to be sought from education.
8- Create an environment of real time interaction among learners, and between them and
their teacher on the other hand via the means of modern communication such as the
internet.

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 9- Consider the individual differences among learners, enabling them to finalize the learning
process through proper environments without prejudice to the principle of equal
opportunity.
10- Transfer the role of teacher to being a leader who guides the educational process away
from dictation.
11- Enable students to grasp the subjects of the course in a method that copes with their
ability via video, audio, printed method or the like.
12- Provide instant services in the field of education, learning, instruction for teachers and
learners and all personnel at the educational organisation as well as parents on a
continuous basis inside and outside the school, and in so doing to support self-learning
and take into consideration individual differences among learners.
13- Establish a substantial and renewable database for scientific and practical subjects, and
participating in developing and increasing the effectiveness of teaching.
14- Initiate integration between computer and all educational fields, achieving the
educational objectives in all their dimensions and encouraging the teacher and learner to
use technologies of communication and information such as the internet to develop
knowledge and skills in different life activities.

2.6.2 Strategy of E-learning in the State of Kuwait

The Ministry of Education considers e-learning to be one of the most important pillars of the
educational process and its development from the phase of dictation and negative education to
the phase of innovation and interaction, self-dependence and positive learning. The philosophy
of e-learning is based on finding an interactive environment that is rich with applications based
on technologies of the computer and internet which enable the student to access the source of
learning at any time and from any place. This provides the best way of learning using the modern
mechanisms of communication in terms of computer networks and multimedia via audio, video,
images, and mechanisms of research and e-libraries, and via internet gates whether for distant
education or inside the classroom.

The supreme objective of this e-learning strategy is to educate a generation in self-learning so as

to cope with international advances, thereby serving the nation and hence leveraging the role of

30
the student to be an effective learner and not only recipient; to achieve this the role of the teacher
and society must be leveraged towards the modern educational process, and hence provide an
educational and teaching model that is effective and developed in the state of Kuwait via the
following strategic vision:
“Prepare a generation that is innovative and creative by developing the national capabilities to
use information technologies and communication in dealing with resources of knowledge in
order to raise education.”

This message is represented in the development of education using technologies of e-learning

and using modern communication tools such as computer networks, multimedia and internet
gates so as to provide information for learners as quickly as possible with the least cost and in a
way that allows for the educational process administration and control, and to measure and
evaluate learners’ performance.

2.6.3 Model of applying e-learning in the state of Kuwait

The approved model of strategy of e-learning in Kuwait includes the following aspects:

1- Educational system: this aspect depends on the educational system in the state of
Kuwait, and their basic pillars are the teacher, learner, and curricula; this is extended in
the system of e-learning to take care of providing interactive electronic curricula that
depend on multimedia, and such curricula are presented via computers and internet in an
interactive infrastructure. And this ensures the interactions of students with digital
curricula (e-content) in a synchronous way via Kuwait’s educational gate with the ability
for the teacher to receive feedback via the system of educational administration provided
by the gate.
2- Administrative aspect: this aspect focuses on the administration of e-learning through
the system of educational administration which is considered one of the main components
of e-learning, by developing the educational administrative system based on what copes
with the new phase of e-learning.
3- Institutional aspect: this aspect depends on coordination among educational institutions
in the state of Kuwait, which must integrate to achieve their objectives. Institutional

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 integration sought by e-learning in the state of Kuwait depends on cooperation and
integration among the following institutions:
- Ministry of Education
- Higher education institutions that include Kuwait University, private universities, the
Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (the setting for this study)
- Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences
- Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research

4- The economic aspect and labour market: the successful application of the e-learning
system via the model suggested and its different aspects shall contribute positively
towards solving the problem of coping between education outcomes and labour market in
the state of Kuwait, and this is through concentrating on the capabilities and skills of
students via the philosophy of e-learning and vision of the Ministry of Education in
building a generation of innovation and self-learning. The issue of coping between needs
of society and outcomes of education may become annoying for decision makers in the
state of Kuwait when noting the huge number of university graduates annually with no
labour market capable of encompassing them, due to the unavailable abilities and skills
required by the labour market for graduates.

2.6.4 Description of operational framework for projects of e-learning in the state of

Kuwait

This framework includes the following projects (from website of the Ministry of
Education):

1. Infrastructure project
This phase of the project aims to provide, prepare and equip a developed data centre
containing all equipments with high specifications, with the ability to accommodate the
biggest number of PCs and e-mail, e-library, electronic content, whether for students or
teachers, and so the project aims to update and develop the electronic infrastructure at
schools of the Ministry of Education, in addition to projects connecting all schools using
a fast and unified optical fibre network.

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 The Ministry of Education says that the first phase of this project was launched at the end
of 2009 and it includes building a developed data centre. It was finalised at the beginning
of 2011, and the Ministry of Education refers to this phase which owns the best and
fastest data centre in the territory, as certified by Microsoft, Intel, and Dell.

This component of the project aims to provide a central data centre coping with
international standards, the object of which is to prepare the proper environment to deal
with services of e-learning so as to be able to manage networks of schools and
educational areas at the Ministry of Education in an effective, secure and dependable
way, featuring easy use and maintenance. And so the main data centre shall be the main
hub accommodating the educational Kuwait gate through which curricula shall be
accessed (electronic content). This data centre is considered one of the main pillars of the
infrastructure, which works around the clock, and secures – via the educational Kuwait
gate– the e-learning service for school students, teachers, administrators, and parents of
students at any place and any time, and this provides for the first time in the state of
Kuwait the service of communication in an easy and fast way among all components of
society.

2. Project of Educational Kuwait Gate

This project aims to provide an e-environment of education which shall serve
students, teachers, administrative staff, parents, by establishing the educational Kuwait
gate which is a kind of portal providing the following services:
 Provide the educational environment: via settings of e-lessons for the curriculum
which were developed via the project of e-content. Additionally, this environment
provides communication and contact tools among teachers and students, where
teachers manage to set up subjects on the gate and then follow up the performance
and efficiency of students via the educational administration system.
 Provide administrative services for administration staff: with the help of student
record and enrolment system, allowing the administrative staff and parents to enable
admission of students inside the school, as well as easy access of parents to any piece
of information, especially for his children and with no need to go to school, this

33
 happens via text messages or using email, and so providing the chance for the
administrative and educational authority to notify the parents in case of absence or
any problem that needs notification of the parents in addition to notifying them in
case of any awareness forum or clarifying dates of exams, distributing certificates,
etc.
 Provide educational services: providing enriching materials and tools of e-
communication for the student and the teacher by using email of the ministry and
other tools of communications to enable the students to correspond with their teachers
and to enquire about any references of the curriculum or to send their homework to
them.

3. Project of interactive electronic content

The electronic content is considered one of the most important components of the e-
learning system, where interactive materials are provided digitally via the educational
Kuwait gate to be accessed at any time and at any place.

Electronic content is part(s) of the curriculum to be designed in multiple forms such as

voice, image and interactive elements in terms of educational units or the so-called
Learning Object.

Availability of digital content with their different forms is necessary for the completion
of the e-learning cycle where the curriculum is presented via the learning management
system, and the student can learn and interact with the content to achieve maximum
interest, helping him towards excellence and self-learning. And so the teacher can follow
performance of students via reports and tools provided by the learning administration
system and educational gates.

Standards of electronic content development at Ministry of Education

The electronic digital content shall be designed and developed ensuring high quality according to
international standards and enabling the ministry towards participation in building the national
cognitive stock of Kuwait. The following is a fast synopsis of the standards followed by the
Ministry of Education in the state of Kuwait for developing electronic content:

34
 1) International standards for designing electronic content:
This standard ensures that electronic content shall cope with the latest release of
international standards and SCORM standards.

2) Instructional design
The instructional design shall be the main access point in developing interactive
electronic content. And it is defined as a group of organised methodological procedures
on the basis of which scientific knowledge shall be applied in different fields of learning.
The instruction designer plays the main role during development of electronic content to
define terms of specifications required for the educational system with its inclusion in
terms of scientific resources, lessons and curricula. The approach adopted in the
instructional design, based on “fixable design”, avoids the “linear design” including the
maximum flexibility of learning and building student abilities and skills. And so, all
effective factors in the educational process are taken into consideration, in a way that
develops critical scientific thinking among students.

The importance of instructional design arises from it being the main factor in defining the
effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the educational process using different methods of
teaching and education. And so, a defined and clear track is set to develop electronic
curriculum, allowing for more effectiveness in the instructional design. The instructional
design for e-curricula of the Ministry of Education adopts an international model ADDIE,
consisting of five main phases: (1) analysis, (2) design, (3) development, (4)
implementation, and (5) evaluation.

It is worth mentioning here that I have used this model (ADDIE) in designing the course content
of the General Teaching Method Course (304) in the current study. I will discuss the ADDIE
instructional design model and how I have used it in the third and fourth chapters.

3) Development of electronic content using educational elements

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 The comprehensive learning object is a comprehensive instructional unit showing a
comprehensive concept and carrying a pedagogical objective that is measurable, and the
unit consists of the following:
 Pedagogical object(s) related to the learning object.
 Concepts it demonstrates and presents as learning object, presenting them using
multimedia or interactivity.
 Activities and training related to the pedagogical objective of the learning object.
 Evaluating student level of achievement in terms of concepts presented by the
learning object.

4) Standard specifications for project to develop e-content

As mentioned, electronic content is one of the most important elements of e-learning
where the interactive scientific materials are provided with full demonstration via the
internet, and where they are accessed at any time and from any place, and the electronic
content shall be designed according to international standards so as to enable its usage via
any environmental standard.

4. Project of smart classrooms

Smart classrooms provide many features that contribute to providing a unique
educational environment such as:
 Provide better educational utilities and more advanced teaching methods.
 Develop the skills and thoughts of students via searching information and recalling
thereof using communication and information technology and the internet at any field
or educational material.
 Ability to present new activities and studies, and this applies to all educational levels
which represent an enriching resource for educational installation.
 Develop performance and skills of teachers with methods of demonstration to make
lessons more effective and more interesting while at the same time accommodating
the understanding and innovation capabilities of students.

Most important technological tools for smart classrooms

 Interactive board

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  Data-show
 Classroom control centre
 Computers serving students inside/outside classrooms
 Classroom managements systems

5. Project of providing laptops for every teacher and student

Teachers, students and the supervisory authority are considered the main pillars for
leveraging the educational process, and so attention must be drawn to the development of
their capabilities and skills at the e-learning environment by providing the best technical
help and e-utilities to prepare educational lessons that can bring forth the objective
information and basic idea of the material and curriculum, and to achieve this we can see
that provision of laptops for the class is an important issue as it gives the chance to
instructors to prepare lessons and educational materials in a better way and make it easy
to access information by students. This project signals the climax of maturity at the
environment of e-learning in presenting a model of interactive learning that enables the
teacher to present lessons with high efficiency and with the help of learning
administration system, and a class management system that can easily follow up on the
student’s performance.

6. Project of E-services
 E-library
The philosophy of this project is focused on building and developing e-libraries and
working on cooperation with major e-libraries, and so Arab and international
resources of information shall be integrated with Kuwait gate of education, and the
learner shall be able to search for information in electronic books and references. And
so, this project aims to encourage teachers and researchers towards innovation and
production of knowledge information and increased rates of research and
development.

 Administrative systems and their integration with the educational Kuwait gate
All the administrative systems must integrate with educational Kuwait gate for easy
performance with a unified access to systems so as to support the educational process.

37
 In addition to this, they must integrate with the gate of education or any other gate of
the administration, whether developed inside the ministry or from other government
authorities, and this leads to promoting the role of total educational administration,
and supervision at all corners of the educational project for full effectiveness.

7. Project of training and preparing the educational staff and professional

rehabilitation
The project of training in the system of e-learning aims to provide teachers with all the
tools that make him the navigator and main leader of the process of education at the age
of e-learning and move away from the process of dictation. A precise program is
prepared to train teachers with components of the electronic e-education system and how
to use their tools and programs and navigation element effectively in the electronic
system. And so, this means making use of the initiative of strategic partners of the
Ministry of Education, i.e. Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco.

This project includes training of all classes of personnel, from educational and
supervisory staff, and other staff such as administrators, technicians and supervisors; this
is to raise the efficiency of performance and promoting the level of education and
administration that can cope with technological advancement.

The professional training plan includes a number of aspects, the most important of which
is training on different electronic learning systems, starting from interactive board,
classroom management systems, and ending with educational gate and electronic
curricula and computers.

8. Project of edification, culturization and media

This project aims to plan and execute a comprehensive campaign using printed and visual
media, and so road ads and activities of public relations are used to establish awareness
with targeted audience of education development and projects of electronic learning,
thereby implanting its culture in the society. And so it aims to spread awareness among
Kuwaiti society on the importance of integrating e-learning and the use of information
and communication technology in the educational process. This is done via a national

38
campaign directed at management and school administration, teachers, students, parents
and society.

Project of (My Bag is in My Pocket) “flash memory”

The project of flash memory is the first to be applied and released by the Ministry of
Education in the form of saving the content of curricula on a flash memory like e-books,
where softcopies are provided of all textbooks with features of navigation and writing
notes, using indexes and printing and moving among books and pages, etc. This flash
memory is distributed among all students of public classes, religious education, and adult
education by the Ministry of Education, to accompany students both at home and school.
This represents an easy alternative for hardcopies where students can navigate on
computer at home or anywhere. Distribution of such flash memories among students
started at the beginning of 2012:

Figure (1): Project of My Bag is in My Pocket

39
 According to what was provided by the assistant secretary for educational research and
curricula at the Ministry of Education, Mariam Al-Watid, the main objective of this
project is to alleviate the use of school bag among students via loading textbooks onto
these flash memories, where 906 textbooks were loaded, i.e. 400 books in public
education, 232 books in religious education, and 274 books in literacy and adult
education.

Figure (2): Content of e-book (project of flash memory)

After years of debate, and so many statements from officials at the Ministry of Education, the
first step of e-learning in Kuwait has been confined to the use of flash memory in 2012, which is
disregarded by students due to its uselessness, since schools are not qualified to use it due to lack

40
of required access and computers or the lack of internet at many classes in Kuwait schools. And
so, the ministry did not fulfill its plan of distributing laptops to students which it once declared
and promised, nor did it prepare itself properly before starting to distribute flash memory to all
students. The e-learning project in Kuwait is now 8 years old since the idea first emerged in
2004, only one of which is the project of flash memory.

The Ministry of Education claims that the project of flash memory was useful for some students,
i.e. students of public education, religious education, and adult education with a total of 34
classes at these departments, distributed as 14 classes in public education, 8 in religious
education, and 12 in literacy education for the three educational levels. As such, flash memory
helped in alleviating the use of school bag by students.

But the Al-Anbaa newspaper (2012) referred to reports issued over the 6 educational areas in the
state of Kuwait, describing the negative aspects of the project of flash memory as follows:
- This project was not provided as a try-out in some schools before circulation so as to
gauge its positive and negative sides before implementation.
- There was no comprehensive awareness campaign on the objectives of the project and
to make it clear to school principals and teachers, parents and students of the Ministry
of Education’s plan to start distributing flash memory among students directly.
- No guides were distributed with flash memories to denote their importance or how to
operate and use them (importance of awareness campaigns preceding execution of
any project – this was totally lacking).
- Flash memories were not distributed to teachers.
- Some flashes distributed were empty and cannot be used, and some of which were
damaged and the school did not get any proper replacement.
- The textbooks on the school flash memory were read only, and the student could not
note down, define or summarise anything on the pages that he wants, despite the
availability of separate pages for making notes, and there are also no means of
communication or discussion boards between student and teacher.
- Some pages and images in the flash memories distributed are upside-down, and so
some fonts are not recognised by the students’ PCs.

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 - The objective of this project was to alleviate the use of school bags by students, but
things have remained the same (nothing’s changed).
- Many students do not have PCs in their homes and this affects the use of the flash
memory.
- School cabinets in which students should leave their books are not suitable and most
of which are damaged.
- Many key subjects cannot do without textbooks at home to solve exercises and
applications such as Arabic, English, and Mathematics.

After the emergence of such issues and such negative reports on the project of flash memory, the
Ministry of Education, as reported by Al-Watan newspaper (2012), lately withdrew the project
temporarily due to the negative issues that emerged, and the current Minister of Education, Dr.
Naif Al-Hajraf, has formed a committee to study the feasibility and continuity of the flash
memory project in its current condition. And Al-Watan newspaper (2012) speculated that the
flash memory project shall for sure be cancelled or changed radically and this shall be declared
after the committee finishes its work, as ordered by the Minister of Education, and finalizes its
revision and recommendation for this project.

Conclusion
As we have noted in this chapter, Kuwait endures real problems in its education system, most
eminent of which are the issues of curricula, the problems of teachers, and the absence of a clear
vision from the central administration at the Ministry of Education, in addition to weak
administration at the school level.

This may interpret or explain the current confusion as to one of the projects of e-learning in the
state of Kuwait (flash memory). This project was applied in public education, with huge budget
allocated to it, but at the end this project failed. And it did not appear as a flexible and interactive
e-course, it was a traditional curriculum with electronic media, and many problems and negative
aspects were hastily presented and distributed among students with no try-out by the Ministry of
Education to test its viability.

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Some experts and educators, even some specialised technicians at Kuwait University, as reported
by Al-Qabas newspaper (2012), saw that the application of an ambitious e-learning strategy is
overwhelmed with many issues and hardships, the first of which is that the Ministry of Education
did not provide a comprehensive and free board to apply this electronic system, and the current
committee formed by the Ministry of Education to manage the projects of e-learning lacks
specialisation and features to achieve the aspired results from this electronic system in case of
applying it. Al-Watan newspaper (2012) reported some educational sources as saying that the
Minister of Education, Dr. Naif Al-Hajraf, requested a reconsideration of the strategy of e-
learning and further work on improving it such as adding some specialised experts in the field of
e-learning to work with the committee to prepare a strategic plan of e-learning for the state of
Kuwait. It was a good move from the Minister of Education, as he waited, reconsidered and
added specialised experts in the field of e-learning to work with the committee formed to manage
the project of e-learning, allowing for more studies and updates, and ensuring that previous
mistakes do not occur again, as in the flash memory project.

Sometime ago, Kuwaiti society listened and watched officials from the Ministry of Education
and higher education about the project and strategy of e-learning in the state of Kuwait. It was
thought to be a qualitative move to develop the process of learning and education in Kuwait, but
till now no real executive steps have been taken except the first step which is the project of
infrastructure completed in 2011. And according to what is provided by officials in the ministry,
other projects are in progress, but upon questions from journalists to officials in the ministry
about the schedule and expected finish-date, no clear answer was given to this question. Still, the
Kuwaiti people still await this project and hope that this huge project for the state of Kuwait
meets expectation and achieves its aspired goal.

This researcher, as one of the keen followers and concerned people with this subject, sees the
necessity of having a certain organisational structure, for example, a national centre to manage
the project of e-learning in the state of Kuwait. Such a centre shall be a permanent, independent
and free centre for management of e-learning projects, encompassing specialised educationalists
in the field of e-learning, thus moving away from the current situation where management of this
huge project is taken over by a committee branched and formed by the Ministry of Education.
This transformation from the traditional system to a new electronic system needs huge efforts

43
and team work in order to conduct studies and set strategies proper for preparing the current
educational system towards moving to the a electronic educational system due to issues being
endured by the current educational system in the state of Kuwait. We heard a lot about this
project via statements of Ministry of Education officials in the media, but we also need to initiate
a culturization process in Kuwaiti society about this project, and to actually start training
teachers and students in that regard. There must be a specialised centre with certain regulations
and systems to manage a project of such magnitude, and not a committee formed of a group of
individuals appointed from within the Ministry of Education. They managed to set a strategy for
the system of e-learning with no definite time nor clear mechanisms of execution except for a
mere theoretical frame, as clarified in this chapter.

On the level of Kuwait University, attempts have been made to make use of e-learning due to
efforts of some new academic staff members who did their post graduate studies in advanced
countries such as the UK and USA. Having acquired new methods of teaching from such
countries and realising their importance for use in the process of learning and education, they
have started to apply what they learnt and use these modern methods of blended learning in their
courses.

As to the College of Basic Education (setting of current study), as far as the researcher is aware,
methods of e-learning have not been used in teaching, and what is currently used in teaching still
follows the old traditional system. The current study is considered to be the first of its kind, at
least in trying to apply blended learning methods and e-learning, and teaching students for a full
term using VLE and PLE to verify the effect of using such new methods of teaching (new at least
to the Kuwaiti environment) on academic achievement and students’ level of satisfaction. And
this precisely is what gives this study its importance. This is especially so when educationalists
in Kuwait, in suggesting solutions to the education crisis in the country, all recommended the use
e-learning and blended learning in education and teaching. Furthermore, the current projects
from the Ministry of Education in the state of Kuwait seem to be moving more and more towards
the application of e-learning and blended learning and trying to integrate it into the process of
instruction and learning.

44
It is important to analyse the Kuwaiti educational system so as to highlight the context of why I
am doing this study. In that regard, the traditional system is not particularly helpful and so what I
am trying to do is to bring in a new approach (blended learning) to the Kuwaiti educational
environment. So, to achieve the aim of the study (identify the effect using blended learning on
female student-teachers) and be able to address the research questions as well as testing the study
hypotheses, it was necessary to deal with and discuss the issues that confront the current
education system, especially the fact that the female student-teachers in this study have all
graduated from public schools under the current education system in Kuwait. It means that those
female students have been influenced by the current education system, which seems to have
focused more on indoctrination, receiving and saving information, passive role for students, not
allowing much discussion and not letting students enjoy the freedom of critical thinking. It was
also necessary to discuss technology in terms of Kuwait including the social uses of technology
(as in this chapter) in order to underline that the main reason for technology and Internet use in
the State of Kuwait is to participate in online social activities via social networking sites, and that
there is a clear trend in Kuwait in favour of the use of social networking tools. We also wanted to
show that the majority of young men and women in Kuwait are using social networking tools for
the purposes of social and entertainment activities such as watching videos, sharing photos and
chatting with friends, and not necessarily for furthering their education.

45
Chapter 3: Review of Related Literature
This chapter will examine the Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and Personal
Learning Environments (PLEs) in terms of their underlying concepts, advantages and examples.
Afterwards, I will focus on blended learning in terms of its fundamental concepts, why it is
important, proofs of its success and efficiency, methods of designing blended learning including
the ADDIE instructional design model, constructivism and behaviorism learning theories, and
how these two learning theories are related to blended learning and instructional design. The role
of the teacher and student in both Behaviorism and Constructivism will also be looked at.
Finally, I will focus on the educational activities, interaction and motivation in blended learning.

3.1Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs)

Using Virtual Learning Environments in distance learning through the Internet is
considered the most important means for presenting lessons and lectures on the internet. Several
international institutions, which specialised in learning technologies, developed these Virtual
Learning Environments in which the main elements needed by both the learner and the teacher
are available. Therefore, many universities and educational institutes use these Virtual Learning
Environments as the most important and active method for applying distance learning
programmes.

3.1.1 The Concept of Virtual Learning Environment

Georgouli (2011) mentioned that VLE is a software system that facilitates the processes of e-
learning for group or individual learning. Such processes basically happen on the Internet and
provide many management functions such as uploading, downloading, monitoring and
evaluating of the students’ learning progress and management of educational material, etc.

On the other hand, Kuit and Fell (2010) defined VLE as a collection of integrated
learning support tools which typically comes as a single, commercially available product such as
Blackboard or else available as an open source, e.g. Moodle.

46
 According to the definition of ‘WhatIs? Technology’ encyclopaedia, virtual learning
environment is considered a set of learning and teaching tools designed to improve the le vel
and expertise of learning regarding students through the use of a computer and the internet
in the education process (http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci866691,00.html)

Also according to the Wikipedia website, a virtual learning environment (VLE) is a

system that creates an environment designed to facilitate teachers in the management of
educational courses for their students, especially a system using computer hardware and
software, which involves distance learning. In North America, a virtual learning environment is
often referred to as a "Learning Management System" (LMS)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_virtual_learning_environments).

To sum up the definitions provided above, virtual learning environment is an advanced

technological system which allows students to have distance learning through the web. This
system enables the teacher to formulate a new learning environment through the designing of
electronic curricula and finding ways for direct and indirect communication between the teacher,
the student and the curriculum through the advanced tools that are made available in the system,
and designed for the teaching and learning processes.

3.1.2 Advantages of Virtual leaning environments

Some of the virtual learning environment’s advantages were outlined in the site of Leeds
Metropolitan University and those of the UK Centre for Legal Education and the Higher
Education Academy as well (Al-Qahtani, 2011; Basyoni, 2006). Some of these advantages may
be outlined as follows:
- Learning process and feedback could be done anytime and anywhere through the
virtual learning environment.

- Less cost and preparation: virtual learning environments do not need study
rooms, university or school spaces nor transportation and expensive school tools.

47
 - The possibility to serve a great number of students in different geographical
locations and at different times without limitations regarding their ages.

- Good technology, high speed for treatment and follow–up, interaction and
continuous response available through virtual learning environments and
reducing burdens of teacher and educational administration as it does not need a
follow–up for attendance, absence or recording grades, as all this is done
electronically.

- The great amount of cognitive basis designed for virtual rooms including
libraries, encyclopaedias and research centres on the web.

- The possibility to open a new axis in discussion sections available in virtual

learning environments which encourages the student to participate without fear
or shyness.

- It does not need advanced technological skills whether on the part of the teacher
or the learner or even the educational administration. They are simple and easy to
deal with especially when it comes to using the available tools in these virtual
learning environments.

- Unburdening the teacher of the heavy burdens related to revision, correction,

recording grades and organising. It grants him the opportunity to devote himself
to his direct educational tasks, improving performance, raising his standard,
dealing with new technologies, and acquiring knowledge, skills and expertise.

3.1.3 Examples of virtual learning environments

There are several ready-made programmes on the web for virtual learning environments.
These programmes may be found to a great deal in most academic sites on the web. Al-Mubarak
(2004) and Al-Qahtani (2011) mentioned some of them as in the following:

 Caroline

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 Caroline is considered an open source programme, i.e. it is not limited to one
body or particular company in terms of ownership, development, modification or usage.
New copies of the programme can be obtained via the company’s site on the web and this
copy can be tested on the website.
The Caroline programme provides tools for the teacher and the learner on the web. The
teacher can perform the following tasks through this program:

- Establishing a new class or curriculum and whether it is a general curriculum

from which all the site visitors can benefit or private curricula only for students
registered in this curriculum
- Setting exercises and activities in the curriculum
- Putting documents and files (texts, videos, flashes, sound, etc.)
- Discussion and dialogue domains in addition to the possibility of establishing
student groups to dialogue among themselves
- Putting up announcements for students and schedules for teacher activities
- Putting up important sites which students are advised to visit

The student enters the teacher’s site through this program and chooses the curricula
where he is registered. Consequently, the student can answer the exercises, interact with
activities, send assignments to the teacher, view schedules, announcements and files put up by
the teacher and enter into discussion domains whether synchronous (chat) or asynchronous
(discussion

 Second Life (http://secondlife.com)

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world created by its residents. Since opening to the
public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of residents
from around the globe. This virtual world has many uses including but not limited to
educational learning experience.

 Sloodle (http://www.sloodle.org)

49
 Sloodle is an open source project which aims to develop and share useful, usable,
and desirable tools for supporting education in virtual worlds, making teaching easier.
Through engagement with an active community of developers and users, the Sloodle
project hopes to develop sound pedagogies for teaching across web-based and 3D
virtual learning environments. Sloodle is a free and open source project which
integrates the multi-user virtual environments of Second Life and the Moodle
learning management system.

 Blackboard www.blackboard.com
 This is one of the most popular systems used by universities and educational
institutions worldwide as a virtual learning environment. And in this study, the
researcher has also used Blackboard for the first experimental group in his teaching of
the course ‘General Teaching Method Course (304)’.

This system enables the teacher to prepare and publish the curriculum with the
possibility of using multimedia, whether images, drawings and video in addition to a
PowerPoint presentation. It also enables the teacher to put up useful links for students
regarding research and studies available on the web as well as preparing tasks and
assignments for students using all kinds of questions whether via objective tests or
articles in addition to the feedback feature and immediate answers to students.

The teacher can also realise accurate statistics about the levels of each
student’s attainment in every test. It also provides him/herself with good potentialities
to communicate with parents through e-mail messages.

The teacher can make use of the following advantages of the Blackboard:

- Preparing and designing the curriculum electronically and wholly which includes
texts, images, videos and sound
- Blackboard can be used to support and supplement face-to-face learning or to
develop fully interactive classrooms where one may be involved in online
discussions and group presentations

50
 - Assessing students through preparing different models of articles and objective
tests in addition to tasks and assignments.
- Benefiting from the self-assessment questions tool available in the program
which relays immediate feedback to the student when participating in answering
questions in this tool.
- Communication between the student, the rest of his/her colleagues and the
curricula teacher through available communication tools (discussion, e-mail and
chat).
- Facilitating learning electronically through active means for search, inquiry and
recovery of data from curricula content, word dictionary, their meanings and the
image library which the program provides for every curriculum.
- Granting powers for participation to student users and designers in the one
curriculum.
- Recording students’ grades and assessing their skills in learning and
communicating with the curriculum electronically.
- Obtaining graphic indications explaining the amount of student participation and
their use of the program tools.

 Moodle (www.moodle.com)

The Moodle system is one of the open source virtual learning environments
and is completely free to use. It is a course management system designed to help
educators who want to create quality online courses. The software is used all over the
world by universities, schools, companies and independent teachers. Through this
program, any staff member interested in this field can download the program from the
company’s site and then easily design and establish a site related to the curriculum
that he will teach.

This system provides the teacher with the possibility to offer the following
activities to his students:
- Reference activities: these include books and references which the teacher can
give to his students in the form of Word or PDF files for the students to

51
 download or through hyperlinks in some useful sites available on the web and
related to the curriculum.
- Applied activities: these require the student to provide his teacher with an essay
whether directly written or in the form of a file. The teacher will comment on this
activity and send the feedback to the student and grant him the grade he deserves.
- Exercises and assignment: these include multiple choices, true or false, or short
answer questions. After the student finishes the exercise, he is given the grade he
deserves. There are several choices for the teacher in putting up the exercise; he
may ask the student to answer the exercise once or several times and can also
determine the exercise period, etc.
- Surveys: the teacher can do surveys in each and every part of the curriculum on
his students and obtain the results once they are voted for.
- Opinions on participation: this is done through discussion, chat and dialogue
domains.
- Reports and statistics: the program provides the teacher with a complete report
completed with accurate statistics about students’ visits to the site and the grades
they obtained as well as the activities they submitted.

It is worth mentioning that there has been a study conducted by Humboldt State
University making a comparison regarding the students’ level of satisfaction with the two
systems: open source (Moodle) and closed source (Blackboard). They found that the (Moodle)
system surpassed the Blackboard when it comes to the level of student satisfaction with the
systems are compared.

The study showed that some of the most important points by which the Moodle system is
distinguished from the other are the simplicity and easiness in using tools in addition to the
method of providing immediate feedback, students’ follow–up and class activities. This
emphasizes the higher level which the system has reached, the amount of supporting tools, easy
to use and the rapid update compatible with e-learning developments even if it is an open source
system.

In this study, I used Blackboard with my student teachers (in the first experimental group) who
followed the General Teaching Method Course (304). The reason for using Blackboard rather
52
than other VLEs is related to the former’s advantages mentioned above in the Blackboard
section, besides the fact it is already available in Kuwait in one other educational institution
(Kuwait University). And so, there was cooperation with the e-learning centre at Kuwait
University for developing a space for the course (304) on the Blackboard. In addition, the
College where I carried out my research (College of Basic Education) is planning to buy a VLE,
of which one of the most prominent choices is Blackboard. In fact, I did not for a moment
hesitate to choose Blackboard, because in addition to the reasons already mentioned, this is also
a very good opportunity to see the impact of using it with the students of the College of Basic
Education, which is in the process of selecting a VLE in order to buy.

3.2Personal Learning Environments (PLEs)

With the evolution of the Internet and the availability of Internet access through high-speed
digital subscribers (DSL), there has been a proliferation of the so-called Web 2.0, regarded as the
second generation of web technology which includes, for example, blogs, social network sites,
podcasts, wikis and access to the internet via a broadband connection. Web 2.0 refers not simply
to the technology itself but the way in which it is applied and exploited (Kuit and Fell, 2010).
The concept of e-learning has changed and its methods of presentation and interaction now
include more interactive and specialised aspects.

A personal learning environment (PLE) is considered one of the newest approaches that use
technologies for teaching and learning in online environments with respect to higher education. It
is based on a learner-centred view of learning, and is different from the Virtual Learning
Environments. PLEs can be used in formal and informal learning environments.

3.2.1 What are personal learning environments?

The first reference to the term personal learning environments was in 2001 by Oliver and
Webber (2001) who introduced it in a paper during a specialised conference. Thereafter, a
number of researchers in the field of educational technologies sought to codify this concept in
order to get a clearer vision of it.

53
 There is no specific definition of personal learning environments. Downes (2006) has defined
personal learning environments as a tool that enables the learner (or anyone) to engage in a
distributed environment consisting of a network of persons, services and resources. Moreover,
FitzGerald (2006) defined it as ”a collection of free, distributed, web-based tools, usually centred
around a blog, linked together and aggregating content using RSS feeds and simple HTML
scripts". Also, Van Harmelen (2008) has defined the personal learning environment as a system
that helps learners take control of and manage their own learning.

Wilson et al., (2006) put together a plan of internal components of the personal learning
environment, which he called the future virtual learning environment (VLE of the future).

Figure (3): VLE of the future

http://zope.cetis.ac.uk/members/scott/blogview?entry=20050125170206

Figure 1 shows that the personal learning environment is a compilation of a set of miscellaneous
services and features to serve different contexts by one or more educational resources, and
personal learning environments have to regulate approval between these services to get the
required benefits. This means that the personal learning environment is not a programme that can

54
be installed, but it is a concept for blending a set of miscellaneous services that could be
organised, arranged, added and adjusted according to the wishes and needs of the learner.

The personal learning environment aims to help people monitor and manage their own
learning processes, and to offer support for them by (Van Harmelen, 2008):
- Identifying their own learning objectives
- Managing the learning process, of content and process alike.
- Communicating with others in the learning process and thereby achieving the learning
objectives.

Also, these environments will help the learner with the production and consumption of
educational resources when needed. In this way, it will ensure that each learner will get the most
appropriate content for him/her. We also find that the personal learning environment encourages
learners to participate and exchange content instead of keeping it, which is what a learner does in
a virtual learning environment.

3.2.1 How can one create a personal learning environment?

Anyone can create his/her own learning environment in several ways (either using
specialised sites on the web or using special software). One of these is for the person to open
his/her blog and then participate in the various aspects of the sites and services which interest
him/herself and offer those in his/her blog. Moreover, the person can use homepages such as
Google and then utilise the dispersed channels in the homepage to bring in the appropriate
educational information sources.

And, of course, creating a personal learning environment is not easy, because the learner
needs to be fully aware of his/her educational needs so that it can be dealt with from other
helpful resources. Besides, the personal learning environment may take other forms in terms of
its presentation and work.

3.2.2 What are the necessary tools for creating personal learning environments?

These tools can be divided into four categories (Van Harmelen, 2008; Al-Khalifa, 2008):
55
 - Tools to assist in the formation of educational content: such as social networking sites
for example Facebook, sites for pictures, video sites, blogs, wikis, and others.
- Tools to help in social communication and connection: services that help people
connect with each other to exchange experiences and information. Examples of these
sites are Facebook, Twitter and My Space.
- Tools to assist in the effectiveness of previous tools: such as the use of site summaries
and tags for the description of different sources.

The reasons for the current trend in the use of more personal learning environments in
education are the increased need for lifelong learning, to increase access to information and
people, to create more opportunities for work, and the desire to communicate with other people
for work and learning using more effective e-learning methods that are under the control of the
learner (Al-Khalifa, 2008).

3.2.3 Using Facebook in Education as a Personal Learning Environment:

Facebook is a social network site launched on February 4, 2004. It allows users to create
their own profile, make friends, find former friends, and help them exchange information,
messages, personal photos, videos, and comments on specific subjects. It also allows users to
join several sub-networks from the same site in a certain category, such as a specific geographic
area, a particular school or specific university and other places that help the user discover more
and more people who are in the same category of network. These networks allow users to
connect to members who are in the same network, and users can add friends to their pages and
allow them to see their personal pages and information.

Facebook is one of several social networks which have received an overwhelming response
from people everywhere. Once you are registered, Facebook asks if you want to add friends and
family members to your page, and then you can communicate with friends via messaging, live
chat, and posting photos and last updates on your wall on Facebook. When Facebook first
emerged, the goal of its founder - Mark Zuckerberg - was to design a site that can link up his
colleagues at Harvard University, and allow them to exchange news, photos and opinions. With
today's generation, sometimes called by some people the "Facebook generation", we note that

56
most college students communicate through Facebook. This one writes comments, while another
uploads photo, and others create a page of the revolution, etc.

Nevertheless, Facebook cannot be considered as a mere tool or site to make new friends,
communicate with friends or find out about what is going on in the world. It is also a tool that
can be used in education, for it is possible for teachers to use Facebook in teaching, particularly
in higher education, in order to improve communication and to integrate students in interactive
activities that are different from traditional teaching methods, and it can be complementary to
classroom activities.

Virtual learning environments (VLE) such as Blackboard and Moodle are appropriate ways
to manage and practice e-learning in an orderly way. However, students of the second generation
who use blogs and social network sites as a way to share information and communicate with
others may find that these VLEs will not give them sufficient flexibility in controlling how they
learn. From there, the idea of using Facebook as an alternative for VLE came about, as well as
using Facebook as a Personal Learning Environment (PLE), because it gives the student more
powers than s/he would have had with the VLE, for in the VLE, the teacher is the person who
manages and is in control of the learning environment, but in Facebook the student can manage
and take control in addition to the teacher within the learning environment.

There are a lot of ideas that could benefit the university teacher from various disciplines in
the use of Facebook, especially as a tool in teaching to increase the effectiveness of the
educational process. Rego (2009) mentioned some of these ideas which include:
(https://www.facebook.com/education)
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/16957158/Teachers-Guide-to-Using-Facebook-Read-Fullscreen)
(http://emag.mans.edu.eg/index.php?page=news&task=show&id=321)

- Create a group for a specific course or module, and then invite the students who are
already registered in this course or module to join the group to facilitate communication
and exchange of information and to benefit from the articles and useful links which will
be posted by the teacher or other students, and to participate in the discussion over related
topics of the course. This is a great idea to create a central location for communication
between all the students and the instructor of the course.
57
- Publish photos and appropriate educational video clips related to the content of the
course, exchange them between students, and comment and/or discuss them.
- Make friendships and relationships with interested specialists in the topics and subjects of
the course from all over the world, and exchange information and experiences with them.
- Use Facebook as a way to continue the relationship between graduated students to
encourage continued learning in the same area of study.
- Use it as a means to invite students and others for various educational events.
- From the beginning of the course until the end, the teacher can schedule events for the
entire class using Facebook.
- Sending messages between the teacher and the students and students with the other
students is very easy through Facebook.
- The teacher can post notes after each lesson for the students of the course, and students
can then access them for review.
- Provide direct and live online communication between the students and instructors, and
between the students and other students in the same course.
- Allow shy students who may not want to communicate with their teacher face-to-face
after the class or during office hours to use Facebook to communicate with the teacher
more comfortably.
- Using Facebook can facilitate classmate connections, where students get to know each
other more intimately, and become more involved in the learning experience.
- The teacher can make and send announcements to remind students of the course about
test time, due dates of assignment, classroom news, any change in the location of the
lecture or anything else related to the course.
- Students and instructors can post and share interesting websites related to the content of
the course.
- Most students are already users of Facebook and are comfortable with it, and this will
help them engage in the class and provide a comfortable way for students to participate in
it.
- Students can follow news feeds relevant to the content of the course in order to keep
current information flowing through the class.

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 Facebook contributes to e-learning through its multiple applications (Apps) for both
students and teachers which contribute to the enrichment of the educational process, such as:

- Flash Card app: The teacher can add educational activities through this app.
- Book Reviews app: Students can post and share their book reviews for the instructor and
other students using the book reviews app.
- Links app: Students and the instructor of the course can post links to interesting things
found on the Internet that are related to the content of the course.
- Slide Share app: Instructors and students can use this app to create their own slide
presentations as part of the class.
- JSTOR Search app: this is a great way for students to find articles that are related to the
course content through the use of this JSTOR app.
- Poll app: The instructor can use this Poll app as an interactive tool in the class or to
conduct surveys to get students’ opinions.
- Quiz Creator app: Use this app to create quizzes, tests and assessments for students.

3.3Blended Learning
Today, higher educational institutions face several demands imposed by successful scientific
and technological developments. They also need to face up to the increasing demand for higher
education to upgrade its efficiency, effectiveness and quality in order to comply with the
requirements of the era, as well as meeting the needs of the labour market through the
development of human resources.

In order to achieve and meet these demands and needs, it was necessary to bring about
radical changes in the system of higher education. This is because the style of teaching is still
very traditional inside the classroom, but it also needs to employ the recent developments in
communications and information technology. Such developments are characterised by flexibility,
efficiency and effectiveness, and ensure that the course materials and curricula will reach
university students at any time and in any place. At the same time, the pattern is able to give
students the capacity and the skills as well as the necessary knowledge for success in their social
life and career in this era of on-going revolutions in knowledge, technology and communication.

59
Therefore, many institutions of higher education in the different parts of the world have resorted
to the use of blended learning based on a merger between the traditional or face-to-face learning
and e-learning. Many studies have substantiated the effectiveness of developing the educational
capacity and skills of both students and teachers. Examples of these studies will be provided in
3.3.2 section. So, what is blended learning and what are its significance and benefits? Are there
any evidence for its effectiveness and success?

3.3.1 The concept of blended learning

Blended learning is something of a new subject these days, but just like the term ‘e-
learning’, everybody has a different understanding of what it means (Macdonald, 2008).

There are many definitions for blended learning and some of them will be dealt with.
Before doing so, it should be noted that there are other names being used for blended learning
such as hybrid learning, integrated learning, multi-method learning, or mixed method learning
(Node, 2001).

Littlejohn and Pegler (2007) define blended learning as a combination of traditional

teaching method and e-learning element with a single course or programme. Further, Colis and
Moonen (2001) defined blended learning as the blending of on-line learning and face-to-face
learning, where teaching and learning are carried out both online and in the classroom.

Selix (2001) defined blended learning as the blending of synchronous and asynchronous
communication between the teacher and the student. And there are those who expanded this
definition such as Osguthorpe and Graham (2003) who defined blended learning as a
combination or mixing between the ways of communication via the Internet and the meeting of
teachers and learners via face-to-face session.

In defining blended learning, Driscoll (2002) identifies four different concepts:

60
- To combine or mix modes of web-based technology (e.g., live virtual classroom, self-
paced instruction, collaborative learning, streaming video, audio, and text) to
accomplish an educational goal.

- To combine different teaching methods based on multiple theories (e.g.,

constructivism, behaviourism, cognitivism) to produce an optimal learning outcome
with or without instructional technology.

- To combine any form of instructional technology (e.g., videotape, CD-ROM, web-

based training, film) with face-to-face instructor-led training.

- To mix or combine instructional technology with actual job tasks in order to create a
harmonious effect of learning and working.

There are other researchers and writers who define blended learning according to the first
concept and definition of Driscoll. Singh (2003), for example, claims that blended learning is
considered a blending of different effective methods in teaching and learning. He refers to the
fact that blended learning does not only provide many and different options, but is also more
effective compared to the traditional method (Singh, 2003).

Bonk and Graham (2006) claims that the first and second definitions of Driscoll above
suffer from a problem regarding the definition of blended learning that is too broad, as if it
includes all systems and equipment of virtual learning.

The third definition of Driscoll (2002) is popular among many researchers including
Harriman (2004) who argues that blended learning mixes between e-learning using the internet
and direct learning with the teacher. The objective behind blended learning is to provide the most
effective and most efficient educational experience through blending and mixing more than one
method of teaching (Harriman, 2004). Moreover, Smith argued that blended learning is
considered a means for distance learning using technology such as TV, Internet, and Voice Mail,
provided that they are blended and mixed with face-to-face learning done inside conventional
classrooms (Smith, 2001). The Rochester Institute for Technology (2004) provides a definition
which states that blended learning is linking, uniting and blending the best methods of learning
and teaching inside the classroom along with the best methods of teaching and learning through

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the internet (Rochester, 2004). The Training and Education Department in New South Wales
repeats this definition by saying that blended education is a learning that blends and combines
direct methods and electronic means (NSW, 2005). Voos (2003) repeats the same definition in
saying that blended learning is combining and mixing direct means with electronic means. He
goes on to say that blended learning leads also to a reduction of the sitting period inside the class
(Voos, 2003). Caulfield (2011) supported this in her definition of blended learning in her book
“How to Design and Teach a Hybrid Course” as a type of teaching method that reduces (face
time) and have it replaced by time spent outside the traditional classroom.

There are other writers and researchers who provide definitions for blended learning by
combining both the first and third concepts of Driscoll. The Royer Centre for Learning and
Academic Technologies (2004) provides a definition for blended learning as a mixture and
combination of different learning strategies or different learning methods and a number of means
and multimedia to the extent that these learning strategies and means include face-to-face
learning and distance e-learning using the internet with a number of learning strategies and
methods (Royer, 2004).

From the previous definitions and views of blended learning, it is to be noted that
the majority of the definitions agree that the blended learning concept is a form of modern
learning methods which employs e-learning using information technology, communication tools,
and electronic means, without abandoning traditional learning, where learners come to meet with
the teacher and other learners in the classroom. So, both traditional learning and e-learning are
shared and merged together so as to accomplish the teaching and learning processes and to
achieve the desired goals and objectives.

In this study, blended learning is a teaching method which blends online learning and
face-to-face learning while reducing the time of face-to-face learning. This is where students
attend classes, meet the instructor of the (304) course, as well as doing online activities,
participating in online discussions, and receiving feedback via the internet using VLE of
Blackboard and/or PLE of Facebook.

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3.3.2 Why Is Designed Blended Learning Important?
Evidence for the efficiency of blended learning in teaching and learning

It would seem that the specialists in teaching and learning are those most concerned
with blended learning. Because of this concern, many studies were conducted on blended
learning and they included all education levels, from primary school to university studies. The
best summary regarding the concern of educationalists and teachers with blended learning is
what Flavin (2001) said - that the concept of blended learning is not new. Good classroom
teachers always blend and mix their teaching methods such as reading, writing, lecturing,
dialogue, practice, project, and self-learning. All these are considered to be among the most
effective forms of blending (Flavin, 2001).

There are many studies indicating the advantages of blended learning, for example, the
study by Wingard (2005) showed that blended learning leads to increase in the interaction among
students, and between the teacher and students, and at the same time raises the level of students'
learning. The study by Sands (2002) indicated that the conversation and discussions in traditional
learning is negatively affected by the academic timetable. For example, if a student has an idea
on Wednesday, and he/she wanted to express this idea to the teacher or fellow students, and say
the next class is on the following Tuesday, then he/she will be forced to wait six days to discuss
the idea. But in blended learning, the student can discuss the idea at any time with the teacher
and fellow students. And in Anderson’s study (as cited in Al-Qahtani, 2011) which was
conducted with 4000 students using blended learning, the results showed that blended learning
led to improvement in student achievement.

The results of a study conducted by Dean et al. (2001) revealed that by providing several
electronic options for learning through the internet in addition to face-to-face learning inside the
classroom, the students’ level of learning increases. Another study revealed that the interaction
and satisfaction of students with the curriculum improved a lot in addition to an increase in
students’ learning when blended learning is used in teaching them (DeLacey and Leonard, 2002).

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 Among the advantages of blended learning are the flexibility of attendance. In most
classes in which blended learning is used, the student can study at the time s/he chooses and if
the student did not attend the classroom lecture, he can watch the lecture at the same time with
students in the class. He/she can also view the lessons he did not attend and study them on the
internet using the virtual learning environments. This helps students follow the lessons and not to
lag behind in their studies. Conventional learning inside the classroom and e-learning through
the internet have their positives and negatives. As Alvarez mentioned, the electronic
environment is not the ideal environment for all learning and being satisfied with learning inside
the classroom alone is not good. That is why most teachers focus their efforts on blending and
mixing learning using technology through the internet and face-to-face learning inside
conventional classes to create a blended learning environment (Alvarez, 2005).

I think it would not be advisable to dispense of face-to-face learning so as to use e-learning

alone, especially in some countries (such as Kuwait and the Arab countries), where students are
not accustomed to e-learning and self-learning alone, as their educational systems and curricula
depend on indoctrination, receiving and saving information, and relying on the teacher while
neglecting the role of the learner. In contrast, it is difficult in this era of technological
development to use face-to-face learning alone without e-learning, because in this case, both
methods (face-to-face and e-learning) will not be able to make use of the advantages of the other.
Face-to-face learning has its advantages and benefits, for example, direct meeting as well as
contact and interaction between the student and the teacher. E-learning also has many advantages
and benefits; for example, in an online learning environment, students can learn at different times
and locations (at anytime from anywhere). The solution in my opinion is to use a blended
learning method which allows one to take advantage of the strengths of both face-to-face
learning and online learning.

Among other studies (as cited in Al-Qahtani, 2011) denoting the efficiency of blended
learning, the study conducted by Stanford University and that by Tennessee University constitute
a valuable contribution regarding certain methods and mechanisms which make blended learning
better than conventional learning and even better than those done only through pure e-learning.
These studies make educators confident that blended learning grants the ability to increase the
efficiency of the learning process and be more effective, too. Stanford University have more than

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ten years of experience in self-progress and enrichment programmes for gifted students.
However, the problem with these programs was that only half of students with higher motivation
complete these programmes. These programmes diagnose this problem as there is an absence of
compatibility and consistency between the learning method favoured by students – interactive,
social and individual learning – and the method of presenting the programmes.

The introduction of e-learning in these programmes to satisfy these needs has increased
the rate of students who completed the programmes to 94%. This development and improvement
have to do with the ability of live direct action to motivate students and encourage them to
complete the self-progress programmes at the most suitable time as well as the possibility of
interaction with other students and teachers.

The Stanford University study suggests the necessity to blend and mix e-learning with
direct live learning in self-progress programmes and subjects. The study confirmed that this can
have a deep effect on the rate of students completing and benefiting from the programs.

Colin (2005) has pointed out that blended learning combines and organises the electronic
content, which help reduce the use of heavy textbooks from the classroom. When using the
electronic textbook and sources, the cost of purchasing textbooks is reduced, as well as removing
the medical fears from carrying heavy books, especially among younger students. The study of
Valerie considered blended learning as a powerful strategy that could lead to the expansion and
improvement of the learning experiences of learners (as cited in Alkhoder, 2008).

As in the study of Graham, Allen, & Ure (2005) which looked at the reasons students
choose blended learning, they found the following: the improvement of teaching methods, where
learning via blended learning relies more on strategies of interaction in learning, learning
strategies of the student and his colleague, and the use of learner-centred strategies, and
increased flexibility.

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 Blended learning also contributed to increasing the proportion of school attendance,
where the percentage of students attending according to a study by Oblender (2002) was about
99% of the total number of students in general. A study by the New Jersey Institute of
Technology (2005) found that blending the best features of face-to-face learning with the best
features of online learning leads to active learning and self-learning, as well as reducing the time
to sit down - not desirable – for students inside a real classroom.

The study by the University of Central Florida (2001) indicated that students who studied
via the blended learning method got better and higher achievement than the students who studied
by the traditional teaching method or by a pure online learning method.

The Tennessee University study (as cited in Al-Qahtani, 2011) regarding PEMBA for
physicians in the middle of their occupational lives proved that the blended learning programs
can be completed in about half the period and half the cost through blending and mixing between
e-learning methods using the internet and direct live learning inside conventional classes and
self-learning.

Among the most important points in this study is that blended learning was able to
achieve better learning outputs, exceeding at a rate of 10% the learning outputs for students who
studied using the conventional method. The study refers this positive result of the PEMBA
programmes to the abundance and enrichment of the blended learning method which combines
several forms of learning methods and means such as conventional methods and self-learning
method and learning through virtual learning environments using the internet.

These studies reveal that blended learning enjoys a positive effect on the overall
efficiency of learning programs compared with learning programs using individual learning
methods (without being blended with other means and methods of learning).

Some reported advantages of blended learning:

Asynchronous learning: This means that students can learn the same material at
different times and locations (Any Time and Any Place) in addition to face-to-face learning. The

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learner can have access to the course at any time that is convenient, not just during the specific
2-3 hour period that is set for a traditional course. The episodes can be quick snatches at odd
times or long late-night sessions. Also, learners do not have to meet in a lot of face-to-face
lessons. That means they can be anywhere. Individuals can log-on at home, work, in the library,
in a community learning centre or from their flats and hotels when they travel. Also,
asynchronous learning leads to increased reflection time (Heckman and Annabi, 2005). For
example, the online discussions which are conducted as part of the course give the students
greater opportunity to think carefully before responding, participate in the subject under
discussion, which means learners do not need to respond immediately to the discussion topic as
in face-to-face discussions.

Therefore, the online discussion responses are generally more thoughtful when written
than when given extemporaneously.

Self-study: This means students will learn how they can study independently and
individually. They will need to manage themselves as learners, and not to rely on teachers and
lecturers to give them direct answers and all the information and, most importantly, to work on
achieving intellectual independence. Also, student-centred learning is generally perceived by
students as more appealing and puts greater responsibility on the student (McMahon & Oliver,
2001).

Flexibility of attendance: In many of the blended learning classrooms, there is the

possibility to study whenever the student chooses to do so. For example, if any student is absent,
s/he may view some of the missed materials at the same time as the rest of the class, even though
the student cannot be physically in the classroom. This helps students stay on track and not fall
behind, which is especially helpful for students with prolonged sickness or injury that could
prevent them from attending class (Alvarez, 2005).

Benefits of face-to-face: Also, when students have a meeting, they actually will get
direct face-to-face interaction with the teachers who can help them. This face-to-face learning
where the students and teacher meet in a classroom is very effective in giving learning a personal

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touch as it were. It is good for workshops, job training and coaching. Also, there will be a sense
of ease in communication and information sharing, exercises, immediate feedback on activities
(Anderson & Kanuka, 1997), and paper-based tests used in the classroom. The student can ask
and discuss with the teacher and other students, and the teacher can see and check the student’s
work.

Benefits of e-learning: Educationalists always search for the best ways and means for
providing an interactive educational environment for attracting the attention of learners. E-
learning media are considered to be among the most successful means for providing such an
environment. Utilizing the potentialities of such an environment would result in many
advantages which were specified by Al-Mousa (2004) and Al-Qahtani (2011). These include:

1. Contributing to Different Viewpoints among Students:

Immediate forums like discussion sessions and chat rooms allow for the opportunities to
exchange viewpoints over the discussed subjects. This reinforces the chance of benefiting from
the provided opinions and suggestions, and integrating them with the student's own opinions,
which eventually help to establish a solid basis for the learner while enriching him/her with
powerful knowledge and strong opinions, based on the acquired knowledge.

2. Contributing to Forming a Culture of Co-Existence

E-learning helps create cultural, social, political and religious dialogues, which cannot be
achieved in lectures within the system of traditional education due to the social, ethnic, religious
and cultural diversity of the e-university students, which exceeds its counterpart of traditional
universities. This is especially true given that knowledge available online is of a global nature,
and does not limit itself to a certain country or a particular group of people, thus reinforcing the
culture of co-existence among learners.

3. Departure from Accrediting Actual Attendance

In traditional education, a learner should commit to a specific time schedule for group
work. Currently, this is unnecessary as the new techniques have provided means of
communication without the need to be present in the same time and place. Consequently, co-
ordination within group work has ceased to be that annoyingly important.

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 4. Maximum Benefit from Time

This type of education plays a prominent role in saving time for both parties, the teacher
and learner. As for the learner, s/he has the potentiality of immediate access to information
whenever and wherever. Thus, there is no need for leaving home to go to the classroom, library
or teacher's office. As for the teacher, s/he can send whatever the learners may need through
his/her educational website, which saves time for both parties.

5. Feelings of Equality

This advantage stems from the fact that the means of communication like e-mail, chat
rooms and discussion sessions grant every student the opportunity to forward his/her opinion at
any time without any embarrassment. This is unlike the traditional classrooms, which deprives
him/her of that chance due to mal-organization of seats, weakness in the student's voice, shyness,
or any other reasons. This privilege particularly serves those students who may feel afraid or
anxious, as this type of education enhances the students' courage to express their thoughts and
search for facts much further than is the case inside traditional classrooms.

6. Easy Accessibility to Teachers

E-learning has permitted further accessibility to teachers in a relatively short time outside
official working hours, as the learner has become more able to send his/her inquiries to the
teacher through e-mails, etc. This privilege is of particular importance for those whose working
hours clash with the time schedule of the teacher. It is also useful for inquiring, posing questions
and continuous evaluation.

7. The Possibility of Modifying Teaching Methodologies

It is possible to acquire academic material in a way that suits the student. Some students
feel comfortable with audio or reading methodologies, while others appreciate the practical
methodologies. E-learning and its sources allow for the potentiality of applying resources
through different and multiple methodologies, which gives space for modifications so as to arrive
at the most suitable approach for each student.

8. Minimizing the Administrative Burdens for Teachers

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 E-learning permits minimizing the administrative burdens on teachers, which can absorb
valuable time from each lecture through delivering assignments and the like. E-learning has
reduced these burdens, as it has allowed for sending and receiving these items via e-means with
the availability of detecting students' receipt of these documents.

9. Providing Courses 24 hours / 7 days a week

This privilege is particularly important for individuals who are willing to learn at an
unspecified time or for those who shoulder other personal burdens and responsibilities. This
advantage allows learning for all, at a time convenient for each, leading to more comfort and less
boredom for learners.

10. Minimizing the Scope of Work inside Universities

E-learning has provided tools that carry on the mission of analysing grades and results, as
well as providing statistics for them. It is also possible to send a student’s records from one
university to another, or to any other destination.

3.3.3 Blended learning success factors:

The success of blended learning is based on a number of factors that must be met and taken
into account when designing and implementing blended learning. Baldwin-Evans (2006),
Almousa (2005) have all indicated a number of these factors, including:

Good planning: includes determining the function and role of both the teacher and the learner,
and to identify how to use e-learning tools by both teachers and learners accurately.

Providing hardware: by ensuring the availability of various devices used in a blended learning
environment, both for learners or at the educational institution.

The diversity of sources: the blended learning environment enables learners to access different
information and resources, regardless of place or time.

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Ensure learner readiness: This is done by ensuring their skills levels in the use of the computer
and Internet, and technological culture.

Training: train learners on how to use the e-learning communication tools via the internet, and
how to access the learning resources through these tools.

Providing support and assistance: this begins at the end of the training. Some essentials of a
new skill may not be used directly in the training programme, and can be easily lost; therefore, it
is important to provide learners continued support.

3.3.4 Challenges and difficulties faced by blended learning

Despite the many features offered by blended learning, like any other style or method, there
are also shortcomings and weaknesses as shown by the application and use of blended learning at
universities which tends to reduce the quality of the teaching process. Harriman (2004) indicated
that the use of blended learning brings with it a range of challenges. Manage the educational
system, design the blended learning environment and the distribution of roles, responsibilities
and cost control so as to achieve the desired results of blended learning.

Milheim (2006) stressed that the use of blended learning is facing a range of difficulties,
such as: The pressure on the teacher to respond to several messages from the students, as in
contacting many of the students who ask the same question, as well as difficulties related to low
skills among some students in terms of dealing with technology.

A study by Hijazi and others (2006) outlined a set of challenges brought forth by the use of
blended learning in higher education: The needs of the blended learning environment ought to be
aligned with the requirements of teaching that could work with this new teaching method. It also
showed a lack of efficacy among some teachers in the teaching of courses using blended
learning, as well as a lack of the time for training them on the use of technology, let alone the
contrast between computers owned by the students in terms of potential and speed.

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 Groveman and others (as cited in Alkhoder, 2008) selected another set of challenges:
Identify the appropriate sources of technology to employ them in the blended learning
environment, as well as skills of the academic staff, whether technological or design courses
skills in the blended learning environment. These are the most important challenges
demonstrated by the use of blended learning in higher education.

Zayton (2005) added to the above other challenges such as: Slow Internet connection
(especially in countries of the Arab world) disrupts the educational process and causes problems
for participating in the online activities. The high costs of blended learning, for example, the high
cost of hardware, fittings, software programs, and implementation of electronic communication
between educational institutions, experts and students. Training the academic staff to use
computers and the Internet and any type of VLE used at the university; another challenge is the
lack of enthusiasm among the academic staff members of educational institutions and their
reservations on the use of technology, e-learning or blended learning in their teaching.

3.4 Instructional Design and Blended Learning

The aim of instructional design is to make learning and teaching more efficient, effective and
achieve the desired results (Morrison, 2010). Instructional design is defined as “a systematic
process that is employed to develop education and training programs in a consistent and reliable
fashion” (Reiser & Dempsey, 2007). Richry and Seels (1994) defined it as organised procedures
that include steps for analysing instruction, as well as its design, development, implementation
and evaluation. Furthermore, Abdul-Hadi (2009) defines instructional design as planned which is
the link between learning theories and their applications in the reality of teaching and learning
environments.

Instructional design is considered the heart of any educational programme or course, whether in
face-to-face learning environments, in e-learning or in blended learning environments. When
using the blended learning method in a course, the instructional design elements form the carrier
bridge that converts the educational materials in the course from the computer, virtual learning

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environments or personal learning environments to an educational programme. This is not only a
transfer of the paper content of the course to the digital interactive course, but is also a
technology investment to give added value to the teaching and learning and to enhance students’
learning.

3.4.1 ADDIE Model

There are many models of instructional design that have been developed over the years, such as
those by Dick and Carey (2004), Kemp's Instructional Design Model (1985) among others.
However, most of them reflect and are based on the "ADDIE" model (Kruse, 2009). The ADDIE
model first appeared in 1975; it was created by the Centre for Educational Technology at Florida
State University (Watson, 1981). It is a systematic instructional design model consisting of five
phases: (1) Analysis, (2) Design, (3) Development, (4) Implementation, and (5) Evaluation. This
model is built on the common characteristics of instructional design models, and can be used in
the design of any type of teaching or training, for both online and face-to-face learning, as well
as helping to develop a common vision for the development of e-learning (Driscol, 2002).

Peterson (2004) defined the ADDIE instructional design model as “a common approach widely
used in the development of instructional courses and training programs. This approach provides
educators with useful, clearly defined stages for the effective implementation of instruction” (see
Figure (4). And Morrison (2010) defined it as a framework that lists the generic process
traditionally used by instructional designers and trained developers.

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 Figure 4: ADDIE Model

Each stage of this ADDIE instructional design model includes a set of sub-steps that must
be taken into account until the design process becomes integrated. Shelton and Saltsman (2011)
and Alsaleh (2005) mentioned these steps of the ADDIE model and its sub-steps when using this
model for teaching online or face-to-face, as follows:
 Analysis phase

In the analysis phase, the areas required or needed are identified, the instructional goals and
objectives are established, the target audience and environment are defined, and the learner's
existing knowledge and skills are identified.
 Design Phase

This phase deals with lesson planning, activities relating to the content of the course, training
courses required, selected suitable multimedia, identifying strategies for the content, identifying
the aims of designing the course online or face-to-face learning, and assessment criteria.
 Development Phase

At this stage, the plan and design specifications made in the previous phase (design) were set
forth, and then converted into a product which can be used with electronic content, all for the
sake of meeting the needs of learners in the course.
 Implementation phase

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 This is the actual application of the system or the teaching method that the instructor wants
to apply with his students in the course. So, the model is put into action and the material and
content of the course are delivered to the students. This stage comes after the development
process.

 Evaluation phase
In this stage, formative and summative evaluation is made of the effectiveness of the model that
the instructor used with his students in the course.

In chapter 4, I will discuss how I used the ADDIE model and what I did in each phase when I
designed the General Teaching Method Course (304).

3.4.2 Methods or Types for Designing Blended Learning

As the blended learning process tries to merge methods and activities of the traditional
learning method with those of e-learning, the means and the available options are many,
including, for example, the use of VLE, PLE, video conferencing, e-mail, self-assessment
questions, asynchronous and synchronous communication tools, online discussions, CD-ROMs,
videos, audio, films, photographs, and interactive learning activities as academic material.

Khan (2005) mentioned that the most common way to blend is to create a website that can be
used by students outside the times of lectures or use of the VLE, and through it the teacher can
design the educational materials and upload them onto these learning environments. Through
these websites, the teacher can provide students with the material and educational activities,
learning resources, PowerPoint, online discussions, list of various sources of books and articles
related to the content of the course, addresses and websites related to the content of the course, as
well as self-assessment questions.

Zayiton (2005) and Al-Mousa (2005) pointed out that there are many methods for the teachers to
use with blended learning such as the following:

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The first method: to teach students of the course one lesson (or more) through face-to-face
learning, and one lesson (or more) online, and the final assessment can take place either through
the traditional classroom (face-to-face) or through the online environments using online
assessment tools.

The second method: to teach students of the course face-to-face and online, but the starting
method is face-to-face learning, and then online learning, and the final assessment can take place
through the traditional classroom (face-to-face).
The third method: similar to the second method but start this time with the online learning, and
the final assessment can take place through the online environments using the online assessment
tools.

The fourth method: to teach students of the course most of the time online but with some
required time in the classroom.

The fifth method: to teach students of the course most of the time face-to-face inside the
classroom, with some required time in the online environments.

3.4.3 Instructional design and learning theories

Although there are different theories of learning linked to the instructional design, with each of
these theories having a philosophical basis for it (for the instructional design), the majority of the
literature in this context refer to two theories: Behaviourist theory and Constructivist theory
(Alsaleh, 2013).

Behaviourism is “a teacher-centered philosophy that focuses on human behaviour as a reaction to

outside stimuli and believes that the changing environment can change a student’s misbehaviour”
(Ganly, 2007). On the other hand, constructivism is “a student-centred philosophy that
emphasises hands-on learning and students actively participating in lessons” (Ganly, 2007).
There are two main strands of constructivist theory, namely, cognitive constructivism where the
learners makes sense of the content presented to them, and social constructivism where the
learners construct knowledge through social interaction (Kuit and Fell, 2011).

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Behaviorist theory is concerned with stimuli and response, and from the apparent behaviour of
the learner or in another meaning, it is concerned with measuring the observed behaviour of the
learner. On the other hand, the constructivist theory is concerned with the internal cognitive
processes of the learner, and whether the learner makes sense of new knowledge by creating their
own meaning of it, according to what they have already learnt.

3.4.4 The role of the teacher and the student in both Behaviourism and Constructivism

The role of both the teacher and student varies according to both theories. The role of the teacher
in the behaviourist theory is to use a direct instruction method and create a learning environment
that encourages students to learn the desired behaviour and in this case the student is passive,
whereas in constructivism the role of the teacher is to use an indirect instruction method and
create a learning environment that makes the students build their own knowledge and this case
the student is active. And what is required from the teacher (in Constructivism) is to focus on
creating a learning environment and to help the learner access the learning resources (facilitator).

Table (2): The differences between behaviourist and constructivist theories

Behaviourism Constructivism

Instruction Direct Indirect

Teacher Central - main Advisor – Facilitator

Learner Passive Active

Teaching strategies focus Individual Group

on

Knowledge Received from outside Created through the learner’s

active engagement with material.

(Alsaleh, 2013)

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3.4.5 Motivation

Motivation is about the desire to learn. Motivation may be intrinsic, stemming from the
psychological and social satisfaction of doing something for its own sake; or extrinsic, deriving
from tangible, measurable rewards (Barnett, 2005). A model of motivation, related to a hierarchy
of needs, was developed by the psychologist Abraham Maslow (1954). This hierarchy groups
needs into five levels: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualisation. And
the basic principle behind this theory is that a person will not be motivated by any higher-level
needs until their lower level needs have been met.

Generally, theories of motivation may be categorised as either content theories such as those of
Maslow and Herzberg or process theories such as the Vroom theory. Content theories define
motivation in terms of satisfying needs and this theory focuses on identifying the motives for
learning. While on the other hand, the process theory defines motivation as a rational cognitive
process occurring within the individual, and these theories look at the process of motivation
rather than the needs and goals that motivate people.

Herzberg’s (Herzberg et al., 1959) motivation-hygiene theory (content theory) identifies hygiene
and motivator factors. Hygiene factors include financial rewards, status, the degree and quality of
supervision, and relationship with peers. Motivating factors include recognition, personal
growth, promotion, a sense of achievement and responsibility (Barnett, 2005).

An example of a process theory is that of Vroom's (1964) Expectancy Theory which sees
behaviour as driven by the expectations that the person, by the way she/he acts, will lead to the
results she/he wants. This theory suggests that there are three steps in motivating behaviour:
effort will bring better performance, better performance will be met with reward, and those
rewards will meet the individual’s needs.

3.4.6 Motivation for Designing Blended Learning

When teachers want to design a blended learning course, they should keep interaction in mind
and how they will motivate their students in an online environment. Some teachers may make the
mistake of thinking that designing a blended learning environment would mean that they just

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have to upload the content of the course, find a lot of online readings and resources, and keep the
same assignments. This is not the case. One of the most important things that must be kept in
mind in designing a blended learning course is how to make the student motivated in an online
environment. This does not mean that the teachers have to throw everything out that worked in a
face-to-face learning course. But the teachers need to revise and rethink how the students can be
successful in an online environment.
Transferring from the traditional face-to-face class (lecture, listen and take notes) to a blended
learning environment would mean that teachers and students move to a more engaging
environment, often called the constructivist model (Giuntini, 2012). In a blended learning
environment which supports the principles of the constructivist model, it means that teachers are
encouraging questions, bringing in activities, facilitating rather than just giving the students
information.

It is easy for the teachers to think that all they have to do is write and post in the online
environment and wait for students to respond in a similar manner. But this certainly is not
enough to engage and motivate students in blended learning environments. Caulfield (2011) and
MacDonald (2008) give suggestions on how to motivate and engage students in the blended
learning environment; for example, using online discussions, small online working groups,
collaborative activities, immediate feedback, and videos are key towards engaging and
motivating students in an online environment. The teachers can post questions for online
discussion in the discussion board. Students can respond and comment on each other's opinions,
encouraging immediate student involvement with the material by creating a threaded discussion
and asking students to review the content of the course and then to write one or two things that
they would like to get out of the course.

Many face-to-face instructors devote some portion of their first class meeting to giving
introductions to students. Teachers can do the same thing in a blended learning course if they
decide to make the first meeting with the students of the course online rather than in a face-to-
face class. For example, they can let all their students introduce themselves online and explain
why they are taking the class and what they hope to get out of it. This can be in a threaded
discussion or through social media, for example, by using Skype. Teachers can also encourage
students to include images of where they are as part of their introduction. Facebook is very

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helpful in this case, and a lot of students like it and already have an account on it. Social media
does make people feel that they are connected and online courses need to adapt the best part of it,
the interaction, posting team images and immediate feedback to help students avoid feeling
isolated in the online environment. Asynchronous activity allows students to enter more deeply
into their material or idea. Because it gives students a lot of time to stop and think about the
material, look at facts, draft an outline of what to say in online discussions and to revise mistakes
before others respond, this promotes critical thinking. In this case, students can be more
confident in their work because they have done some preparation before participating in the
blended learning environment.

This is different from traditional viewpoints in that it places the learner and not the teacher at the
centre of learning. And this is one of the most important principles of the constructivist model,
that is, it gives the learner a positive and effective role in the learning process, where the teacher
is more a facilitator rather than a talking head. This is what happens in the blended learning
environment.

3.5 Activities in Blended Learning and Online learning

Activities are considered from the characteristic traits of distance learning subjects
(Lockwood, 1992), which assist in active learning and encourage the student to explore and
interact throughout the learning process. Whatever the type of subjects, it would be more
effective if the student is made to work towards becoming a positive and active learner, and not a
mere receiver (Rowntree, 1994). Therefore, Oliver and Liber (2001) find that activities play a
substantial role in specifying learning outcomes; e.g., they specify how the student will be
integrated in terms of the educational content and building up of new knowledge.

In the views of Alsaleh (2013), designing effective activities which stimulate active learning
is considered from the standpoint of the strongest challenges confronted at designing and
developing the educational subjects of eLearning courses, as well as the possibility that the
student would immerse in the subject of the study text in an effective way.

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 3.5.1 The Concept of Activities
In general, all educational activities are mental, physical, psychological, and social efforts carried
out by learners according to their abilities, interests and preparations both inside and outside of
the classroom for the purpose of acquiring certain skills, concepts or knowledge (Abduhadi,
2009).

Brophy and Allemman (1991) define activities as any form of work that learners are expected
to do, beyond getting input from reading or listening, in order to learn, practise, apply, evaluate,
(or in any other way) respond to the course content. Meanwhile, Beits and Paul (as cited in
Alkhoder, 2008) define them as any deed performed by the student, such as reading, writing and
group discussion through the internet, while Loockwood (1992) thinks that activities take
different forms in distance learning but on the condition that they are to encourage the student to
be positive and active, and not negative.

But Salmon (2002) considered the activities done through the internet by means of the term
‘E–Activities’. These were designated for the necessary frameworks for active and interactive
learning on the internet, characterized as asynchronous which can be done at any time. It is
motivating, attractive and purposeful, performed during interaction among students through
messages sent to them, on condition that these messages are designed by an e-moderator, and
usually done through bulletin board systems.

3.5.2 Importance of activities in Blended Learning and through the

Internet
Rowntree (1994) considers activities to be the cornerstone of distance learning materials,
because of the many benefits they have for students, the most important of which is keeping
students active in the learning operation. For without them, students may think that the unique
aim is to keep information in the mind only. Activities are considered a means to help students
understand facts and information from the lesson in a deeper way, and provide opportunities to
practise the concepts they have self–learned.

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Stephenson (2002) also adds that activities provide opportunities through which students build a
joint–bridge between what they really know and what they did read, hear, or see in an electronic
lecture. Such activities provide an opportunity for students to think about the methods that
underlie their individual bias and understanding, as well as the methods in which they differ from
the rest of the students.

But Lockwood (1994) reckons that including activities in the subjects and materials of distance
learning via the internet enables students to think all by themselves when they face a question
and a problem or when they need to deduce explanations, solutions or conclusions that assist
them in learning what is required. These activities also provide an opportunity for students to be
confronted with ideas and dissenting opinions challenging their beliefs and trends, especially
when the purpose of activities is to stir discussion among students, that is, through participation
in discussions. Lockwood (1994) adds that through activities, students can observe their progress
and measure their level of understanding, as reflected in the content of their education. In
addition, we find that activities assist students at least on the following points (Rowntree, 1994):

 Learning by practice and doing things all by themselves.

 Achieving objectives of the lesson through activities.
 Overstepping the limits of learning by heart and memory.
 Connecting their ideas and experience with the subject.
 Thinking and contemplating into their thoughts and all that relates to the educational
operation.
 Implementing their learning in their practical and personal life; to transfer the outcome of
learning and implement it in their practical life.
 Getting acquainted with their places of strengths and weaknesses.
 Achieving interaction with the elements of the educational process represented by the
content, instructor and students.
 Developing the skills of self-learning by research, investigation, evaluating, analysing,
and performing meetings.

Watkins (2005) views activities performed through the internet as resembling to a great extent
the activities used in traditional learning. They are employed to achieve a variety of objectives,

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such as getting students acquainted with each other, sharing experiences, reaping benefits from
collective learning and increased participation, or encouraging students to develop constructive
relations through the internet. Watkins (2005) also adds that e-learning activities ought to employ
the communication tools available on the internet such as chat rooms and tools of discussion, e-
mail to make students participate in activities, or any other communication tools, synchronous
and asynchronous, that are available at virtual learning environments or the internet.

Moreover, activities play a significant role in students’ interaction with their colleagues, by
providing them with social and cooperative activities, the purpose of which is to experience
participation and students interacting with each other, that is, through designing activities aimed
at confirming communication, participation, discussion of information and experience,
exchanging action, and initiating discussions to exchange opinions and to get acquainted with
one another’s opinions. All of this is being done by employing the communication tools
available to them. The purpose of this is to make the student become a positive and active
participant during the learning operation by feeling with the group spirit, and then increasing
his/her motivation to learn (Giuntini, 2012). It provides an interactive environment that reduces
the perception of seclusion and compensate for the unavailability of direct relationship between
the instructor and the student.

Loegering and Edge (2002) conducted a study seeking to explore the effect of teaching that
depends on the internet in supporting students’ learning in a science course. In this case, the
research tool included a group of educational modules that students study based on the internet,
accompanied by a group of interactive activities in the form of a group of questions with
different wording for each module. The results of the study showed that there were statistically
significant differences between the grades of students who studied by the internet and those who
studied by the traditional teaching method. The results of this study also showed that there were
positive trends with the students who studied through the internet, for it assisted them to get
acquainted with new thoughts, to grasp the different subjects, and to stir their concern.

3.5.3 Examples of activities in blended learning and learning using the

internet

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 Due to extension of the activity concept in distance learning, it resulted in the existence of
different types of activities which the instructor can design. Based on these different types of
activities, researchers differed in the field of distance learning on how to classify activities
(Commonwealth of Learning, 2005). For some of them consider activity as not much more than
a question, and in other subjects, activity is an assignment done by the student, while some
activities require the student to do less than cessation and thinking. And it is possible that other
activities require summarized answers, or some activities require a longer time and effort, while
some others require participation (Rowntree, 1994). And from the examples of activities that
may be done by the student, Rowntree (1994) and Lockwood (1994) mentioned the following:
 Answering questions or exercises included in the educational subject such as: answering
a question with multiple choices, completing a table, filling gaps in a sentence, writing or
typing a sentence or paragraph, writing steps in an arithmetic operation, drawing an
explanatory shape, or drawing a diagram.
 Answering questions (self-assessment questions) included at the end of every lesson until
the student is able to evaluate himself and the extent of his progress, or get acquainted
with the level of his progress in learning and the degree of achieving the objectives of
learning.
 Entrusting students with assignments, such as making projects, studying a case, or
making abstracts.
 Thinking and speculating about what they read and perform during activities.
 Reading a piece of text, watching a video, or listening to a tape concerning the
educational objectives.
 Participating in group interviews or discussions with other students through synchronous
and asynchronous communication tools.
 Executing an action or experiment concerning the educational objectives and registering
the results in an individual or collective form.
 Searching for information about certain subjects on the internet or the library and writing
a report about them.
 Developing a suggestion pliable to be executed in relation to the solution, and learning
the solution to an educational problem.
 Solving questions and exercises, thinking and speculating, solving and investigating
problems.

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  Activities of simulation and playing roles.

Rowntree (1994) assures that the most successful implementation of learning operation
depends on integration between a variety of activities, and it does not need to concentrate only
on one type of activity. So, we have to use all available means and tools and employ them to
perform activities of varied nature. Variation in activities may include watching videos and
making some exercises after watching them, or through participation in discussions, either
classroom discussion or through the internet on subjects related to the educational objectives of
the course being followed by the student, or else through a variety of other activities. They have
great benefit for the student’s understanding of the content of the course. This is what Glasser (as
cited in Alsayed, 2005) deduced, that the individual grasps 10% of what he reads, 20% of what
he hears, 30% of what he sees, 50% of what he sees and hears at the same time, 70% of what he
discusses with others, 80% of what he experiences, and 95% of what he teaches to others.

Alrabiei (2004) also considers activities arising from the type of questions and exercises
introduced in a text based on the lively and basic elements at the time of designing and writing
distance learning materials, because they work to share with students meaningfully the
educational content, and activate their thinking without which they may be deprived of a benefit
enjoyed by students in the traditional learning method. And both Martin and Bramble (1996) are
convinced that students prefer the learning operation that depends on interaction between the
instructor and students, or among the students themselves, with the appropriate educational
means; that is, through introducing questions, discussion and participation when communicating
the educational content instead of listening only to a lecture.

Darwazeh (2005) discusses the importance of educational questions of such type in the
educational process, for these questions are considered as educational cognitive means, which
work to activate information in the student’s mind, feed it back, and benefit from it in an
effective way. Moreover, the importance of this type of activities is to concentrate on facts and
important concepts in the educational course that help the student achieve the objectives of the
lesson and increase the level of interaction. Using a variety of questions also assists in
summarising the subject into a number of logical unforgettable points, so that the student can

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remember them and retrieve them at the appropriate time or educational situation. Using a
variety of educational questions can also measure different educational objectives, develop the
mental processes which start from the simple level to the more complicated ones. Due to the
importance of questions in the operation of learning and education, questions are considered
from the fundamentals of the educational operation, which enriches the learning operation and
increases the student’s motivation to learn and makes information less exposed to being
forgotten.

In fact, success in role activities and performance by students does not depend only on the
variety of activities, but is supposed to inform students of the purpose and aim of the
performance. This is guaranteed through the availability of clear instructions on how to perform
it, as well as a clear time-period needed to perform it, avoiding any ambiguous activities, which
are written in general and choosing activities which suit the character of the students (Malik,
2000). There is also the necessity of connecting the activities with the outcomes of learning and
providing support and enough educational resources, which assist them in performing activities
and providing feedback on those activities. That is, they are carried out with the purpose of
assisting students personally and building on their experience (Abdulhadi, 2009).

3.5.4 Feedback on Activities in the Blended Learning Environment

There is an important issue related to these activities which is feedback. And the importance
of activities will not be completed unless there is feedback (Commonwealth of learning, 2005).
These activities cannot achieve all the objectives that were laid out for them, unless they are
followed by feedback. Gang (as cited in Darwazeh, 2005) finds that feedback has a great effect
on improving and motivating the learning operation, because of its effective role in keeping the
subject in the student’s mind in a correct educational way. In this, feedback is considered one of
the basic supports in the educational operation, for by it the learning operation completes itself.
So, it is necessary to relay feedback to the student about his performance, for performance will
not improve unless the student knows the result from what he learns, whether it was right or
wrong, and what are the mistakes to be avoided in the future.

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 Tuckman (as cited in Darwazeh, 2005) finds that the concept of feedback does not mean
providing the student only with the result from his answers, or whether it was right or wrong, but
exceeds that, and the operation needs more explanation from the instructor, because the student
learns from the feedback and can then evaluate himself. So, the instructor has to explain things to
the student and teach by means of the feedback. That is, through informing the student about the
extent of the correctness (or wrongness) of his answer, why it was wrong or correct, and giving
him the appropriate information to assist him during the learning operation.

Therefore, Al-Qutami (2000) regard activities as one of the most important educational
sources in the learning operation, because they assist the student to evaluate and improve his
performance; that is, through providing him with information about his performance and giving
him recommendation(s) for improving his performance, strengthening him to maintain such a
good performance.

And in the framework of the importance of feedback in the learning operation, a study done
by Sonak, Suen, Zappe, and Hunter (2002) about the effectiveness of feedback through the
internet showed that there is a direct positive relationship between the amount of time used by
high school students to get feedback directly via the internet and their academic performance.
Also, in a case study discussing the effect of specifying the objectives and feedback on self-
organizing and success in the environment of distance learning, Lorraine (1999) deduced that the
feedback exerted to assist students in learning and implementing self-learning strategies assisted
them in their success with the online learning courses.

Another study was done by Nguyen, Hsieh and Allen (2006) about the effect of learning
based on assignments and exercises accompanied by feedback and evaluation through the
internet on improving the trends of learning in mathematics with students at the intermediate
secondary level. The study compared between the achievement trend of students who used
evaluation with online acting practice and students who used evaluation and practice in a
traditional way. And the results showed that opportunities of training and practicing on the
computer and receiving feedback and the total of grades instantly had helped students in solving
matters of mathematics, and gained cognition that they can be more intelligent in solving
matters. The instant feedback worked in assisting them to better overcome difficulties in solving

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matters of the subject compared to the traditional evaluation. Moreover, the online evaluation
and practice worked to assist students in maintaining a high level of motivation in learning and
solving the mathematical matters with the help of modern technology.

The study by Darwazeh (2005) pointed out that feedback is generally divided into:
1. Informational feedback: through which the student is informed about the correctness
of his answer, whether it was correct or wrong, without providing him with any
explanatory information.
2. Simple feedback: through which the student is informed about the correctness of his
answer, whether it was correct or wrong, and correcting the wrong answer directly, in
case the answer was wrong.
3. Explanatory feedback: in which the student is informed about the correctness of his
answer, whether it was correct or wrong, and providing him with information for each
case of correct or wrong answer, why it was correct or wrong. That is, the instructor
provides the student with explanations about his answer, regardless of whether it was
correct or wrong.

Barnette (2005) showed that in terms of feedback and its characteristic traits in distance
learning, it has to be explanatory and not informational or simple. In addition, it should be
positive, supportive, constructive, instructive, and continuous. Feedback does not aim only at
informing the student that his answer was correct or wrong, because the student learns through
feedback. So, the student should be informed as to why his answer was correct, and it should be
supported by more information. It is preferred that the correcting operation should be
administered at the time of making the mistake, providing him with information that can assist
him with his progress, and directing him towards more learning sources because of the role they
have in activating and supporting the learning operation and increasing the student’s learning
motivation.

It has to be indicated that the feedback depends on the media technology of the computer
which is characterised in numerous traits, some of which provide the student with what he
wished for through instantaneous and quick feedback and supporting him at any anytime. In
addition to these traits, the internet can add more traits and make the feedback more effective

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through various forms and different styles, as a result of having multiple ways and sources,
through which the student gets the desired feedback. That is, this happens by saving different
links of various available sites on the internet, including subjects, pictures or films to provide
him with more information, or perhaps getting the feedback from numerous sources such as
instructors, specialists and other students too, that is, through means of communication that is
both synchronous and asynchronous, and which plays a key role in creating an interactive
educational environment (Abdul Hamid, 2005).

3.6 Interaction in Blended Learning and online learning

With the boom of the internet and its development and the variety of online tools available,
the concern for interaction has increased as far as blended and online learning is concerned,
especially after the availability of a variety of interactive communication means and tools due to
the key role of interaction in ensuring a high level of academic achievement in particular, and
improving education outcomes in general (Alqahtani, 2011).

Wagner (1994) defines interaction as mutual happenings that require two objects and two
actions. While Moore and Kearsley (2005) define interaction as an exchange of information,
ideas and opinions between students and instructors. Of these interactions, the interaction
between the student and the content is crucial.

Depending on Wagner’s definition of interaction, Robertson (2002) described interaction in

an educational context as characterized by four attributes. First of all, interaction must include a
happening. Secondly, this happening should be mutual. Thirdly, this interaction must involve the
participants in a purposed cognitive activity. Fourthly, this interaction must be linked to the
learning outcomes.

Interaction was and still one of the most stirring concepts of discussion in the field of
distance learning via the internet and instructional design (Wagner, 1994). It could be viewed as
a specifying factor of the quality of learning (Anderson, 2003; Wagner, 1997). Interaction, as
Sims (1999) indicates, serves numerous occupations in the educational operation. These
occupations are to allow for opportunities to control the learner, making it easy for adaptation
with the programme and providing different forms of participation and communication, as well

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as sharing in developing meaningful learning. Garrison (1989) adds that dialogue and discussion
are necessary for learning, because these forms of two-way communication allow students to
negotiate and build personal knowledge, and engage in critical analysis. Garrison and Shell
continue further when they define all forms of education as interactions between the content,
learners, and instructors (as cited in Anderson, 2003).

Some studies discussed the perceptions of the educational operation parties over the
importance of interaction in blended learning and online learning. And some others discussed the
importance of interaction with other factors of learning such as learner’s motivation,
participation, satisfaction, and achievement. This will be discussed in the following part.

3.6.1 Importance of interaction in blended learning and online learning

Monson (2002) made a study on the importance of interaction in online learning, aimed at
ascertaining students’ and instructors’ perceptions about the importance of interaction in online
learning. Based on 265 university students and 19 professors at a private university in the
western part of the United States, Monson deduced, through a questionnaire of interaction which
was implemented through the internet, that both students and instructors look at the interaction
between them and among the students themselves as important factors in online learning. The
results also pointed out that students consider monitoring others’ interaction as important for the
success of online learning. In addition to that, Monson found that gender, former educational
level, and previous experience in using the internet are correlated to the students’ view over the
importance of interaction via the internet. Meanwhile, the studying subject did not have any
influence on this view.

And in another study made on 287 students at Yarmouk University, a questionnaire was used
which consisted of 14 statements that talked about students’ perceptions of online courses (Jiang
and Ting, 1999). This study showed that whenever the design of the course was built on
interaction, students were more convinced that they had learned something. The results also
indicated that students’ interaction with the instructor and discussion through the internet played
an important role in raising the academic achievement of students.

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 Su et al. (2005) made a case study, aimed at determining how instructors and students view
the importance of interaction through the internet, and the educational technologies which
support these interactions. The study was done in a Master’s degree programme in business
administration through the internet at the University of Mid-Western, United States, where 26
members of the university teaching staff participated in the interview, and 10 of the second year
students, registered in the Master’s degree programme in business administration. The results of
the study pointed out that instructors view interaction as an important part of learning in the
online learning environments. Students differed in their preference for more interactions in
courses taught through the internet. The researchers deduced that the difference in preferences
may be related to the individual differences in the personalities of learners and their way of
learning. And it may be ascribed to the fact that these students were working in jobs at the time
of following the course through the internet, and so did not have enough time to participate in
discussions to a great extent. And 94% of the questionnaire’s responses clarified that interaction
with other students and instructors created a meaningful learning experience, and they viewed it
as an effective means of learning. The study also showed that instructors tend to use
technicalities and educational activities, or those which depend on practices of traditional classes.
As to instructors looking for more developed technicalities and using technology in teaching,
results showed that instructors differ a great deal in their usage of these new methods.

Interaction has importance in blended learning and online learning, not only because people
view it as important, but because it is directly connected with the learner’s participation and
motivation during the learning operation. As Squeer (as cited in Anglin, 1995) indicated, the
learner participates cognitively, physically and sentimentally in the programme which will
connect the learner with the programme, and this is the necessary conditions for motivation.
From the other side, the decrease of interaction in online courses leads mostly to the learner
feeling secluded (Kraut, 1998; Mclssac et al., 1999), and this feeling normally refers to a
decrease in interaction (Miltiadou and McIssac, 2000). This relates to Ulmer (1994) who found
that improving interaction in a course has led to a rise in the rate of learners continuing to follow
the acting courses on sound and video from 20% to 75%.

And from studies done on the importance of interaction in the educational operation, the one
by Kitchen and McDougal (1999) about online participative learning is worth pointing out. The

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study was aimed at finding out the perceptions of post-graduate students over the educational
value of their participative learning using the internet. It was also aimed at determining the
factors that govern the visualizations of students towards the quality of their experiments in
participative learning using the acting learning environment on the internet. The study was made
on 26 post-graduate students studying online at a virtual university located in Canada (Simon
Fraser University). And after implementing a questionnaire to specify the general factors
concerned with student’s satisfaction on their experience with participative work through the
internet, It was pointed out that the student’s participation (together with his colleagues) in
acquiring knowledge through the different online activities of the course is considered one of the
most important factors that led to increase in the student's satisfaction level. Also, the study
found that generally students of the course were positive and effective in terms of using the
internet to support their participatory work in small groups.

Bullen (1998) did a qualitative study about participation and critical thinking in distance
learning. It was aimed at specifying if students were effective participants, building on the
participation of the other, and thinking in a critical way about the subjects of discussion, as well
as specifying the factors that affect the student’s level of participation and critical thinking. The
researcher organised interviews with 13 students and instructors in the course of holding
conferences through the computer (distance learning course). The results showed that, whenever
the course was interactive, students’ participation was more active and in terms of critical
thinking, more profound. And the researcher concluded that the interactive nature of a course has
a positive relationship with the motivation of the learner and his participation in and following of
the course.

Wagner (as cited in Bonk and Graham, 2006) is convinced that interaction should not be
viewed as a theoretical concept, but it must be dealt with as a strategic variable, in which
instructional designs are used by means of technology to achieve the desired objectives. And she
did clarify the importance of interaction by means of a number of points that can be served by
interaction:

 Interaction for participation: interaction provides ways for the learner to

participate in the educational operation.

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  Interaction for communication: encourages information participation.
 Interaction for feedback: assists learners to evaluate themselves.
 Interaction to deepen knowledge: deepens the student’s understanding of the
subject by providing further explanations.
 Interaction towards the student’s self-governing: assists the learner to
manage the sequence of the content, and time spent on assignments, etc.
 Interaction for motivation: encourages learner’s curiosity, invention, and
critical thinking.
 Interaction for negotiation: assists the learner to reach an agreement or
harmonize opinions.
 Interaction to build a team: prepares a dynamic collective work environment
to support the objectives of the team.
 Interaction for exploration: pushes students to be inventors of new ideas
through the exchange of ideas and points of view.
 Interaction for reconnoitering: provides ways to specify the extent and depth
of a new idea.
 Interaction for explanation: explain concepts which were misunderstood in a
better way.

From previous studies, it was generally made clear that students and instructors
view interaction as an important factor in online learning, and interaction receives
appreciation from students and instructors. If people view a thing as important, they
would not have hesitated in spending their time and energy on it.

3.6.2 Types of Interactions

To complete the activities of learning by students in blended learning and online learning,
learners should participate in variant types of interactions. Learners are in need of interaction
with the home page to access the subjects and content of the course on the internet, or through
the virtual or personal learning environment. The home page should make this easy for learners.
Learners should also interact with the content to acquire the necessary information that
constitutes the knowledge base. In addition, the learner should interact with other learners, and

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between learner and instructor, between learner and experts for cooperation, participation and to
share the knowledge, thereby forming social networks.

The classification by which citation was done in a lot of studies on distance learning using
the internet is the one introduced by Moore (1989). He laid out three main types of interaction,
which are: student’s interaction with the instructor, student’s interaction with his colleagues, and
student’s interaction with the content. And there are other types of interactions such as the
student’s interaction with the interface (Hillman et al., 1994), student’s interaction with himself
(Soo and Bonk, 1998), as well as learner-vicarious interaction (Sutton, 2001). In the following,
some of these types will be discussed in some detail.

Learner–Instructor Interaction
Interaction happens between the student and the instructor when the instructor communicates
with the student or with a group of students. For the instructor mostly plays the role of the expert
and simplifier through offering information and feedback, or introducing instructions for the
students. This type of interaction is considered necessary by many instructors, and desired by
students (Moore, 1989). Many experimental studies indicate that students view this type of
interaction as the most important in distance and online learning (Monson, 2002). In online
learning, this type of interaction became more direct and instant due to the rapid development of
technical communication and information. As a result, students who study in online programmes
feel that they had got more interaction, which they would not have got in an environment of
traditional learning (Westbrook, 1999). But for Jonassen et al. (1995), the two-way asynchronous
communication offers not only better contact between the student and the instructor, but more
importantly enables students to build social construction of knowledge among them.

Learner-Learner Interaction

This type of interaction happens between a student and his fellow students. He interacts with
them individually or as a group, with or without the availability of an instructor (Moore, 1989).
Through this interaction, students can exchange ideas and cooperate on duties or assignments,
view subjects from numerous and different angles, and they can also encourage and support each
other. Such interaction between a student and his/her colleagues is the second form of interaction
which constitutes a new dimension for instructors in distance and online learning. Many studies

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have shown that this type of interaction is a valuable experience and a source of learning for
students (Bull, Kimball, and Stansberry, 1988; Vrasidas and McIssac, 1999). And there is a lot of
experimental evidence to indicate that students prefer to use this type of interaction following
this method (Grooms, 2000; King and Doerfert, 1996). Vrasides and McIssac (1999) indicate
that cooperative learning is like collective activities, which is important for an easy interaction
between the student and his colleagues in the online learning process. And from the key studies
in this regard, there is a research Meta-analysis done by Lou et al. (2001) which is worth
mentioning. It collected experimental studies that discussed learning in small groups and have
them compared to individual learning using computer and internet technology. In this study,
results obtained by individuals and from performance in collective duties were measured using
instruments prepared by the instructors. The results indicated that social context plays an
important role in students’ learning using computer and internet technology. And generally
speaking, learning within a small group using computer and internet technology had a better
impact on the students’ academic achievement.

Moreover, social constructivism which is origins attributed to Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934),

emphasised that learners construct knowledge collaboratively through social interactions as in
discussion between learners and combined exploration of content and concepts in order to
enhance and expand their knowledge and understanding (Kuit and Fell, 2011). And to apply
these key principles of social constructivism, the use of online communication tools is critical to
creating interactive social online environments that allow the learner to be active, engaged with
others and actively construct his/her own new understanding and knowledge through social
interaction of discussion and cooperative activities with other learners, instead of passively
receiving knowledge from others such as the traditional teacher. These online tools can be
provided through tools such as VLEs or PLEs.

Learner–Content Interaction
Moore (1989) defines the student’s interaction with the content as an intellectual interaction
operation with the content, of which there are result-variations in the student’s understanding,
trends, or the cognitive structure of his mind. Contemporary technology had introduced the
content in numerous forms including printed matters, electronic pages, and numerous means on

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the screen of the computer. And in this context, Westbrook (1999) indicated that students
studying in online courses tend to interact with the content to a large extent.

This interaction between the student and content is a characteristic trait of basic education.
Formal education is an operation intended towards learning certain content in accordance with
planning beforehand and assistance of instructors. It demands from the learner to build his
knowledge through an operation of adapting information personally to accord with previous
cognitive structures. And interacting with the content is what produces changes in students’
understanding, which we sometimes call a change in trends. And the content which we need for
this operation in blended learning (or online learning) is being designed and introduced by
designers in order to support and help every student interact with the content and transform it
into the kind of knowledge that can bring about change in his behaviour.

The interaction between the student and the content was always a key element of formal
education, even if it were in an office study form or revising school books in traditional
education. Blended learning and online learning support this type of interaction, and offer a
number of new opportunities that help create interactive environments through the VLE, PLE,
electronic lessons, even while developing an interactive content response to students’ behaviour
and characteristics.

Interaction between the student and the interface

Viewing the nature of technology employed in blended learning (or online learning for that
matter), the interaction between the student and the interface represents an important type of
interaction. And as Hillman et al. (1994) indicated, this type of interaction happens between the
student and communication means and tools, employed during the operation of learning. This is
considered the student’s entrance to the environment of learning, and it is the thing that enables
him to benefit from the content of learning. But given its importance, it may be one of the most
difficult types of interaction and perhaps the most challenging due to which, people are
unaccustomed to it, certainly from the standpoint of traditional education. It demands an effort
on the part of the educational designer until the design of the interface becomes attractive for the
students (Barnes & Lowery, 1998; Marshall, 1999). From the other side, improving interaction

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between the student and the interface demands that learners and instructors possess the necessary
skills to handle modern technology (Harmon & Jones, 2000; Ross, 1996).

The learner’s self-interaction

Soo & Bonk (1998) define the learner’s self-interaction in terms of the learner’s speculation
and contemplation of the content during the learning operation, as well as his new understanding.
They also indicate that the learner’s self-interaction assures the importance of talking to oneself
(soliloquy) during preoccupation with learning the educational content. So, the process of
thinking and blending on the part of the learner is really an action of the student’s self-interaction
operation. Many educators have pointed to the importance of speculation as a way to develop
independent thinking, self-control, and self-organization (Soo & Bonk, 1998; Wagner, 1997).

Learner-vicarious interaction
Learner-vicarious interaction happens when one of the students notices a direct interaction
between two other students (or more), or between another student with the instructor, and the
interaction here is not direct (Sutton, 2001). The supposition here is that students can learn a lot
by observing or watching others interacting with each other in different activities. Students who
benefit from this type of interaction are the ones who do not wish to enter into any direct
interaction for different reasons (Robertson, 2002), even though they can get answers to their
questions simply by observing, listening or watching others interacting as in reading discussions
of other students in the VLE or PLE.

3.6.3 Educational activities and their role in supporting interaction in

blended learning

The constructivists suppose that the learner produces knowledge through his interactions
with the environment, for people start to build meanings and understand their world through
interaction with their surroundings. And social constructivists believe that learning happens
through social discussion and common experience (Jonassen et al., 1995). From this perspective,
interaction represents a vital issue for learners with respect to building knowledge internally.
Meanwhile, some people display doubt that online learning can offer a level of interaction
similar to that practised by learners in traditional learning (Smith, 1996). Others believe that

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courses taught online may have the same degree of interaction or even better than in traditional
courses. For example, Miller and Webster (1997) found in their study that there is no big
difference in the amount of interaction which takes place among students in traditional courses
compared to those in online courses.

A number of researchers have concluded that online courses can be more interactive than
traditional courses, if only online courses include a suitable instructional design, offering quick
and personal feedback so as to meet the individual learner’s needs (Hirumi & Bermudez, 1996;
Horn, 1994). Garrison contended (as cited in Keegan, 1993) that we cannot expect any important
changes when the same old activities are used with technology, albeit quicker or a little bit
easier; the activities have to be changed. In addition, King and Doerfert (1996) both indicated
that interaction is not just a phenomenon that happens, but a part that should be intended and
included in the instructional design of the course. The instructor in the blended learning or online
course should be concerned about providing opportunities for interaction, and focusing on
activities that lead to interaction between the students in an online course. Therefore, the main
question in this context is: what are the educational activities that can support interaction in
learning through the internet or in the blended learning environment?

Educationists employ many types of activities to support interaction and improve operations
in online courses. For example, Branon and Essex (2001) indicated that virtual office hours may
assist in supporting interaction between the student and the instructor, as well as other types of
interaction in online courses. In addition, Peters (2000) pointed to the importance of working as a
team during interactions between the student and his colleagues. And likewise, Sutton (2001)
encouraged students to read others’ discussions to learn through learner-vicarious interaction.
And Kerka (1996) recommended students to answer a questionnaire which would enable them to
examine their views in a personal form concerning the content, and so increase the student’s
interaction with himself (self-interaction).

In spite of all that has been written about the importance of supporting interaction in online
courses, the field still lacks specific instructions on how to support interaction in blended and
online learning, or to exclude the followed method in preparing learning activities for open
learning purposes (Freeman, 2005). And in spite of the lack of an integrated view on how to

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support interaction in blended and online learning, the literature proposes a great number of
activities (in the next part, educational activities will be looked at). They are being implemented
to support interaction in accordance with the four types of interaction (interaction between the
student and instructor, interaction between the student and his colleagues, interaction between
the student and content, and self-interaction).

Supporting interaction using the educational activities between the student and instructor

Interaction between the student and instructor is a multi-dimensional relationship that is

dependent on a number of variables such as the level of social presence, punctuality and
quickness of feedback, and depth of discussion (Berge, 2002; Gunawardena, 1995; Muirhead,
2005; Swan, 2001). And due to the geographic dimension relating to the instructor and the
learner in an environment of online or distance learning courses, it has become important for the
instructor to employ strategies that can support the social presence, quality of feedback, and
beneficial conversations. And as Muirhead (2005) indicated, instructors and designers need to set
up a structure for the online courses which can support interactions and develop skills of
independent learning. And depending on dozens of styles suggested by many educationists to
support the interaction between the student and the instructor, instructors can employ from a
distance the following educational activities (McDonald & Gibson, 1998; Branon & Essex, 2001;
Hirumi, 2002; Stewart et al., 2004; Eisley, 1995; Peters, 2000):

 Employing synchronous lectures that allow the students to ask questions and
get answers at the same time.
 Employing asynchronous lectures that allow the students to watch at any
time.
 Laying out online office hours for synchronous individual consultation.
 Participation by the instructor in discussions with the students of the course.
 Making sure of the student’s regular progress and to recognize the level of
each student.
 Encouraging learners to further explore by offering questions.
 Making the quality and quantity of the student’s participation a part of the
programme's total score.

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  Offering instant feedback to learners.
 Offering opportunities for informal social communication between the
student and the instructor.
 Inviting guest-speakers from among experts in the educational field to
communicate and interact with students.
 Offering repeated opportunities for evaluation.

Supporting interaction using educational activities between the student and his colleagues

Many studies have focused on educational activities that support interaction between the
student and his colleagues (Cantrell, 2002; Godinho and Shrimpton, 2002; Harris, 1994; Hirumi,
2002; Peters, 2000; Galambos, 2001; Muirhead, 2005) which may be summarised as follows:

 Forming small groups for asynchronous discussions, and each group

may comprise from three to six students.
 Encouraging asynchronous discussions among the whole semester
class (a big group).
 Offering opportunities for instant synchronous chat among students.
 Entrusting students with participatory projects.
 Specifying students’ roles in the collective work.
 Forming groups for debate.
 Making students evaluate each other’s work and give feedback to
their colleagues.
 Allowing learners to exchange experience and views.
 Evaluating discussions according to their quality and quantity.

Supporting interactions using the educational activities between the student and the
content

Depending on the styles suggested by Almousa (2005) and Rowntree (1994), educational
activities were assessed in terms of supporting interactions between the student and content, as
laid out in the following points:

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 Providing the learner with a file that includes instructions on how to
run the programme used in the course, instructions that fit the level
and experience of the user and use explanatory pictures, clearly
showing how to deal with the programme in the course.
 Learner taking part in the educational choices of the programme used
in the course, by being given the opportunity to specify or choose the
educational activities accompanying the programme that is most
appropriate for him. The importance of this approach is that it transfers
decision making from the programme to the learner, and so he
becomes the governor and dominator during procedures and incidents.
 Topics and units of the workbook must be in order and arranged in the
appropriate sequence, with suitable usage of activities and examples.
 The contents of the course should have an exciting and attractive
design.
 The dialect by which the students are addressed must be agreeable and
the way of addressing them ought to be conversational and direct.
 Offering detailed and clear instructions of what the student must do.
 It is a must to remind students through the content of the educational
programme of information they had previously learned, what they will
learn in the present course, and the objectives of studying the course.
 Giving feedback directly to the student(s) concerned.
 Offering a list showing the contents of subjects and tools, and the
purpose of studying each subject in the course, or using any tool. It is
also recommended that such lists must be in front of the user all the
time in the online learning environment, just in case they may be
needed by the student when trying to use any tool in the programme.
 Writing titles that clearly express the content.
 Demarcation of the user’s position inside the programme, that is, by
offering an indicator that clearly sets out what the learner has studied
and what still remains for him in the programme. It will also allow him
to become aware of the extent of his progress through questions,
activities, exercises, and examination.

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  Making available the possibility for getting out of the procedures of
the programme at any time.
 The content of the course must be elastic, pliable to be amended to
what suits the learners’ needs.

Supporting self-interaction (between the student and him/herself) using educational

activities

Studies that have included educational activities to support self-interaction (Sutton, 2001;
Hirumi, 2002; Peters, 2000) may be summarised in the following points:

 Encouraging learners to reflect on and think about what they have

learned.
 Demanding that learners read their colleagues’ discussions.
 Demanding that learners prepare questions on the subject or for the
next lesson.
 Offering opportunities to solve problems and to answer the academic
questions individually.
 Encouraging students to summarize the main points of the
discussions.
 Demanding that learners write up their opinion on the academic
content.

Conclusion

From a review of the related literature, witnesses and evidence on the effectiveness of
blended learning when used in the educational process were laid out, as well as how blended
learning can improve the learning outcomes. But such evidence were from other countries and
from different learning environments.

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 Most of the main points and sections in this chapter are directly related to the aim and
research questions of this study. For example, the first main section that I dealt with in the
literature review was on VLE. And in this study, I used the VLE of Blackboard for my first
experimental group. Also, the second key section in the literature review was on PLE, and I used
the PLE of Facebook in my second experimental group in this study. The third main point in the
literature review was blended learning in terms of its concepts, why it is important, and so on.
Blended learning is the heart of my study, because the overall aim of this study has been to
identify the effect of using blended learning. The other sections in the literature review include
the ADDIE instructional design model. Moreover, the content of the General Teaching Method
Course was based on the five stages of the ADDIE instructional design model, comprising five
phases: (1) Analysis, (2) Design, (3) Development, (4) Implementation, and (5) Evaluation. Also,
the other sections in the literature review include Motivation, Interaction and Educational
Activities in terms of blended learning. And these are important elements for the blended
learning environment. So, this chapter is directly engaged with the aim and hypotheses of this
study.

And the question at the heart of the current study is: does this blended learning have an
impact on the students’ level of achievement and satisfaction in the Kuwaiti educational
environment?

No doubt, what could be affecting students in the Kuwaiti education system will have an
impact on the results of this current study.

There is no doubt that the educational environment and system vary from country to
country. There is also no doubt that the education system has an effect on the learning
environments, students’ skills and their culture of learning. The current study sample (96 female
students) comprises student teachers who have graduated from public schools under the Ministry
of Education in Kuwait. And when these graduate from the College of Basic Education, they
return to school, but this time as teachers. And there is no doubt that they have been affected by
the education system in Kuwait through their studies from primary to high school level. And this
is what invited us to understand more deeply the reality (state) of the educational system in

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Kuwait and its inherent problems as we looked at in the previous chapter. What could be
affecting these students in the Kuwaiti education system will have an impact on the results of this
current study.

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Chapter 4: Research Methodology

4.1 Research Method

This study used a mixed method research approach because it is more appropriate for
addressing the key questions of the study, as well as determining its nature and objectives.

John Creswell defined the mixed method research as an approach to professional

research that combines the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data
(Creswell, 2009). And in his book (Designing and Conducting Mixed Method Research),
Creswell mentioned examples of mixed method studies. One of these examples is when the
researcher collects data using quantitative experimental procedures and follows it up with
interviews with a few individuals who participated in the experiment to help explain their
scores on the experimental outcomes (Creswell and Clark, 2011). And this is exactly what
happened in this research, where the researcher used the experimental approach (with quasi-
experimental design) to collect the quantitative data, then used the interviews to collect the
qualitative data.

Some people may confuse multi-method research with mixed-method research. Multi-
method research occurs when the researcher uses both quantitative and qualitative data but
treats them as two separate datasets without integration between them. But in the mixed
method research, the researcher uses the results of both data (quantitative and qualitative)
within a single programme of study, integrating and comparing them to see if there is any
relationship between the quantitative and qualitative data.

The mixed method approach design in this research is called The Explanatory Sequential
Design. This design starts with the collection and analysis of quantitative data, which has
priority for addressing the study’s questions, and then follows it up with the collection and
analysis of qualitative data to help explain the quantitative results (Creswell and Clark, 2011).

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 Figure (5): The Explanatory Sequential Design

Quantitative Qualitative
Data Collection Followed Data Collection Interpretation
and Analysis by and Analysis

In terms of the quantitative data collection, the researcher used the quasi-experimental
design because the pre-selection and randomisation of students in each group is very difficult
if not impossible with the system at the College of Basic Education. So, one branch of the
course (304) is chosen to be the first experimental group, and the other branch as the second
experimental group, while the third branch is the control group. The design of the control
group with a post-test was chosen as one type of the quasi-experimental design, against
which the experimental and control groups are measured and compared after the treatment, as
shown in the following diagram:

Figure (6): Design of the control group with a post-test

Groups Treatment Post Test 1 Treatment Post Test 2

A T1 S1 T1 S2

B T2 S1 T2 S2

C T3 S1 T3 S2

Passing of Time

Groups (A) and (B) are randomly chosen experimental groups, and group (C) is the
control group. Treatment (T1) is the teaching method of blended learning, which was used
with the first experimental group (A) using VLE of Blackboard in addition to face-to-face
learning, while the second experimental group (B) used PLE of Facebook in addition to face-
to-face learning (T2). Traditional Treatment (T3) is the teaching method for face-to-face

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learning alone, which was used with the control group (C). Post test 1 (S1), which is the mid-
term exam of the course (304), was applied to all groups after 7 weeks of treatment, and post
test 2 (S2), which is the final and practical exams of the course (304), together with the
students’ satisfaction questionnaire, were applied to all groups after 15 weeks of treatment
(i.e. at the end of the course) to determine the effect of using blended learning on academic
achievement and students’ level of satisfaction with the course (304).

4.2Study Variables

4.2.1 Independent Variables

The teaching method used was either the blended learning method for the experimental
groups or the face-to-face learning method for the control group.

4.2.2 Dependent variables

1. Academic achievements, as assessed in the mid-term, final and practical exams of the
course (304).

2. Satisfaction about the course was assessed by means of the questionnaire, giving a total
mark and 3 sub-marks, all referring to the students’ satisfaction about the teaching
method of the course, the content of the course and the instructor's support for the
course.

4.2.3 Control Variables

1. Students’ previous academic records (GPA) for both College and High School.

2. Students’ use of computer and the internet.

3. Students’ Academic Disciplines:

 English
 Art
 Physical Education
 Music

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4. Students’ marriage status.

5. The module (304) teacher: teaching the 3 groups was given by the researcher.

4.3Study Population

The targeted population for the study is all the female students at the College of Basic
Education, Kuwait, who have yet to follow the General Teaching Method Course (304). The
actual population includes all female students registered for studying this course during the
second term of the academic year (2009-2010).

4.4Study Sample
The sample includes 96 female student teachers whose age ranged between 19 and 22
years and are registered in the three branches of the General Teaching Method Course (304)
at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait. The three branches (groups) registered to follow
the course (304) in the second semester of the academic year 2010 have been chosen for the
researcher by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the College of Basic
Education. Then randomly, the researcher chose one group as the first experimental group
(39 students) who followed the course through blended learning using VLE through
Blackboard in addition to face-to-face learning. A second group was chosen as a second
experimental group (31 students), who followed the course through blended learning using
PLE through Facebook in addition to face-to-face learning, and then a third group was chosen
as the control group (26 students) who followed the course through face-to-face learning
alone.

4.5Tools of Study

4.5.1 Mid-term and final theory tests of the (304) course

Among the policies of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the College of
Basic Education is that the achievement tests in the department’s compulsory courses are to
be prepared by a specialised committee (team) consisting of a small group of academics from

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the same department. And the General Teaching Method Course (304) is one of these
compulsory courses, so that every year the specialised committee has to design and prepare
the achievement tests in this course (304). And of course, one of the most important roles that
the committee has is to check the validity and reliability of the achievement tests they
prepare. So they normally would have already checked the following:

- To what extent is each question suitable and relative to the goals of the course?

- To what extent is each question suitable and relative to the objectives of the course
units?

- Ensuring clarity for each question linguistically.

- The correctness of the scientific content of the questions.

- Making sure that each question measures what it purports to measure.

Both achievement tests (Mid-term and Final) have been prepared on the basis of the
units’ objectives and items as featured in a book provided by the Department of Curriculum
and Instruction known as the book of the General Teaching Methods.

The mid-term test included three types of questions; the first was multiple choice (9
questions), the second was true or false (9 questions), and the third was matching (7
questions), hence a total of 25 questions.

The final test included four types of questions; the first was short answer questions
(20 questions concerned writing down the correct scientific term), the second was multiple
choice (20 questions), the third was true or false (22 questions), and the fourth was matching
(18 questions), hence a total of 80 questions.

4.5.2 Practical exam of course (304)

The Practical exam is an assessment of the students’ teaching ability. It tests students’
ability to demonstrate a range of teaching skills in a classroom context. This Practical exam is

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designed and assessed by a specialised committee (team) of the academic staff in the
Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the College of Basic Education.

The committees evaluated and assessed the students’ performance in the practical
exam, wherein every group of students in the (304) course had two examiners from the
committee of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

The aim of this practical exam as far as students are concerned is to apply what they
have learned in the course (304) in terms of their knowledge of planning, writing behavioural
objectives, and teaching to a practical classroom situation. So, every two students together
(both must be in the same discipline) have to plan and deliver a lesson for 30 minutes in the
classroom.

The practical exam included three parts of assessment; the first one is lesson planning
(includes five lesson planning criteria), the second part is implementation of the lesson
(includes seven teaching criteria), and the third part is classroom management (includes three
criteria). Students are awarded a grade by the examiners for each of the assessment criteria,
and the grades are: 1 = excellent, 0.5 = good, 0 = weak or not included.

4.5.3 Students’ satisfaction questionnaire

- The objective was to measure the degree of satisfaction among students with
regard to the General Teaching Method Course (304). The questionnaire focused
on three dimensions expressing students’ satisfaction with the teaching method of
the course, the content of the course, and the instructor’s support.
- This questionnaire was designed with help from three previous questionnaires; the
first was the Student Satisfaction questionnaire (2004) that was applied to students
at the University of Western Sydney, the second was the Student Satisfaction
questionnaire (2005) which was applied to students of Oxford Brookes University,
and a third was by Paul Ramsden (1992) which was a questionnaire about student
satisfaction re study curricula.
- Suitable phrases were taken from these questionnaires even though they were
rephrased and modified to suit the requirements of the current study.

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- Then, the researcher submitted the questionnaire to his supervisor, Prof. Mike
Watts of Brunel University and to some academic staff at the Department of
Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Basic Education in Kuwait who
provided him with valuable comments and suggested some amendments.
- After making the required amendments, the questionnaire consists of 30
statements spread over the three main dimensions of the questionnaire: the
teaching of the course (10 statements), the content of the course (10 statements),
and the instructor’s support of the course (10 statements).
- After that, the researcher translated the questionnaire into Arabic because all the
course (304) students are Arabs who may face difficulties with filling in the
questionnaire if it was in English.
- Then, the questionnaire (Arabic version this time) was again submitted to some of
the academic staff at the Curriculum and Instruction Department for their opinions
regarding the translation, its suitability, clarity and correlation of each question
with respect to the three questionnaire dimensions, and the correctness of the
Arabic grammatical phrasing of the questions.
- After making the required amendments, the researcher asked his friend, Nawaf
(English teacher and native speaker of Arabic), to again translate the questionnaire
from Arabic to English without looking at the original version in English.
- Afterwards, the researcher made a comparison between the two English versions,
where he found no effective change in terms of meaning between the two
versions, but he consulted his supervisor who advised him to make a small
amendment to three statements.
- The questionnaire is a Likert-type scale that requires the respondent to answer
each statement by marking the appropriate box from among four choices: Strongly
disagree – Disagree – Agree – Strongly Agree.
- The reliability of the questionnaire was verified and the results of the reliability
coefficient (Cronbach's Alpha) were high as you can see in the following table:

Table (1): Cronbach's Alpha values for the dimensions of satisfaction

Dimensions of the Questionnaire Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

The Teaching Method .816 10
The Content .861 10
The Instructor’s Support .742 10
Total .922 30

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 - SPSS was used to calculate the reliability coefficient (Cronbach's Alpha)
regarding the three questionnaire dimensions.

4.5.4 Interviews

The aim of the interviews was to determine students’ opinions and perceptions with
regard to the teaching method which was used (blended learning using VLE of
Blackboard for the first experimental group, blended learning using PLE of Facebook for
the second experimental group, and face-to-face learning method for the control group) in
the General Teaching Method Course (304).

These interviews took place after the mid-term test, final test, practical test and the
satisfaction questionnaire to help explain the students’ scores in these instruments.

Group interviews were used because they provide some quality controls on data
collection and can focus on the most important topics and issues in the study. They are
also cost-effective in terms of numbers, peer discussion and interactions. The questions
and discussions of the interview were about the advantages and disadvantages of the
course (304) regarding the teaching methods, the content of the course, and the
instructor’s support for the course. There were 9 face-to-face group interviews (3
interviews for each group) conducted for every 3-4 students together in a suitable and
quiet place at the College of Basic Education. These interviews were carried out with 12
students who were randomly selected from the first experimental group (39 students in
total), with 11 students (1 apologised) from the second experimental group (31 students in
total), and with 9 students (3 apologised) from the control group (26 students in total).
And thus, the total number of students who were interviewed in all three groups was 32.
The researcher also asked the participants for permission to use a digital voice recorder
during the interviews because it would be helpful for transcribing their response later.

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4.6The implementation process (procedures) of the study

 The researcher received approval letter from the Research Ethics Committee of the
School of Sport and Education at Brunel University, confirming that there is no objection
on ethical grounds to the current study (See Appendix 1).

 The researcher acquired a letter from his research supervisor, asking the College of Basic
Education in Kuwait to allow the researcher to carry out his research at the College, and
to work with and teach three groups of female students by means of the General Teaching
Method Course (304) for the second semester of the academic year 2010 (see appendix
2).

 The researcher received a letter of consent from the Dean of the College of Basic
Education addressed to the researcher’s supervisor, confirming that the College has
agreed to allow the researcher to carry out his research at the College of Basic Education
(see appendix 3).

 The researcher also acquired a letter from his research supervisor addressed to the
Cultural Counsellor and Head of Kuwait Cultural Office in London, seeking their
permission for the researcher to carry out his research in Kuwait (see appendix 4). In
reply, the researcher received a letter of consent from the Kuwait Cultural Office in
London, confirming that they have agreed for the researcher to carry out his research at
the College of Basic Education (see appendix 5).

 Because the researcher needs cooperation with the e-learning centre at Kuwait University
for developing a space for the course (304) on the Blackboard, and for developing
usernames and passwords for the students of the first experimental group, he asked
therefore his supervisor to write a letter to Kuwait University seeking to facilitate this
favour for the researcher (see appendix 6). In response, the researcher received a call from
Kuwait University, telling him of their agreement with his supervisor’s request.

 As previously explained, the three branches (groups) who were to follow the General
Teaching Method Course (304) were chosen for the researcher by the Department of
Curriculum and Instruction in the second semester of the academic year 2010. Then,
randomly, one group was chosen (by the researcher) as the first experimental group, a

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 second group was chosen as the second experimental group, and a third group was chosen
as the control group.

 The instructor (researcher) of the course (304) was the same for the three groups; the only
difference was in the teaching method of the course.

 The researcher had a meeting with the head of the Department of Curriculum and
Instruction who provided the researcher with information about the course (304), the
course textbook, the overall objectives of the course, the behavioural objectives of the
course learning units, and the method of assessments of the course.

 After Kuwait University had provided the researcher with an instructor account on
blackboard, he started to log in so as to prepare the course (304) for the first experimental
group.

 The researcher had a meeting with the administrator of the Blackboard at the E-learning
centre of Kuwait University in order to add and create usernames and passwords for all
students in the first experimental group.

 Sources and educational materials (books, educational links from the Internet, educational
films, and PowerPoint presentations), which help achieve the educational objectives of
the course (304) were collected.

 The researcher found that the course textbook provided by the Department of Curriculum
and Instruction does not contain interactive activities and enough examples, so the
researcher (based on the objectives of the course) prepared educational activities,
illustrative examples and self-assessment questions by designing PowerPoint slides. It
was presented to a group of arbitrators from the academic staff at the Department of
Curriculum and Instruction and who are specialists in the General Teaching Methods
course (304) for their feedback and assessment before installing them on Blackboard or
uploading them onto Facebook. After that, only the first unit of the course (304) was
uploaded onto the Blackboard system, and then some other arbitrators who were
specialists in ICT at the College of Basic Education also provided the researcher with
some comments and suggestions.

 The educational units of the course (304) were designed according to the model of
instructional design (ADDIE) to be electronically converted and displayed in the
Blackboard environment for the first experimental group, and in the Facebook

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 environment for the second experimental group. (I will talk about the instructional design
of this course (304) in detail later in a separate section).
 The study was applied during the period from 28 February 2010 until 17 June 2010, i.e.
for 16 weeks.
 The attendance for both first and second experimental groups was reduced by 50%, so
that students of both experimental groups attended the face-to-face class once a week
instead of twice a week. However, students of the control group (taught by face-to-face
learning alone) attended the class twice a week.

 With the beginning of the term, an introductory programme (Induction week) was
presented for each group (individually) during the first week of study and before teaching
the actual course. This programme included the following:

1. Giving the students a clear idea and a full picture of the nature of following this
course (304), its objectives and all vital information which the students need in
order to follow the course.

2. The group of learning units and titles of subjects in the General Teaching Method
Course were presented. There were brief ideas and simple information on each
subject.

3. There were presentations on all important dates such as exam dates, and start and
finish of each learning unit of the course (304).

4. All students were given information about the instructor of the course
(researcher), in addition to his email and his office working hours.

5. Students were given a Student Guide, which contains all students’ needs,
including tables of lessons titles that will be taught in the course. The guide also
provided detailed explanation on how to use the tools of the Blackboard (for the
first experimental group) and Facebook (for the second experimental group),
giving an idea on how to use these programs in the course (304).

6. An intensive short course – given by the researcher - on how to use Blackboard

and Facebook (for the experimental groups).

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 In a first meeting with students in all three groups, the researcher informed them about the
research and gave them an information sheet and a consent form (see appendix 7). He
also asked them to sign the form if they are happy to take part in this research.

 At the beginning of the application of the study, some data were collected from students
in each group regarding age, college and high school GPA, academic disciplines, average
use of computer and the internet, and marital status.

 The control group followed the course via the traditional and familiar method at the
college, by attending face-to-face lectures on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-11 am.

 The mid-term achievement test of the course (304) was given in the seventh week of the
semester (See appendix 8).

 The Practical exam of the course (304) took place in the thirteenth and fourteenth week of
the semester (See appendix 9).

 The final achievement test of the course (304) and the Student Satisfaction questionnaire
were done in the fifteenth week of the semester (See appendix 10).

 The groups’ interview was conducted in the sixteenth week of the semester (See appendix
11 example of one groups’ interview).

4.7 Challenges and difficulties I encountered

 At the beginning, I wanted to apply the study to a sample of male and female students at
the College of Basic Education. However, I did not find a big enough sample of male
students doing the General Teaching Method Course (304) in the second semester of the
academic year 2010. So, for this reason, the sample of the study was confined to female
students only, comprising three groups who followed the (304) course. On the other hand,
this was interesting for me, because it made me challenge myself to think more deeply
about how I can succeed with female students when using this new approach with them
(blended learning approach – Facebook – Blackboard - class discussion). In Kuwait, due
to its cultural context, it is often more problematic to engage young women students in
change because they tend to be more conservative, and thus not readily open to change.

 The Department of Curriculum and Instruction obliged me to use the course textbook to
teach the students who followed this course (304). They also asked me to make students

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 buy this big book with more than 400 pages as the main textbook of the course (304). But
I found this book to be written in a rather traditional way, which means that I found it not
to contain interactive activities and enough examples.

 Some of the classrooms do not have a data-show projector system, and so I had to buy a
small one (LG projector).

 There was no access to the internet in all the classrooms where I taught! So I bought a
high speed internet USB from Al-Wataniya company. This small device was easy to use
on my laptop.

 I knew that some classrooms in the college do not have a data-show projector or internet.
That is why I asked my supervisor, Prof. Mike Watts, to write a letter to the Dean of the
College of Basic Education (see appendix 2), requesting that such facilities be made
available in the classrooms for my use. Their reply to Prof. Watts’ letter was positive (see
appendix 3), even stating that they have no objection to my study requirements!
(However, I later found out that this was not the case).

 The Department of Curriculum and Instruction did not provide me with a desk or place
where I could set myself up! I really suffered from this because every instructor or
lecturer needs a desk to prepare himself and review the objectives of whatever activities
he needs to use in the class before the start of the lecture. Sometimes, I used my car to
wait for the next lecture and sometimes I went to the library. And for the students, there
were no problems with the experimental groups because my office hours were available
online, but there were problems with the control group. That is why I asked a friend (one
of the academic staff at the Department of the Curriculum and Instruction) to use his desk
twice for two hours a week (as office hours for the control group). I also asked students in
all groups at the end of each lesson (lecture) if any of them would want to ask me
something or want to speak with me.

 Some students were reluctant to use Facebook for family reasons: their family thinks that
if anyone creates an account on Facebook, anyone can view their information and
pictures, etc. I told them that in Facebook, you can manage your privacy settings to hide
your information and pictures from people you do not wish to have access to them. And
they said, “We know that and we tried to convince our families that we need to use
Facebook in this course for academic purposes but they just don’t want to understand”. In
Kuwait, as in other Arab countries, there is unfortunately the community’s perception of

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 women which is still very different from that of men. For example, in some situations, if a
certain man has done something wrong, it is very easy for the community to forget it, but
if a woman has done the same wrong, it is very difficult if not impossible to forget it. This
perception of women still exists in some Kuwaiti families, who tend to exert more control
on their women, while giving full freedom to their young men to do whatever they want.

 Some students do not use computers and the internet (they have no computer skills).
Also, some of them do not have any email address. (I gave them a brief training course on
using computers and creating emails).
 There was a problem with Kuwait University though – specifically the E-learning
Department - which had given me space on their server to create and design the VLE
Blackboard course for the first experimental group in the study. However, they blocked
my username, such that I could not access this online blackboard course anymore so as to
view all the information relating to the participants of the course. They explained that
they have decided to block my access to the course because I have finished teaching this
group and I am no longer one of the academic staff at Kuwait University. I told them that
I must have access to the Blackboard course because I needed this for my research. It was
then that I asked my supervisor, Mike Watts, to write a letter to them (see Appendix 11),
requesting that I be allowed access to the Blackboard. I waited for about 6 months before
receiving their agreement for me to have access again to my Blackboard course, but this
time only for a limited period.
 I also had difficulty when I started to transcribe the interviews. I took longer to transcribe
them than I had anticipated. And so, I bought a USB foot pedal for transcription which
helped me greatly and facilitated the transcription. It was also very helpful in saving me
much time and effort during the transcription.

4.8 Instructional Design of the General Teaching Method Course (304)

This part will deal with the process of designing blended learning for the General
Teaching Methods course (304) via the five stages in the ADDIE instructional design model.
The ADDIE model is a systematic instructional design model consisting of five phases: (1)
Analysis, (2) Design, (3) Development, (4) Implementation, and (5) Evaluation. This model
is built on the common characteristics of instructional design models, and can be used in the

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design of any type of teaching or training, for both online and face-to-face learning, as well as
helping to develop a common vision for the development of e-learning (Driscol, 2002).

Each stage of this ADDIE instructional design model includes a set of sub-steps that
must be taken into account until the design process becomes integrated. Shelton and Saltsman
(2011) and Alsaleh (2005) mentioned these steps of the ADDIE model and its sub-steps when
using this model for teaching online.
In the following paragraphs, the most important steps and procedures taken by the researcher
regarding the design of this course (304) in the light of these five stages will be displayed.
The tasks required at each stage of the model referred to the following:

4.8.1 Analysis phase

In the analysis phase, the areas required or needed are identified, the instructional goals
and objectives are established, the target audience and environment are defined, and the
learner's existing knowledge and skills are identified.

At this stage, the researcher performed the following steps (tasks):

 Course Definition:

The General Teaching Method Course (304) is one of the academic theoretical courses that
are taught at the College of Basic Education, Kuwait. The targets of this course include
preparing student teachers for the teaching profession through training them in basic teaching
strategies, methodologies, and skills. This is a general compulsory course (module) for all
students who register at the College of Basic Education in four academic departments:
English department, Physical Education department, Art department and the Music
department.

The General Teaching Method Course (304) contains five main units covering the following
topics: the concept of curriculum (the traditional and modern concept), the differences
between them, and the importance of the modern concept of curriculum. It also addresses the
educational concepts faced by the teacher during the teaching process. This is in addition to
addressing the planning aspects of the teaching process, which enables the teacher to deal

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with the course content. It also deals with the teaching skills necessary for the teacher during
class teaching. The content of the course also offers different types of teaching methods.

 Objectives Definition:

All the objectives of the General Teaching Method Course (304) are approved and provided
by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the College of Basic Education. The head
of the department provided the researcher with a copy of these objectives of the course (304),
and the researcher was obliged to make use of these objectives throughout the course.

Unit one: Curriculum Concept

At the end of this unit, the student will be able to:

1. Explain the concept of the curriculum.

2. Compare the traditional and modern concept of the curriculum.
3. Identify the negative aspects of the traditional curriculum.
4. Ascertain the factors that helped with the emergence of the modern concept of the
curriculum.
5. Recognize the elements of the modern curriculum.

Unit Two: Some important educational concepts

At the end of this unit, the student will be able to:

1. Compare between the concept of teaching and the concept of learning.

2. Recognise the relationship between the concept of teaching and the concept of
learning.
3. Recognise the various stages of the teaching process.
4. Recognise the characteristics of a successful teacher.
5. Identify the duties of the teacher.

Unit Three: Planning for teaching

At the end of this unit, the student will be able to:

1. Recognise the meaning of planning.

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 2. Explain the relationship between the teaching and planning.
3. Illustrate the importance of planning in terms of the teacher and students.
4. Recognise the type of planning in teaching.
5. Identify the elements of the daily lesson plan.
6. Explain what behaviour learning objectives mean.
7. Recognise the condition for behaviour objectives.
8. Give examples of correct behaviour objectives.
9. Recognize the common mistakes when writing behaviour objectives.
10. Develop a daily lesson plan in the field of his discipline.

Unit Four: Implementation of teaching

At the end of this unit, the student will be able to:

1. Explain the importance of the warm-up teaching skill at the beginning of the lesson to
the class.
2. Give examples of a warm-up lesson in a variety of teaching positions.
3. Explain the importance of reinforcement.
4. Give examples of reinforcement.
5. Explain the importance of class management skill.
6. Recognise the correct methods of using the question skill.
7. Explain the meaning and purposes of evaluation.
8. Explore the difference between evaluation and measurement.
9. Explain the various types of evaluation.
10. Recognise the types of questions in the tests.

Unit Five: Various Types of Teaching Method

At the end of this unit, the student will be able to:

1. Explain what is meant by a teaching method.

2. List the various methods of teaching.
3. Define the lecture method and state its advantages and disadvantages.
4. State what discussion method is and state the advantages and disadvantages.

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 5. Explain the demonstration method of teaching and list the advantages and
disadvantages.
6. Explain the project method of teaching and outline the advantages and disadvantages.
7. Explain the Game and Puzzles Method of teaching and list some examples.
8. Explain the problem solving method of teaching and list the advantages and
disadvantages.
9. Define the Cooperative Learning Method and state the advantages and disadvantages.
10. State when and where each method may be applicable.

 Audience Definition:
The students include 96 female student teachers whose age ranged between 19 and 22 years
and registered in three branches of the General Teaching Method Course (304) at the College
of Basic Education in Kuwait. All students who must take this course (304) come from four
academic departments: English, Art, Physical Education, and Music. All of them are full time
students who have not previously studied using eLearning or the blended learning method in
this college; they used to study using the traditional teaching method only. All of them are in
their first or second year of undergraduate study at the college, and all of them live in Kuwait
and not far from the college. All of them are Arab students, so their main and first language is
Arabic.

 Environment Definition:

The current situation in the College of Basic Education in Kuwait is for the academic staff
not to use the blended learning method for teaching purposes. The desired mode is to use the
blended learning method of teaching at the College of Basic Education. At this stage, one of
the tasks that the researcher has is taking a tour of the classroom at the College of Basic
Education, where he found that not all classrooms have data show projector system and
internet access. That is why he asked his supervisor, Prof. Mike Watts, to write a letter to the
Dean at the College of Basic Education requesting that such facilities be made available in
the classrooms that the researcher would use for teaching.

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 Delivery System:

The decision is to use the blended learning method of teaching (using VLE of Blackboard)
for the first experimental group, and PLE of Facebook for the second experimental group. In
the College of Basic Education, as explained above, the students used to be taught the Face-
to-Face learning method alone, so it will be very difficult for them to follow any course using
purely or totally online teaching method without any meeting with the instructor inside a real
classroom at the College. In addition to that, the geographical nature and the small size of the
State of Kuwait do not require the use of the online teaching method alone, as there is no
problem at all with distances in terms of students getting to the college. Therefore, the
appropriate decision for students at the College of Basic Education is using the blended
learning teaching method, which combines the advantages of the two methods of teaching
(face-to-face and online learning).

4.8.2 Design Phase

This phase deals with lesson planning, activities relating to the content of the course, training
courses required, selected suitable multimedia, identifying strategies of the content,
identifying the aims for designing the course on VLE or PLE, and assessment criteria.

At this stage, the researcher performed the following steps (tasks):

 Activities:

Because the researcher found that the textbook of the course (304) provided by the
Department of Curriculum and Instruction does not contain interactive activities and enough
examples, I (based on the objectives of the five educational units of the course) prepared
educational activities, illustrative examples and self-assessment questions by designing
PowerPoint slides. I tried to select and create activities that engage the students during class.
It was presented to a group of arbitrators comprising academic staff members at the
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and who are specialists in the General Teaching
Methods Course (304), for their feedback over the activities, examples and self-assessment
questions before installing them on Blackboard or being uploaded to Facebook.

 Time allocated for teaching:

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The period of teaching the course (304) and all the assessment tests was already allocated by
the Department of Curriculum and Instruction for the period from 28 February 2010 until 17
June 2010, i.e. for 16 weeks.

 Attendance requirements:

The policy of the college for students who registered in this course (304) is to attend class
(face-to-face) 4 hours a week in two separate days (2 hours each day). Attendance at lectures
is compulsory for all college students.
And because the two groups in this course (304) will study via the blended learning method
of teaching, that is why I asked the college to reduce the attendance of both first and second
experimental groups by 50%, and to ask the students in these two experimental groups to
attend the class once a week (2 hours face-to-face) instead of twice a week (4 hours face-to-
face).

 How to teach the experimental groups and the control group

In terms of the experimental groups, I decided to do the following: during the face-to-face
class, he will explain the concepts to the students though only briefly instead of details using
PowerPoint slides, followed by some discussion, working in groups, and then outside the
class, the students have to go online using VLE of Blackboard (for the first experimental
group), and PLE of Facebook (for the second experimental group) to discuss online using the
discussion board with other students in the course, doing some research so as to be able to
participate, ask online questions to the instructor especially if there are some clarifications
required. Then, in the next face-to-face meeting in class, there is a specific time (first 15
minutes) at the beginning of the lecture, where students are given the chance to ask or say
something relating to the online discussion and online activities, and also to learn if they
faced some difficulties using the tools of Blackboard or Facebook.
In terms of the control group, I decided to use the familiar method of teaching used at the
College of Basic Education which is the face-to-face learning method of teaching alone.

 Blackboard and Facebook:

I decided to use Blackboard and Facebook for the first and second experimental groups
because of the following:

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 - To benefit from the interactive environments of Blackboard or Facebook, thereby
engaging students to participate in the discussions and activities or exchange ideas
and experiences.
- To benefit from the communication tools available in Blackboard and Facebook, the
communication can be between the student and the rest of his classmates or the
instructor of the course (researcher).
- Benefiting from the self-assessment questions tool available in the blackboard which
relays immediate feedback to the student when participating in answering questions in
this tool.
- Reference activities: these include books and references which the instructor of the
course (researcher) can give to his students in the form of Word or PDF files for
students to download or through hyperlinks in some useful sites available on the web
and related to the curriculum.

 Instructional Strategies in Teaching the Course (304)

Competition and Tangible Rewards: I decided to use some interactive competitive

activities whether in the classroom or outside the classroom to motivate and engage students
to learn. For example, one of these competitive activities was to divide the students into
groups, and then each group had to choose one student. This student would go to the
instructor (researcher), and the instructor would give him one educational concept (without
the rest of the students hearing it), then the student has to perform in a limited time (2
minutes) in front of his group (without talking) by trying to deliver the educational concept
using his body language or the board if he would like to draw something that can lead
students or help them identify this concept. The winning group is the one who can give the
correct answer (“correct name of the concept”) within the two minutes. Thus, points are
scored for each group, and the winner is the group that gathered the largest number of points.
Then, the winning group is given some tangible rewards (chocolate or sweets).

Interesting Videos: One of the activities that I used to motivate students’ learning is using
some interesting flash or videos, whether inside or outside the classroom through Blackboard
or Facebook. For example, in Unit Two, when dealing with the topic of a successful and
effective teacher, there was one required educational activity where students had to watch a
video clip of a teacher in the process of teaching his students. Then, the students were asked

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to discuss it in groups (in the classroom) or through Blackboard or Facebook after watching
this clip in order to answer questions about this activity: was the teacher successful or
unsuccessful? And why?

Figure (7): The negative teacher

Figure (8): A bored student in class

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 Figure (9): Another bored student in class

I also decided to do some video interviews with a group of college academic staff at the
Department of Curriculum and Instruction to discuss any issue or topic on the General
Teaching Method (304), and then to present this video interview to the students, to be
followed by some activities regarding what they watched and listened to in these video
interviews.

Interesting and Useful Tools: At this stage, I decided to activate some useful tools in
Blackboard and Facebook. For example, I created a special corner for the students, so that
students can find feedback from his level participation in the VLE of Blackboard through the
tool of ‘My progress’. I also added another tool (My grades) for the students which would
motivate them to look for their grades online. Another important tool to be activated is Self-
Assessment Questions in the Blackboard, which provides immediate feedback when students
answer each question in this tool. In addition, there was one other very important and useful
tool, namely, the communication tools which include discussion board tool, email tool, online
working group tool, and messages tool in both Blackboard and Facebook.

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Figure (10): Communication Tools in the (304) Course on Blackboard

Figure (11): Groups’ Pages Tool in the (304) Course on Blackboard

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Figure (12): Questions to the Instructor Section on Facebook

Figure (13): Discussion Section on Facebook

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Moreover, among the matters to be decided by the researcher was activating the Chat Tool
for both the first and second experimental groups, which engaged and motivated students
enrolled in this online course.

Figure (14): Chat Tool in the (304) Course on Blackboard

Figure (15): Chat using meeboo program for the Facebook group

Learning Objectives: I decided at this stage to focus on the learning objectives of this course
(304) due to their importance to the learner by means of slide presentation. As there was
reference to the objectives to be achieved before starting to teach each educational unit, these

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should be achieved by the student at the completion of each unit. This is the learning
objectives for each unit which were not found or contained in the textbook of the course
provided by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. That is why the researcher
decided to include them in his PowerPoint slides presentation to make students focus on them
when starting to teach each unit of the course (304).

Instructional Sequence: While preparing the slide presentations and activities for this course
(304), the researcher decided to set up links and follow-up between the subjects, information
on each educational unit and between the interactive activities, so that there would be a
sequence and follow-up of the topics of the educational unit being linked to the activities. At
the beginning of each educational unit (in the power point slides), there was a set of learning
objectives for each unit, and then the information and some examples with interactive
activities dealing with these objectives in a certain order. Every concept and information had
been put up in the content of the Unit paving the way for interactive activity, and after each
activity there was a feedback, and then there were comments on this feedback. And then, at
the end of the unit there were conclusion and self-assessment questions, and the same goes
for each educational unit.

Diversity in the activities: There was diversity in terms of the educational activities used in
this course (304), whether in the classroom or outside the classroom through Blackboard or
Facebook. As pointed out, the researcher used flash and videos in some activities, also in
some competitive activities. There were some activities that make the student think about
what to do if he was put in a specific educational situation with his fellow students in class:
what is he going to do? How will he deal with this situation in the class? Some other
activities asked the student to visit specific websites, and to do some research seeking
answers to questions in the activity.

Feedback: For the first experimental group, a self-assessment tool through the Blackboard
system was used in the course (304). This tool gives students a good opportunity to receive
direct feedback, because the researcher has put questions in this tool covering the objectives
of each educational unit in the course (304), and so to enhance the process of achieving the
course objectives, the student is able to receive direct and immediate feedback when
answering these questions:

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 Figure (16): Self-assessment questions and direct feedback

Also, one of the feedback forms that were given to the students in both the first and
second experimental groups was through the use of private email for each student, as well as
through private messaging through Facebook or Blackboard. In this case, the researcher
decided to explain to each student the weakness points as seen in his work, but also display
the strong points in the student’s work. There was also feedback to all students of the three
groups in the classroom after the completion and performance of a particular activity, at the
end of each face-to-face lecture or during office hours.

In addition, the discussion tool in this course (304) has been employed to be an effective
tool in the subject of feedback, which gives students the opportunity to practice learning
through sharing their views on the discussion topics which have a link to the learning
objectives of each educational unit in the course (304). The role of the researcher was to
determine the direction of some posts in the discussions, especially in cases where he noted a
lack of understanding among some students on certain topics of discussion on Blackboard or
Facebook. So, sometimes the researcher had to join the online discussion to adjust the
direction of some of the posts and to correct any misunderstandings, thereby helping students
keep to the main topic of the discussion.

 Assessment Method and Grading

I had to follow the directives from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction when it
came to assessment methods and grading. The head of the department provided me with a
copy of the assessment method for the course (304), which I was obliged to use:

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 Table (2): assessment method for the course (304)

Assessment Methods Grades

Mid-term Test 25

Practical Test 15

Discussions and Participations 15

Attendance 5

Final Test 40

Total 100

4.8.3 Development Phase

At this stage, the plan and design specifications made in the previous phase (design) were
produced, and then converted into a product which can be used with electronic content
through the Virtual Learning Environment (Blackboard) and Facebook, all for the sake of
meeting the needs of learners in this course (304).
Also, at this stage I made a full and careful review of the materials, activities and strategies
that were designed for the last phase. I also uploaded all the required files into Blackboard
and Facebook.

Both VLE of Blackboard and PLE of Facebook have been tested in this phase in order
to improve them, in which case I accessed the course (304) through Blackboard and
Facebook once as instructor (designer) and in another time as a student. Afterwards, some
adjustments were made due to some spelling mistakes and technical errors. Then, I asked
some of the academic staff at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction to make a full
review and to consult them about their opinions regarding the design of the course (304).
After making the required amendments, I asked some of the academic staff again to make one
final check of both Blackboard and Facebook regarding course (304).

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 4.8.4 Implementation phase

This is the actual application of the system (Blended learning using Blackboard and
Facebook) to the course (304), and this stage comes after the development process.

At this stage, the blended learning teaching method using VLE of Blackboard (for the
first experimental group) and PLE of Facebook (for the second experimental group) are
applied to students in the General Teaching Method Course (304), while the control group are
taught using the face-to-face learning method alone. In this phase, I applied all that have been
planned in the design phase, and collected all the data that I needed.

4.8.5 Evaluation phase

This is the final phase where we consider the feedback from the students, and evaluate
their achievements in the three tests of the course (304) after having applied the blended
learning teaching method using VLE of Blackboard and PLE of Facebook. Moreover, the
students’ responses to the satisfaction questionnaire and interviews will be evaluated
regarding their opinions on the teaching method used in the General Teaching Method
Course (304). The evaluation will also look at the advantages and disadvantages of using
this kind of teaching method in the course in order to determine the effect (impact) of
using the blended learning teaching method compared to face-to-face learning alone.

4.9 The Statistical Methods

Data of the research was analysed using SPSS. I discussed this with some of the academic
staff at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait regarding the most suitable statistical tools
to be used in the current study. They advised me to consult one of the top experts in statistics
in the Arab world, namely, Prof. Abdulhameed Al-Abassy from Cairo University. I went
through these consultations mainly to determine the most appropriate statistical methods to be
used in this research. Accordingly, the following statistical tools were deemed the most
appropriate for data analysis:

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- The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test was used for verification of dependency of study data on
the normal distribution.
- Chi-square test and F-test were used to test the equality of the experimental and control
groups in terms of the control variables.

To assess the study hypotheses, the following tests were used:

- The Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA).
- One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).
- The Pairwise Comparisons using Scheffe’s Test.

This chapter is one of the most important in this study. It outlines why I chose a mixed-
method research approach using the Explanatory Sequential Design. It also explains why and
how I started with the collection and analysis of the quantitative data (using a quasi-
experimental approach), which has been critical for addressing the two research questions.
This is followed with the collection and analysis of the qualitative data (using group
interviews) to help explain the quantitative results. So, to achieve the aim of this study
(identifying the effect of using blended learning on female student-teachers’ achievement and
satisfaction) and to test the study hypotheses, it was necessary to design the tools that can
help me collect and analyse the quantitative data (students’ scores in the mid-term, final,
practical tests of the course in addition to their scores in the satisfaction questionnaire) and
qualitative data (students’ opinions over the method of teaching used in this course during the
group interviews) for the purpose of addressing the research questions of the study.

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Chapter 5: Results of the study
The present study addresses the impact of blended learning on academic achievement and
female students’ level of satisfaction. Accordingly, certain tools have been developed to
examine the study hypotheses. Having applied these tools, and after obtaining the data, the
results of analysis of these data will be presented in the present chapter. It starts with the
results related to verification on dependency of the study data on the normal distribution, and
then the results related to the equality of the control and experimental groups on the control
variables. This is followed by a presentation of results related to the study hypotheses, before
a discussion is made of these results.

5.1 Verification of dependency of study data on the normal distribution

Initially, the researcher tested the dependency of the study data on the normal distribution
(as a whole and for each group separately). The researcher used the statistical program
SPSS18, and applied it to the dependent variables represented by the academic achievement,
which include Mid-term test, Final test, and Practical test. This was in addition to the level of
satisfaction among female students with the course (304), three dimensions of satisfaction
(the teaching method – the content – the instructor support), and the control variables
including GPA for both college and high school students and the rate of female students who
use computers and the Internet. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test was used, which showed that
the overall data and that for each of the three groups are in dependency of the dependent
variables to the normal distribution, where the probability of error P-value or (Sig.) was more
than 5%. This shows that the dependent variables and the control ones of the three groups
follow the normal distribution, and this is what leads us to use the Parametric Tests except for
the satisfaction of the instructor support in the total sample, which is close to 5% (0.045) as
shown by the following table:

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 Table (3): shows test results for the dependence on the normal distribution of the three groups
and for the whole sample

(N=39) EXP 1 (N=31) EXP 2 (N=26) CON (N=96) Total

Variable
Statist Sig Std Statist Sig Std Statist Sig Std Statist Sig Std

GPA HS 0.787 0.565 8.387 0.537 0.935 5.460 0.912 0.376 5.865 0.969 0.304 6.973

GPA College 0.561 0.912 0.727 0.901 0.391 0.919 0.549 0.924 0.609 1.089 0.187 0.759

Computer & 17.38

0.759 0.611 16.808 0.903 0.389 17.732 1.250 0.088 18.345 1.499 0.022
Internet 7
Midterm
0.675 0.752 3.067 0.948 0.330 3.499 0.864 0.444 2.892 0.969 0.305 3.273
Test
12.88
Final Test 1.337 0.056 11.4 5 0.618 0.840 12.591 0.996 0.274 12.378 1.070 0.202
3
Practical
0.655 0.785 0.203 0.614 0.846 0.196 0.794 0.554 0.298 1.078 0.196 0.232
Test
Satisf. of TM 0.705 0.703 0.335 0.675 0.752 0.317 1.112 0.169 0.360 1.215 0.105 0.368

Satisf. of
0.822 0.509 0.285 0.539 0.933 0.320 0.775 0.585 0.387 1.212 0.106 0.328
Cont
Satisf. of
0.908 0.382 0.239 1.067 0.205 0.291 0.610 0.850 0.321 1.378 0.045 0.290
Instuctor S

Satisfaction 0.777 0.582 0.760 0.502 0.963 0.848 0.424 0.994 0.904 0.936 0.346 0.873

5.2 Equality of the experimental and control groups in terms of the control
variables

As already mentioned in chapter 4, the control variables of the current study are GPA for
both college and high school, students’ use of computers and internet, students’ academic
disciplines, and students’ marital status.

To investigate the significant differences between the three groups (the two experimental
groups and the control group) in these control variables, and to check the equivalence of
experimental groups and control group in the qualitative control variables, which include the
academic disciplines and the marital status, the Chi-square test was used. It was found that
the value of the test by the academic disciplines is not significant, meaning that the three
groups were equal in the academic disciplines’ variable. The results further showed that the
value of the test by the marital status is not significant, meaning that the three groups were
also equal in the marital status variable as reflected in the following table:

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 Table (4): results of the chi square test for the differences between the groups as per academic
discipline and marital status
Groups Chi-S.
Variables Total
EXP1. EXP2. CONT. (Sig.)
English 15 12 10 37
Art 3 3 3 9 6.731
Disciplines
Music 17 11 5 33 (0.346)
PE 4 5 8 17
Marital Single 33 29 21 83
Status 2.163
Married 6 2 5 13
(0.339)
Total 39 31 26 96

To check the equivalence of the three groups in the quantitative control variables (GPA
for both college and high school - students’ use of computers and internet), the researcher
calculated the equivalence of these variables through the F-test, and their significance and
results are shown the following table:

Table (5): Results of F-test for the differences between the groups as per GPA for both college
and high school and students’ use of computers and internet
High School Computer
Groups College GPA & Internet
F (Sig.)
GPA
Mean 76.84 2.44 21.94
2.024
EXP 1 Std. Dev. 8.39 0.73 16.81
(0.138)
N 39 39 39
Mean 74.11 2.45 23.19
0.013
EXP 2 Std. Dev. 5.46 0.92 17.73
(0.987)
N 31 31 31
Mean 77.46 2.42 20.08
0.224
CONT Std. Dev. 5.86 0.61 18.35
(0.799)
N 26 26 26
Mean 76.13 2.44 21.84
Total Std. Dev. 6.97 0.76 17.39
N 96 96 96

Table (5) shows the mean values and standard deviations as well as the F value for the
quantitative control variables of the three groups. It is clear from the table that the high
school GPA for the control group is higher than each of the two experimental groups. While
we find that the college GPA and rate of computer and Internet use for the control group are
slightly less than the two experimental groups, the differences between the three groups in
terms of the quantitative control variables were not significant, and this was reflected in the

138
F-test value in Table (5). This means that the three groups were equal in terms of the three
quantitative control variables. Based on these results, we can safely say that the three groups
were equal in the quantitative and qualitative control variables before applying the
experimental treatment.

5.3 Results related to the first hypothesis

The first hypothesis states the following: "The use of the Blended Learning method in the
General Teaching Method Course (304) leads to better academic achievement as compared
with the face to face learning alone".

The post-achievement test was applied (mid-term test - final test - practical test) to the
General Teaching Method Course (304), and the data of the female students’ results in these
tests have been statistically analysed in order to compare students’ grades in the two
experimental groups (each separately) with the grades of students in the control group. This
was carried out in order to determine the impact of using the blended learning method on
academic achievement compared to the face-to-face learning method alone. Means and
standard deviations were calculated for students of the three groups.

To test the first hypothesis, the Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) method
was used. The MANOVA is a type of multivariate analysis used to analyse data that involves
more than one dependent variable at a time. MANOVA allows us to test hypotheses
regarding the effect of one or more independent variables on two or more dependent
variables. It is often used to detect differences in the average (means) values of the dependent
variables between the different levels of the independent variable. It is simply an ANOVA
with several dependent variables. (http://www.statisticspower.com/methods/manova.html).

Table (6) shows a summary of the results of the multivariate analysis of variance,
MANOVA, where the group of dependent variables included the three main dimensions of
the achievement:
1.Mid-term test
2. End of year test (final)

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3. Practical test

There is of course the independent descriptive variable, which is the experimental

treatment of the groups (after testing equality of the three groups in each of GPA for both
college and high school, the use of computers and Internet, disciplines and marital status),
where the original hypothesis is tested (null), stating the equality of means vector of the
dependent variables across the categories of descriptive independent variable (the treatment
for the groups) against the alternative hypothesis of inequality, in addition to the Intercept.

Table (6): Summary of results of the Multivariate Analysis of Variance MANOVA, F test and
its significance for the first hypothesis

Hypothesis Partial Eta

Effect Value F Error df Sig.
df Squared
Pillai's Trace 0.992 4002.624 3 91 0.000 0.992
Wilks' Lambda 0.008 4002.624 3 91 0.000 0.992
Intercept
Hotelling's Trace 131.955 4002.624 3 91 0.000 0.992
Roy's Largest Root 131.955 4002.624 3 91 0.000 0.992
Pillai's Trace 0.173 2.908 6 184 0.010 0.087
Wilks' Lambda 0.830 2.960 6 182 0.009 0.089
Groups
Hotelling's Trace 0.201 3.010 6 180 0.008 0.091
Roy's Largest Root 0.178 5.459 3 92 0.002 0.151

Based on the previous table and taking the significance level to be 5% as criterion for the
entry of independent variables, it is clear that there are significant differences in the three
main dimensions of academic achievement by groups, in addition to the Intercept. The
percentage of interpretation for each independent factor is between 8.7% and 15.1%, and
99.2% for the model as a whole.

Table (7) shows a summary of results of a one-way analysis of variance ANOVA for
three dimensions of achievement according to the group and percentage of explanation for
each one.

140
 Table (7): Summary of results of One-Way ANOVA, for the first hypothesis

Type III
Mean Partial Eta
Source Sum of df F Sig.
Square Squared
Squares
Mid Total Score 84.052 2 42.026 4.185 0.018 0.083
Corrected
Final Total Score 2229.486 2 1114.743 7.658 0.001 0.141
Model
Practical Total Score 0.151 2 0.076 1.421 0.247 0.030
Mid Total Score 19611.787 1 19611.787 1952.976 0.000 0.955
Intercept Final Total Score 308445.649 1 308445.649 2118.966 0.000 0.958
Practical Total Score 650.495 1 650.495 12240.945 0.000 0.992
Mid Total Score 84.052 2 42.026 4.185 0.018 0.083
Groups Final Total Score 2229.486 2 1114.743 7.658 0.001 0.141
Practical Total Score 0.151 2 0.076 1.421 0.247 0.030
Mid Total Score 933.906 93 10.042
Error Final Total Score 13537.473 93 145.564
Practical Total Score 4.942 93 0.053
Mid Total Score 21610.000 96
Total Final Total Score 341734.000 96
Practical Total Score 675.724 96
Mid Total Score 1017.958 95
Corrected
Final Total Score 15766.958 95
Total
Practical Total Score 5.093 95

a. R Squared = .083 (Adjusted R Squared = .063)

b. R Squared = .141 (Adjusted R Squared = .123)
c. R Squared = .030 (Adjusted R Squared = .009)

It is clear that there are statistically significant differences for the groups (the treatment)
at the mid-term test and the final test, but with non-significant differences for the practical
test. The interpretation percentages for the three dependent variables of achievement are
respectively 8.3% (for the mid-term test), 14.1% (for the final test) and 3.0% (for the
practical test). It is clear that the impact of the group (the treatment) is due mostly to the final
test, when the percentage of interpretation between the mid-term and final test results is
doubled in the final test, which may indicate that the impact of using blended learning in
teaching a course over the long term leads to better achievement results compared with face-
to-face learning alone.

Table (8) shows the Pairwise Comparisons test results using Scheffe’ Test for the three
dimensions of achievement by the three groups (the first and second experimental groups and
the control group).

141
 Table (8): Test results of the Pairwise Comparisons between the three groups for academic
achievement using Scheffe’ Test

Scheffe Test Mean 95% Confidence Interval

Dependent Difference Std. Error Sig. Lower Upper
Groups (I-J)
Variable Bound Bound
EXP2. 0.977 0.763 0.443 -0.920 2.874
EXP1.
CONT. 2.32* 0.802 0.018 0.325 4.316
Mid Total EXP1. -0.977 0.763 0.443 -2.874 0.920
EXP2.
Score CONT. 1.344 0.843 0.285 -0.753 3.440
*
EXP1. -2.32 0.802 0.018 -4.316 -0.325
CONT.
EXP2. -1.344 0.843 0.285 -3.440 0.753
EXP2. 5.868 2.903 0.135 -1.354 13.091
EXP1. *
CONT. 11.88 3.055 0.001 4.285 19.484
Final Total EXP1. -5.868 2.903 0.135 -13.091 1.354
EXP2.
Score CONT. 6.016 3.208 0.178 -1.966 13.998
*
EXP1. -11.88 3.055 0.001 -19.484 -4.285
CONT.
EXP2. -6.016 3.208 0.178 -13.998 1.966
EXP2. -0.033 0.055 0.842 -0.171 0.105
EXP1.
CONT. 0.069 0.058 0.497 -0.076 0.214
Practical EXP1. 0.033 0.055 0.842 -0.105 0.171
Total EXP2.
Score CONT. 0.102 0.061 0.257 -0.051 0.254
EXP1. -0.069 0.058 0.497 -0.214 0.076
CONT.
EXP2. -0.102 0.061 0.257 -0.254 0.051

As seen from the table, the difference was not significant in the practical test grade
between the first and second experimental groups compared to the control group at the
significance level of 5%, whereas the difference (2.32) was significant in the mid-term test
for the first experimental group compared to the control group with mean of 15.59 and 13.27
respectively at the significance level of 5%. On the other hand, the (11.88) difference was
significant in the final test for the first experimental group compared to the control group
with mean of 63.38 and 51.50 respectively at the significance level of 5%.

Based on the above, we accept the first hypothesis, which states that "using the method of
blended learning in the General Teaching Method Course (304) leads to better academic
achievement compared with the method of face-to-face learning alone". This proved that
there is a significant impact for the experimental treatment of the first experimental group
compared to the control group at level of 5%.

142
The following figures demonstrate the above conclusion for the three dependent
variables of academic achievement by the three groups:

Figure (17): Estimate for the means of mid-term test by groups for the first hypothesis

Figure (18): Estimate for the means of the final test by groups for the first hypothesis

143
 Figure (19): estimate for the means of the practical test by groups for the first hypothesis

5.4 Results related to the second hypothesis

The second hypothesis states the following: "Using the method of blended learning in the
General Teaching Methods Course (304) leads to better satisfaction compared with the
method of face to face learning alone."

Having applied the post-test for the satisfaction of the three groups by means of the
satisfaction questionnaire with the Course (304) in its three dimensions (the teaching method,
content, and instructor support), data resulting from this questionnaire were statistically
processed to compare the grades of the first and second experimental groups (each
separately) with the grades of the control group to determine the effect of using blended
learning on students’ satisfaction compared to face to face learning alone. Means and
standard deviations were also calculated for the students’ grades according to the three
groups.

144
 To test the second hypothesis, the Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) method
was used. As we have mentioned, The MANOVA is a type of multivariate analysis used to
analyse data that involves more than one dependent variable at a time. MANOVA allows us
to test hypotheses regarding the effect of one or more independent variables on two or more
dependent variables. It is often used to detect differences in the average (means) values of the
dependent variables between the different levels of the independent variable. It is simply an
ANOVA with several dependent variables.

(http://www.statisticspower.com/methods/manova.html).

Table (9) shows a summary of the results of the Multivariate Analysis of Variance
MANOVA, where the group of dependent variables include the three main dimensions of
satisfaction, which are:

1. Teaching method.
2. Content.
3. Instructor Support.

Table (9): Summary of the Multivariate Analysis of Variance MANOVA, F test and its
significance for the second hypothesis

Partial
Hypothesis
Effect Value F Error df Sig. Eta
df
Squared

Pillai's Trace 0.994 4884.363 3 91 0.000 0.994

Wilks' Lambda 0.006 4884.363 3 91 0.000 0.994

Intercept
Hotelling's Trace 161.023 4884.363 3 91 0.000 0.994

Roy's Largest Root 161.023 4884.363 3 91 0.000 0.994

Pillai's Trace 0.237 4.116 6 184 0.001 0.118

Wilks' Lambda 0.766 4.322 6 182 0.000 0.125

Groups
Hotelling's Trace 0.302 4.523 6 180 0.000 0.131

Roy's Largest Root 0.289 8.857 3 92 0.000 0.224

145
 From the previous table and taking the significance level of 5% as criterion for the entry
of independent variables, it is clear that there are significant differences in the three main
dimensions of satisfaction by groups, in addition to the Intercept. The percentage of
interpretation for each independent factor is between 11.8% and 22.4%, and 99.4% for the
model as a whole.

Table (10) shows a summary of results from a one-way analysis of variance ANOVA, for
the three dimensions of satisfaction according to the group and percentage of explanation for
each one. Table (11) shows the Pairwise Comparisons test results using Scheffe’ Test for the
three dimensions of satisfaction by the three groups (the first and second experimental groups
and the control group).

It is clear that there are statistically significant differences for the group (the treatment) in
both dimensions of the teaching method and the instructor support, and there were no
significant differences for the course content dimension at the 5% level of significance per
groups. The percentage of interpretation with the three dependent variables of satisfaction
was respectively 18.1% (for the teaching method), 3.3% (for the content), 8.7% (for the
instructor support). It is clear that the effect on the group (the treatment) was due mostly to
the teaching method, which emphasises that using the method of blended learning leads to
greater satisfaction among female students compared to the method of face to face learning
alone.

146
 Table (10): Summary of results from one-way analysis of variance ANOVA for the second
hypothesis

Type III Partial

Mean
Source Sum of df F Sig. Eta
Square
Squares Squared
Teaching Method 2.329 2 1.165 10.277 0.000 0.181
Corrected
Content 0.340 2 0.170 1.594 0.209 0.033
Model
Instructor's Support 0.693 2 0.347 4.422 0.015 0.087

Teaching Method 1092.858 1 1092.858 9642.727 0.000 0.990

Intercept Content 1138.576 1 1138.576 10684.683 0.000 0.991

Instructor's Support 1052.740 1 1052.740 13431.499 0.000 0.993

Teaching Method 2.329 2 1.165 10.277 0.000 0.181

Groups Content 0.340 2 0.170 1.594 0.209 0.033

Instructor's Support 0.693 2 0.347 4.422 0.015 0.087

Teaching Method 10.540 93 0.113

Error Content 9.910 93 0.107

Instructor's Support 7.289 93 0.078

Teaching Method 1148.620 96

Total Content 1186.950 96

Instructor's Support 1098.110 96

Teaching Method 12.870 95

Corrected
Content 10.250 95
Total
Instructor's Support 7.982 95

a. R Squared = .181 (Adjusted R Squared = .163)

b. R Squared = .033 (Adjusted R Squared = .012)
c. R Squared = .087 (Adjusted R Squared = .067)

Table (11) shows the test results of the Pairwise Comparisons test between the three
groups (the first and second experimental groups and the control group) for the satisfaction
with its three dimensions using Scheffe’ Test.

147
 Table (11): Test results of the Pairwise Comparisons test between the three groups for the
Satisfaction using Scheffe’ Test

Scheffe’ Test 95% Confidence

Mean
Std. Interval
Difference Sig.
Variable Groups Error Lower Upper
(I-J)
Dependent Bound Bound
EXP2. -0.068 0.081 0.701 -0.270 0.133
EXP1. *
CONT. .3141 0.085 0.002 0.102 0.526
Teaching EXP1. 0.068 0.081 0.701 -0.133 0.270
EXP2. *
Method CONT. .3825 0.090 0.000 0.160 0.605
*
EXP1. -.3141 0.085 0.002 -0.526 -0.102
CONT.
EXP2. -.3825* 0.090 0.000 -0.605 -0.160
EXP2. 0.041 0.079 0.873 -0.154 0.236
EXP1.
CONT. 0.146 0.083 0.215 -0.059 0.352
EXP1. -0.041 0.079 0.873 -0.236 0.154
Content EXP2.
CONT. 0.105 0.087 0.483 -0.111 0.321
EXP1. -0.146 0.083 0.215 -0.352 0.059
CONT.
EXP2. -0.105 0.087 0.483 -0.321 0.111
EXP2. 0.015 0.067 0.975 -0.152 0.183
EXP1. *
CONT. .1974 0.071 0.024 0.021 0.374
Instructor's EXP1. -0.015 0.067 0.975 -0.183 0.152
EXP2.
Support CONT. 0.182 0.074 0.055 -0.003 0.367
*
EXP1. -.1974 0.071 0.024 -0.374 -0.021
CONT.
EXP2. -0.182 0.074 0.055 -0.367 0.003

The difference was not significant in the dimension degree of the course content
between the first and second experimental groups (each separately) compared to the control
group at the level of 5% significance, while the difference (0.31) was significant in the
teaching method dimension for the first experimental group compared to the control group.
Moreover, the difference of (0.38) was significant in the teaching method dimension for the
second experimental group compared to the control group with an average (mean) of 3.50 for
the first experimental group, 3.57 for the second experimental group, and 3.19 for the control
group at the level of 5% significance. However, the difference of (0.20) was significant in the
degree of instructor support dimension for the first experimental group compared to the
control group with an average (mean) of 3.43 and 3.23 respectively at the 5% level of
significance.

148
 Based on the above, we accept the second hypothesis, which states that "using the method
of blended learning in the General Teaching Methods Course (304) leads to better satisfaction
compared with the method of face to face learning alone". This proved that there is a
significant impact for the experimental treatment of the first and second experimental groups
(each separately) compared to the control group at 5% level in the teaching method
dimension, and for the first experimental group compared to the control group in the
instructor support dimension. Therefore, I can safely say that the students of the course (304)
showed a higher level of satisfaction with the method of blended learning compared with the
method of face to face learning alone.

The following figures demonstrate the above conclusion for the three dependent
variables of satisfaction by the three groups:

Figure (20): Estimate for the teaching method dimension mean by groups for the second
hypothesis

149
Figure (21): Estimate for the content dimension mean by groups for the second hypothesis

Figure (22): estimate for the instructor support dimension mean by groups for the second
hypothesis

150
5.5 Results obtained from group interviews

The interview questions focused on the positive and the negative aspects of using
the blended learning method for the first experimental group (blended learning using VLE of
Blackboard), the second experimental group (blended learning using PLE of Facebook), and
the control (face-to-face learning) in the General Teaching Method Course (304). This was
meant to ascertain their personal points of views about the following proposal: if in the
second semester another course followed through the blended learning was presented – the
same method as the one used in the General Teaching Method Course (304) – and another
course is followed through the face-to-face learning method alone, what would you choose
and why?

There were 9 face-to-face group interviews (3 interviews for each group)

conducted for every 3-4 students together in a suitable and quiet place in the College of Basic
Education. These interviews were carried out with 12 students who were randomly selected
from the first experimental group (39 students in total), with 11 students (1 apologised) from
the second experimental group (31 students in total), and with 9 students (3 apologised) from
the control group (26 students in total). And thus, the total number of students who were
interviewed in all three groups was 32.

The following is a summary of the most important opinions from 32 students who
participated in the group interviews:

These were the positive comments about the Course (304) from the first experimental group
(blended learning using VLE of Blackboard), the second experimental group (blended
learning using PLE of Facebook), and the control group (face-to-face learning) according to
the students’ points of view:

151
 Figure (23): Positives (students’ opinions) obtained from group interviews

5.5.1 The positive comments of the teaching method of the course (304)
according to the students’ points of view

- All 12 students in the first experimental group and all 11 students in the second
experimental group agreed that the most distinctive thing about the teaching method
was that the student can learn, take lessons, send required assignments and
communicate with the instructor and the rest of the students anytime from anywhere
through communication tools in the Blackboard and Facebook, in direct contrast to the
traditional lecture through face-to-face learning where time will be limited.

 From first experimental group:

When I asked the students in the last question of the interview: If in the
second semester there is another course followed by blended learning
through Blackboard – the same method used in the General Teaching
Method Course (304) – and another course followed through face-to-face

152
 learning method alone, what would you choose and why? Rawan answered
it this way:
Omar (researcher): Thank you Hind. What about you Rawan, what
would you choose and why?
Rawan: I choose the blended learning group because the other group
that studied via the face-to-face traditional way ... they come to the
class on a specific day and time and then everyone goes home without
any communication about the course outside of class, but in blended
learning there will be communication inside the class and outside of
the class too, so we can practice learning at anytime from anywhere.

 From second experimental group:

Omar (researcher): Anything else you would like to add about the
teaching method? Any positive or negative?
Zainab: Yes, I also like this method because it gives me the freedom
to learn and study at any time. Sometimes, I wake up very early in the
morning around 5 am and directly access the Facebook course group
and participate in the discussion or post my opinion as well as
reading what other students wrote…..

- All 12 students in the first experimental group and all 11 students in the second
experimental group agreed that the discussions conducted among themselves through
the discussion tool whether in Blackboard or in Facebook or in the class had a very
great effect in facilitating, explaining and clarifying the course content. 8 from 12
students in the first experimental group and 6 from 11 students in the second
experimental group mentioned that these discussions helped them save up on study time
for the midterm and final exams. They did not need intensive study on the ‘test night’,
as they put it.

 From the first experimental group:

Omar (researcher): What about you Afrah? What are you going to
choose?

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 Afrah: Of course I will choose the Blended Learning Method..
because in all the years that I’ve studied at this college, they did not
have any effect on us .. I mean most of the modules that I studied in
the previous semester I forgot them already.. I forgot most of the
information that they (the previous modules) provided .. because we
used to study in a very very traditional method using F2F alone.. we
just listen to the instructor during the lecture and then before the
night of the exams, we memorize or just try to memorize the
information in the book of the module, then at the end of the semester
we forget all the information that we studied .. but here in blended
learning using the Blackboard as in this course, I really really
enjoyed it that I cannot forget the information that I got when I did
some research before participating in the online discussion board .. I
can’t forget the information because we always discuss about it and
not only listen in the class.. and I found this also before the final exam
.. It did not take me a long time to study for the final exam because I
found that I can understand the content .. yes, that’s why I will choose
for the Blended Learning group ..

 From the second experimental group:

Bashayer: Ok, for me the nicest and most positive thing in the
teaching method of this module is the discussion. I like it.
Omar (researcher): Why did you like the discussion in this module?
Bashayer: Because I think it is an active method and not a boring
one. I mean with the discussion we actually do something in the class,
and not only listen to the instructor. And this helped me facilitate and
simplify the study preparation when I prepare myself for the exams.

- 9 from 12 students in the first experimental group and 6 from 11 students in the second
experimental group agreed that the online discussions conducted in this course gave
them a greater chance and more time to think and be more careful before replying and
participating in the subject under discussion, contrary to the face-to-face discussion
inside the class where time will be limited for replying and participating in the
discussion.
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  From the first experimental group:
Razan: Because I think the discussion in the real class makes me
confused and sometimes embarrassed, so I tend to hastily express my
opinion on the subject of discussion in class .. But for me, the online
discussion using the Blackboard is much better because it allows me
to concentrate more and gives me a lot of time to think before I put
down my opinion on the subject of the discussion. And I agree with
Rabiaa that the online discussion saves us time and effort in
preparing for the exams because when I studied for the exams I did
not take much time to study since I remember most of the ideas from
the content, as the online discussion makes me remember a lot of
things relating to the course.

 From the second experimental group:

Noor: I will choose the blended learning group because it will be
easy for me to discuss online with fellow students and with the
instructor. Sometimes, we don’t have enough time to discuss
everything during class, but this method will allow us to discuss them
at any time with other students and with the instructor via Facebook.

- 5 from 12 students in the first experimental group and 3 from 11 students in the second
experimental group stated that the online discussions were the reason they feel
comfortable during the discussions because they do not prefer to discuss in front of
people because of shyness.

 From the first experimental group:

Hind: The difference is that I am now able to prove myself … I mean
that I am surpassing myself in relation to my negative habit of
abashment ... in the other modules I cannot participate or discuss
inside the class because I am a shy student. Although I know the
answer to the question and have the ability to give my own idea, I do
not say it because of this negative habit… but this kind of teaching

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 method (Blended Learning using Blackboard) gave me a very good
chance and it made me feel comfortable to participate and discuss
online in the Blackboard ..

 From the second experimental group:

Yasmeen: Yes, I think it is an excellent idea to blend both methods
together, face-to-face and online learning. And I think all other
courses should do this because it is very useful for all of us; for
example, I know some girls in this class who do not want to talk or
discuss in class in front of other students or the instructor because
they do not feel comfortable but this method gives them a chance to
express and discuss online via Facebook comfortably without any
stress.

- Respectively, all 12 and 11 students in the two experimental groups enjoyed the videos
and activities used in the class and online via Blackboard and Facebook.

 From first experimental group:

Afrah: The most pleasing thing for me was the videos. I enjoyed the
videos you used in the lectures. Honestly, I enjoyed them because they
were really interesting and beneficial. I remember that in Unit 4 there
were videos in each teaching method we studied, and after every
video we had the activity and then the discussion… I cannot forget
that when we watched the video about the negative teacher and how
he made his class feel bored, then we watched the other video about
the positive teacher and how he made his class feel active and
energetic, then you gave us an activity about it, and we made a
comparison of the two different situations before we discussed it … I
really really enjoyed that.

 From the second experimental group:

Ruqaiah: Yes, the teaching method is great for me. I like it because it
includes many interesting methods; for example, the discussions,

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 working in groups, and online activities through Facebook. Also, I
like the videos. They were very interesting and were never boring.

- 8 from 12 students in the first experimental group agreed that the teaching method made
them assume more responsibility and encourage them to exert more effort in their
studies.

 From the first experimental group:

Abeer: I am going to choose the Blended Learning Group using
Blackboard... because of all the advantages which have been
mentioned and also because if I study using face-to-face learning
alone, I will not be able to concentrate during the course. I will only
concentrate just before the exams. But if I choose the blended
Learning method, this method will encourage me to study during the
whole course and not only before the exams, so I will be able to
discuss at anytime during the course because there is
communication… we can discuss about certain subjects related to the
course ... we will always be up-to-date... I can ask any question at
any time even when I would be at home….

- 7 from 12 students in the first experimental group agreed that the teaching method
helped them understand the content of the course.

 From the first experimental group:

Omar (researcher): What do you think, Rabiaa? What are you going
to choose? Blended learning method or face-to-face learning
method?
Rabiaa: I think I am going to choose the Blended Learning method
using the Blackboard because this method helped us understand the
content of the module better and because of all that I have already
mentioned about the positive points of using this method.

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- 9 from 12 students in the first experimental group and 7 from 11 students in the second
experimental group stated that the teaching method in this module (304) is a new
method and unique to this college.

 From the first experimental group:

Ok then, can I hear from you Rawan? The same thing, can we start
with the teaching method? What do you think?
Rawan: I think the teaching method was very special, and that is
because we never studied before using this new method in this
college. And now there is face-to-face learning and also online
learning ... and both of these methods have advantages ..
Omar (researcher): What kind of advantages .. can you tell us?
Rawan: In the face-to-face session, there were different teaching
methods which made us keen to participate such as discussions,
working group, videos, and not only lectures. In addition to that,
there was learning through the Blackboard and this was really a very
effective system and easy to use even though it was the first time for
us to use it ... I really enjoyed that because I can keep myself up-to-
date about the module when I am at home or anywhere... also, it gives
us a good chance to communicate with the other students in the same
course and get to know them more ..

 From the second experimental group:

Omar (researcher): Ok Fatima, the teaching method first please.
What do you think?
Fatima: Frankly, I liked the teaching method in this course because I
think it involves a variety of methods like discussions, working in
groups, using Facebook, and all of these methods are interesting and
not boring.

- 9 from 12 students expressed their admiration for the Blackboard tools which motivated
them to learn. And they also agreed on the simplicity of the design of the General

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 Teaching Method Course (304) in Blackboard, for it was easy for them to reach any
tool and any subject related to the course.
Shoroq: I like the teaching method that you used in this module.. I
like it very very much mainly because of the Blackboard. I think we
are the first group in this College to use this system in education. I
like this great system because it includes very effective tools which
motivate me to be active in this course, and communicate with the
instructor and other students using the communication tools and to
participate in the discussion topics via the discussion tool. Also, the
self-assessment tool, chat, working together in online groups in the
Blackboard, the useful links tool, I liked them all. At the beginning of
the semester, I had difficulty using the Blackboard, but after sometime
it has become simple and easy to use. I hope that we use this system
in other courses of this College.

- All 9 students in the control group agreed that the discussions, activities and working in
groups, presentation and videos conducted in class were very effective and made them
more interactive in the classroom.

 From the control group:

Asmaa: I like the teaching method because it makes us students
interactive in class, like what you did with us.
Omar (researcher): Give me an example, Asmaa, of what you liked
about the teaching method of this class?
Asmaa: Discussions and working in groups. I like any kind of
teaching method which makes the students become involved and
active in class, and not only listen to the instructor.
Hessah: The teaching method was excellent. I liked your
presentation, in that it contains sounds and images, flash and videos.
These things make me focused in the classroom.

5.5.2 The positive comments of the content of the course (304) according to the
students’ points of view

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- All students who were interviewed in the three groups stated that the content of the
course included important information for them as student teachers and that they will
benefit from this information in the future. They also said that the content was
organized, and for students of the two experimental groups, they have also expressed
their admiration for the availability of content online on either Blackboard or Facebook.

 From the first experimental group:

Omar (researcher): Ok Yasmeen, what about the content of the
course?
Yasmeen: The content was very well-organized.. yeah and I frankly
benefited from the content.. and of course it will be helpful for me
when I become a teacher one day. And also, I liked the activities that
you set up in the session, they were really interesting for us and were
definitely not boring.

 From the second experimental group:

Zainab: Excellent content, very useful for us, I liked the slides
presentation you presented in the class and also uploaded onto
Facebook, very organised and clear
.
 From the control group:
Bashayer: I benefited much from this course content as a student
teacher, and now I think when I graduate I will know how to deal
with my students because of what we studied in this course.

5.5.3 The positive comments of Instructor’s Support of the course (304)

according to the students’ points of view

- All 12 students in the first experimental group and all 11 students in the second
experimental group expressed their satisfaction regarding the continuous support and
encouragement by their course instructor (researcher) through the training course on
how to use the Blackboard system and through the quick replies to students’ submitted
questions and inquiries whether via the Blackboard or Facebook.

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 From the first experimental group:
Yasmeen: The course instructor was very cooperative .. and the most
striking thing we found different between him and the other
instructors in the College is that we can find him at anytime if we
want to ask anything relating to the course! I mean by means of the
Blackboard through the communications tools, we just put there our
questions and then we find the instructor’s quick reply almost
immediately. But with the other instructors, we can only find them in
their office inside the College when we need to ask them anything.

 Another student in the first experimental group:

Al-Anood: At the beginning of this course, I was thinking of
withdrawing from it because I was afraid of this new teaching
method, and I thought maybe I cannot continue because this new
teaching method requires certain skills. But I said to myself let me
wait three weeks then I will decide whether to continue or withdraw.
Then, with your support on how to use the Blackboard, and with my
group’s help, I learned how to use the tools of the Blackboard, and
after about 4 weeks of this course, I have found it very easy to use.

 From the second experimental group:

Noor: I like the communication between me and the instructor and
between me and the students in the class. I mean the nice thing is that
the communication in this course is very easy. By that I mean we can
communicate with each other at any time we want, but in other
courses in this college if I want to communicate or talk to the
instructor, I have to go to his office, and if I do not find him, then I
have to go on some other day to his office and wait for him if I want
to talk to him about anything related to the course, or I might have to
wait until the next lecture to speak to him! But in this course, as I
said, communication is very easy and convenient.

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 5.5.4 The negative comments about the Course (304) according to the students’
points of view:

- 7 from 12 students in the first experimental group, 7 from 11 students in the second
experimental group, and 6 from 9 students in the control group agreed that the content
of the course is big and contains a lot of information.

 From the first experimental group:

Omar (researcher): Ok Rawan, what about the content of the course?
Rawan: The content was good but at the same time it would also have
been possible to have only a little bit of content with enough
information.

 From the second experimental group:

Al-Anood: Honestly, Mr. Ghaith, the content was very heavy and
long.
Omar (researcher): Can you tell me how?
Al-Anood: It included a lot of information. Yes, it’s useful information
but at the same time I think the content is too big.

 From the control group:

Omar (researcher): What about the content?
Sara: Useful, but it is quite huge and includes too much information.

- 2 from 12 students in the first experimental group, and 2 from 11 students in the second
experimental group stated that the work required of them in this course is too much,
especially the online discussions.

 From the first experimental group:

Yasmeen: About the negative aspects of this method, there are not too
many negatives, but it takes more time because I need to reply to all
the topics, and there are many students participating in the discussion
board, and before that I need to read all the students’ comments
before I can reply and give my opinion on the topic.

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  From the second experimental group:
Bashayer: Sometimes, I feel that I am under pressure because we
have a lot to do in this module, not forgetting the other modules in
this semester.

- 2 from 11 students in the second experimental group preferred to use VLE instead of
Facebook in Education.
Omar (researcher): Any negative thing(s) about the teaching method?
Yasmeen: hmmm… nothing, but I think it will be better to use a
virtual learning environment instead of Facebook because I think
such an environment is meant for teaching and learning online but
Facebook is a social networking site, I mean I go to Facebook for
social reasons not for study, I do not know!.. But other than that it is
still a very good idea for us to communicate and use the online
discussion while we are at home.

- 2 from 9 students in the control group had difficulty meeting the instructor outside his
office hours, and they expressed their wishes that the instructor uses in this group the
same method of teaching which has been used with the other groups (experimental
groups). Because according to them, these methods (blended learning) are characterized
by the use of communication tools.
Omar (researcher): Ok Hessah, what about the instructor? Anything
negative or positive?
Hessah: You collaborated with us, but sometimes I cannot find you in
the college if I need to talk to you because I have another lecture at
the same time as your office hours. I talked to some of my friends who
registered with you in the other group with the same module, and they
told me that you communicate with them online. Indeed, I wish you
were using the same method and communicating with us online as
with the other groups, because it will be easier for us to find you, and
this matter about not being able to find you is the same for most of the
instructors in this College.

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 5.5.5 Results of the question submitted to the students at the end of the
interview:

If in the second semester there is another course to be followed using blended

learning – the same method used in the General Teaching Method Course (304) for the two
experimental groups – and another course to be followed through the face-to-face learning
method alone - the same method used for the control group, what would you choose and
why?

- 11 from 12 students in the first experimental group preferred the blended learning using
Blackboard method over the face-to-face learning method due to the advantages and
positive aspects they have already mentioned.

- 8 from 11 students in the second experimental group preferred the blended learning
using Facebook method over the face-to-face learning method due to the advantages
and positive aspects they have already mentioned.

- 1 from 12 students in the first experimental group preferred the face-to-face learning
method over the blended learning method for family reasons (she said that her family
forbids her to use the internet as happened in this course).
Molook: I would like to choose the blended learning .. but I will have
to register in the face-to-face one because of family rules! (no
internet!)

- 1 from 11 students in the second experimental group preferred the face-to-face learning
method over blended learning for family reasons (she said that her family forbids her to
use Facebook as happened in this course).
Fatima: Unfortunately, I have no choice, I have to choose face-to-
face learning because my family forbids me to use Facebook as I’ve
explained to you, that’s why I could use Facebook in this course but
only here in the College.

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- 2 from 11 students in the second experimental group preferred the blended learning
method using VLE instead of Facebook, but if there have to choose only one from the
two (from either blended learning using Facebook or face-to-face learning alone), then
they will opt for the blended learning method using Facebook.

- 5 from 9 students in the control group preferred the blended learning method over the
face-to-face learning method alone due to the advantages and the positive aspects of the
former.
Asmaa: I will choose the blended learning group. My friend
registered in the other group with you and you teach that group using
Blackboard. I have seen with her how easy for any student to discuss
online with other students and with the instructor. And I like this
method, so I will choose the blended learning group.

- 2 from 9 students in the control group preferred the face-to-face learning method over
the blended learning method, because they do not want to try any new method of
teaching, and they cannot decide until they have tried out the new method.
Bashayer: I think I am going to choose the face-to-face group
because I do not want to try something new.

- 2 from 9 students in the control group are not sure which method they are going to
choose, but they mentioned that they may choose the blended learning method because
there will still be meeting inside the class involving face-to-face sessions.
Anfal: It will be difficult for me to decide which group I am going to
choose because I have never been taught by the blended learning
method, but the thing that makes me confident about it is that there
will still be meetings in the classroom as well, which gives me
reassurance; and this may be a reason to go for the blended learning
group.

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In this chapter, I used SPSS to analyse the quantitative data and to do a thematic analysis of
the qualitative data. I started with a verification of dependency of the study data on the
normal distribution using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test. Then, a Chi-square test and F-test
were used to test the similarity of the experimental and control groups in terms of the control
variables. And to test the study hypotheses, a MANOVA test was used. MANOVA is a type
of multivariate analysis used to analyse data that involves more than one dependent variable
at a time. MANOVA allows us to test various hypotheses regarding the effect of one or more
independent variables on two or more dependent variables. It is often used to detect
differences in the average (mean) values of the dependent variables between the different
levels of independent variables. This is simply an ANOVA with several dependent variables.
So, throughout this chapter, I was able to get answers to the research questions, which
confirmed that the study hypotheses were valid according to the results. Once again, it proved
that “using the method of blended learning in the General Teaching Methods Course (304)
leads to better achievement and satisfaction for female student-teachers compared with the
method of face-to-face learning alone”.

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Chapter 6: Discussion of Results
The current study is aimed at identifying the effect of the blended learning method on
academic achievement and satisfaction of female students in the General Teaching Method
Course (304), introduced by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the College of
Basic Education in Kuwait. The results of the study will be discussed in terms of the causes
behind the results in the following paragraphs within the framework of the relevant
hypotheses.

6.1 Discussing results related to the first hypothesis

As seen from the quantitative data results, there was a significant difference in both mid-term
and final tests between the first experimental group (studying through the blended learning
method using VLE of Blackboard) and the control group (studying through face-to-face
learning alone). However, there was no significant difference in both mid-term and final tests
between the second experimental group (studying through the blended learning method using
PLE of Facebook) and the control group, and there was also no significant difference in the
practical test between the two experimental groups (each separately) and the control group.

Firstly, the reasons for the significant impact of blended learning teaching methods on
the first experimental group compared to the control group with regard to the results of
the mid-term and final achievement tests.

 The teaching method helped students understand the content: it was confirmed by
the first experimental group students in the interviews that the teaching method of
blended learning used in this course (304) helped them understand the content of the
course and that this teaching method had good effect in facilitating, explaining and
clarifying the course content. The literature on this subject supports this. For example,
Noord et al. (2007) recognise that most features and benefits of blended learning have
the potential and the ability to increase students’ understanding of skills and new
concepts learned through this kind of teaching method. Also, Shafer, Lahner and
Calderone (2002) conducted a study on the effectiveness of using a web-based
teaching method with students at the University of Texas. The results revealed that

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 Internet use is positively correlated with the level of student achievement, and helps in
the development of student skills and even improve their ability to study. Marra et al.
(2004) found that the discussions lead to clarifying information and linking ideas in
terms of students. And clarifying information and understanding course content are
what students of the first experimental group highlighted in the interviews. Namely,
the teaching method used in this course (304) and especially the discussions which
took place, either in class or in the VLE of Blackboard, had both helped them save on
study time for the mid-term and final exams. As the students put it, they did not need
any more intensive study on the ‘test night’, because if the students had understood
the content, they would not need much time to study before the test.

 A teaching method that motivated and engaged students: The Blackboard system
is a new system for all students in the College of Basic Education in Kuwait, and no
previous group in this college had ever studied via blended learning using Blackboard
or any other VLE. So, students of the first experimental group were the first group in
the College of Basic Education in Kuwait to study for an entire semester using the
Blackboard system. This system made students in the first experimental group feel as
if they have distinguished themselves from others because unlike other students they
used a new system in the college for the very first time. This engaged students and
motivated them to learn and spend much time in the use of the Blackboard system
tools, to be in touch with everything related to the concepts and information of the
course (304). This is what the students confirmed through their discussion in the
interviews; they said that the teaching method using Blackboard motivated them and
made them assume more responsibility, let alone encouraging them to exert more
effort in their studies. And because of this, there was a tangible and positive impact on
the achievement test scores from the mid-term and final tests for the first experimental
group compared with the control group. And if we go back to the literature and
studies on this subject, we find that it supports precisely this point. In a study carried
out by Deneui and Dodge (2006), it tried to determine the effect of the use of
Blackboard system tools for long periods and/or repeatedly on the results of students’
achievement in a psychology course. The study sample consisted of 80 male and
female students doing a course on Psychology who were taught by the traditional
teaching method. Next, they were then taught through the Blackboard system such as
lectures and assignments, communication tools, and discussion board. The researchers
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 followed the students through the tracking tool provided by the Blackboard system,
and then the researchers examined the relationship between the frequency-to-use
Blackboard tools and the performance of students in the exam. The study concluded
that there was a positive relationship between the use of the Blackboard tools and the
total score in the exam, and found that students who entered more into the Blackboard
system got the best grades and achievement.

 The teaching method increased the interaction: the blended learning method in this
course (304) has led to interactions among the students themselves, between the
students and the teacher (me), students and the course content through various
activities located in the classroom during class meetings and lectures. This was also
done through the VLE of Blackboard, which provided students of the first
experimental group the ability to acquire the concepts and information of the course
(304) in a variety of ways. This is confirmed by Tang and Byran (2007) who found
that the teaching method of blended learning leads to a higher level of interaction,
communication and exchange of experiences between the teacher and the student, and
among students through the tools of asynchronous and synchronous communication.
This leads to increased participation and integration of students in the learning
activities and improves the learning outcomes (Tang & Byrane, 2007). A survey study
has been confirmed by Anderson (as cited in Alqahtani, 2011) that blended learning is
seen as providing better efficiency and effectiveness of training in the United States,
and the results of the study indicated that 77% of U.S. organisations currently use
blended learning, where the student or trainee receives guidance and counselling with
reinforcement and feedback for his performance through blended learning and
training.

 Feedback from the Self-Assessment questions tool: Also, there are some tools in
the Blackboard system such as Self-Assessment questions tool which provide
immediate feedback for every question in this tool. This feedback is not only to
inform the student that her answer is correct or incorrect, but also to give him the
reasons in case the answer was not correct, and encourage him with some positive
words or give him more references if the answer was correct. As to whether this tool
of the Blackboard has a positive role in keeping (retention) the information and

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 concepts of the course content in the students’ mind, this was confirmed by some
students of the first experimental group during the interviews, and thus this has had a
positive impact on their achievement in the mid-term and final tests. In the context of
the importance of feedback in the learning process, Sonak, Suen, Zappe and Hunter
(2002) conducted a study about the effectiveness of feedback through the Internet,
and they found that there is a direct positive relationship between the amount of time
it takes students to receive immediate feedback through online exercise and activities
and their performance and academic achievement. They found that the feedback via
the Internet increased the academic achievement among students. Also, Lorraine
(1999) discovered through a case study that feedback has helped students learn and
apply the strategies of self-learning, aiding them to succeed in the online course.

Secondly, the reasons for the lack of statistically significant difference between the
second experimental group and the control group in the mid-term and final tests:

The environment of Facebook is different from the environment of Blackboard: There

was no significant difference in the mid-term and final tests between the second experimental
group (studying through the blended learning method using PLE of Facebook) and the
control group (face-to-face learning alone). However, the average score for the second
experimental group exceeds the average score for the control group in the mid-term and final
tests. I interpreted this to mean that the environment and the tools of Facebook are totally
different from the environment and the tools of Blackboard. Facebook is a social network site
and users usually go to Facebook to enjoy and communicate with friends or to spend leisure
time but not to learn or study, and all that despite the existence of tools that can be employed
effectively in the learning process as mentioned in the literature review chapter. That is what
some students of the second experimental group mentioned during the interviews. For
example, Yasmeen said: “…. I think it will be better to use a virtual learning environment
instead of Facebook because I think such an environment is meant for teaching and learning
online but Facebook is a social networking site, I mean I go to Facebook for social reasons
not for study, I do not know!” On the other hand, Blackboard is a system originally intended
to be used in teaching and learning, not to mention its various effective tools which serve the
teaching and learning process through the internet.

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 I also interpreted this result in terms of the characteristics of the students and their
previous educational culture, but as I have already mentioned in the chapter on education in
Kuwait, the educational system in Kuwait is suffering from problems related to the
curriculum and teachers. And all students in this study are Kuwaitis who have graduated from
Kuwaiti schools, which tend to concentrate on memorising the information and even
indoctrination without giving students the chance to play a central and positive role in the
educational process, as the main role was for the teacher and not for the students. So, students
in Kuwait are not used to learning and studying independently, something that the method of
learning via Web 2.0 requires. And Kuit and Allen (2010) supported this when they noted
that Web 2.0 affords the learner greater independence and autonomy when compared with
more traditional approaches to learning. Therefore, the students in the second experimental
group, which used Facebook as a personal learning environment, were not as effective in
terms of their roles and participation. Whereas in the PLE, the student was require to manage
and take control of his own page with Facebook, make some activities that are related to the
content of the course, and share it with the rest of the students of the course. Here, there is an
important role the student has to do which is to manage and take control of the learning
process and environment. This is unlike the Blackboard system, which allows the teacher to
manage and take control of the learning environment. Kuwaiti Students (in this study) are not
accustomed to this new way of learning, for their role tends to be a negative one, mainly
listening to the teacher and saving the information acquired.

I also think that some old Arab customs and traditions of some families of the students in this
group were among the reasons for this result. As I mentioned in chapter 4, some students in
the second experimental group were reluctant to use Facebook for family reasons. There are
some families that still adhere to some old Arab customs and traditions (perception and view
of women). These families will allow their young male students to use Facebook and other
social network sites, but will still have reservations regarding their young female students. In
the other experimental group (first group), I did not find this issue even though all female
students in the three groups are similar in characteristics and come from similar Kuwaiti
families. But what is different is that in the first experimental group students used
Blackboard, which is especially designed for academic purposes. Facebook is a social
network site, and some families still have reservations about letting their young women use it,
even though anyone can manage the privacy settings to hide his/her information and pictures
from people he/she does not wish to have access. And I have already explained, to all the
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young female students in the second experimental group, I showed them how to manage their
privacy settings on Facebook. Most of them already have an account on it, although some
were not allowed due to family reservations.

Also, another reason to interpret this result is that the majority of educational
applications on Facebook (Facebook app), which can be used in the course (304) for the
second experimental group, were not able to support the Arabic language (at the time of the
experiment), which did not serve or help the students of the second experimental group.

Thirdly, the reasons for the lack of statistically significant difference between the two
experimental groups (each separately) and the control group in the practical test:

 Different evaluation committee (different examiners): Although the average scores

for the two experimental groups (each separately) were higher than the average scores
for the control group in the practical test, they did not reach the significance level.
The researcher interpreted this to mean that there were different evaluation
committees to evaluate and assess the students’ performance in the practical test,
where every group had different examiners. Each group had a committee consisting of
two different professors from the Curriculum and Instruction Department in the
College of Basic Education, and this maybe led to the examiners’ bias with the
results. This is unlike the objective tests that have been used in the mid-term and final
tests of the course (304), where the results are not affected by changing the person
who corrected the test, because the correct answer is only one, as in the questions with
the multiple choices or in the true or false answers, making it more unlikely that
teachers’ bias affected the results.

 First practical test for the students in the college: The practical test in the General
Teaching Method course (304) is the first of its kind for all students in the College of
Basic Education. This may have led to the confusion among students in front of the
committee (examiners). Of course, this varies from one student to another depending
on the nature of his/her personality and ability to stand and talk or face the examiners.

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6.2 Discussing results related to the second hypothesis:
As seen from the quantitative data results, there was a significant difference in the teaching
method dimension of the satisfaction questionnaire between the two experimental groups
(each separately) and the control group. And there was also a significant difference in the
instructor’s support dimension between the first experimental group and the control group,
and no significant difference was found between the second experimental group and the
control group. There was also no significant difference in the course content dimension
between the two experimental groups (each separately) and the control group.

Firstly: reasons for the statistically significant difference in the satisfaction level of the
teaching method dimension between the two experimental groups (each separately) and
the control group:

 Learning and communicating at anytime from anywhere: One of the most

positive points from the perspective of students of the two experimental groups,
which they reported during the interviews, is that the teaching method in this course
(304) has allowed them the opportunity to learn, participate and to be in touch with
everything related to this course at any time and from any location, as well as being
able to be in touch with the instructor and the rest of the other students in this course
(304) at any time and from anywhere through the online communication tools. This is
what I noted through the interviews. This was first positive thing that all the students
in the two experimental groups agreed on. The two experimental groups of students
have seen and noted the difference on this point between this course (304) and the rest
of the courses in the same college. They said that in the other courses in the college,
there is no communication related to the course or with the instructor or with the other
students outside the class. This has caused some problems for the students which they
admitted to during the interviews. For example, if they need to ask or if they have
inquires about anything related to the course, they have to wait until the next lecture.
In this context, Almousa (2005) mentioned that one of the most important benefits of
blended learning is to provide an interactive learning environment to enable the
student to interact with the course content, the instructor, the other students, and to
encourage them to learn at any time from any place. Also, Heckman and Annabi
(2005) mentioned that the most important advantage of blended learning is

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 asynchronous learning, and this means that the students can learn the same material at
different times and locations (any time from any place). In addition to face-to-face
learning, the learner can have access to the course at a time that is convenient, not just
during the specific 2-3 hour period that is set for a traditional course.

 Online discussions give more time to thinking before replying: Also, from what
the students in the two experimental groups seem to agree upon, the online
discussions conducted in this course via the Blackboard or via Facebook gave them a
greater chance and more time to think and be more careful with what they say. It gave
them the opportunity to organise their ideas before replying and participating in the
subject under discussion, or before replying to posts from other students. Marra et al.
(2004) seem to agree that the online discussion helps with critical thinking among
students. And I have been noted through the posts by students in the online discussion
via Blackboard and Facebook. I also found that the level of students’ debate through
the Blackboard or Facebook was better than the level of debate when they are in the
classroom. And this point has contributed to students’ level of satisfaction with the
blended learning teaching method.

 Some students are more comfortable with participating in online discussions: It

was also confirmed by some students from the two experimental groups during the
interviews that the online discussions conducted either through the Blackboard system
or through Facebook have given them more confidence in participating in online
discussions, because they do not like to talk or discuss in front of people, especially
for the shy students. Moreover, because of the culture in Kuwait where some old
traditions are based on the separation between the male and female in most aspects of
life, some female students in this course do not want shame if they have to debate
with a man (instructor of the course). They prefer to discuss and share ideas with
females only because they feel more comfortable if they work with the same gender.
So, this kind of online learning and discussion via Blackboard or Facebook has come
to be a viable solution for this kind of problem. So, they like this course (304) because
it does not to make them feel any kind of embarrassment or shame when participating
or discussing the issues behind a computer. This point may have contributed to the
increase in the students’ satisfaction level about the blended learning teaching

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 method. Belcher (1999) and Kern (1995) have also discussed this subject and stated
that the online discussions are more likely to benefit shy, introverted and reticent
people.

 Enjoy the videos and activities: Students tend to enjoy the videos and various
activities in the classroom and via Blackboard or Facebook, and this is what was also
mentioned by the students during the interviews. They found that these interactive
activities and interesting videos have broken the traditional routine of lectures being
followed in the rest of the other courses at the College of Basic Education. Al-khoder
(2008) has investigated the topic of interactive activities supported by multi-media
using VLE of Moodle in the College of Social Sciences at Kuwait University. The
study found that there are significant differences in student satisfaction for the
experimental group which studied the course using the interactive activities supported
by multi-media with VLE of Moodle. Both Martin and Bramble (1996) confirmed
that students prefer a learning process based on the activities and interaction between
the teacher and students or students with each other together with educational multi-
media instead of just listening to lectures.

 Animation and emoticons: Using some animation and emoticons to enhance body
language on topics of the online discussion can attract and create a sense of suspense
for students to participate in the online discussions. As noted by the researcher, the
use of these animation, pictures and emoticons by some students in the topics of
discussion, especially in the first experimental group through Blackboard, has
attracted students to enter the discussion board and participate more rather than in
topics that have not used these animations and pictures.

Secondly: the reasons for the statistically significant difference in the satisfaction level
of the instructor support dimension between the first experimental group and the
control group:

 Communication tools of the Blackboard: Maybe the reason has to do with the large
number of communication tools which are available in the Blackboard system for the
student and the instructor of the course. There is property to send messages, send e-

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 mail from inside the Blackboard system, live chat rooms, as well as the ability to ask
through the department general questions to the instructor of the course using the
discussion tool.

 The intensive training course was provided for the first experimental group in the
first week of the course and had a positive impact in facilitating the use of Blackboard
tools for the trainees.

 Blackboard and Facebook apps allow for a quick reply: I downloaded the app of
the Blackboard and the app of Facebook onto my iPhone, and then used them to
respond to inquiries and questions sent by students of the two experimental groups.
And this was the reason for the satisfaction among students over the speed of
responding to their inquiries and questions.

 The second experimental group did not benefit from the direct communication
tool: There was a good level of satisfaction over the instructor’s support as indicated
by students in the second experimental group through the interviews. And although
the average scores in the instructor support dimension of the second experimental
group were more than the average scores of the control group, this difference did not
reach significance level. The researcher interpreted it to mean that because most
students in the second experimental group did not agree to add the other students
(their colleagues) to their account on Facebook as friends for the reason that they do
not want them to see or look on their personal information, the consequence is that
they did not benefit from the live and direct chat tool on Facebook which requires
adding the person to chat with as a friend. So, they could not use the direct
communication tool in Facebook with the other students of the course or with the
instructor of the course. While in the first experimental group, there was no problem
using the direct communication tools because of the many communication tools
provided by the Blackboard system such as the live chat room as a key tool for direct
and live communication.

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Thirdly: the reasons for the lack of statistically significant difference in the satisfaction
level of the course content dimension between the two experimental groups (each
separately) and the control group:

 Large amount of information: Although the average score in the course content
dimension for the two experimental groups (each separately) was more than the
average score of the control group, this difference did not reach significance level.
The researcher interpreted that as referring to the large amount of information and
concepts contained in the General Teaching Method Course (304). This was
confirmed by all the students in the three groups through the interviews who all
agreed that this was one of the most negative aspects from their viewpoint.

 A very big and traditional book: The Department of Curriculum and Instruction at
the College of Basic Education obliged all students who study this course (304) to buy
a very big book with more than 400 pages to be the main textbook of the course (304).
The researcher found this book to be written in a rather traditional way which means
that it does not contain interactive activities and enough examples.

The current study is aimed at identifying the effect of the blended learning method on
academic achievement and satisfaction level of female student-teachers in the General
Teaching Method Course (304) at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait. The results of
the study have been discussed in this chapter in terms of the causes behind the results and in
relation to the first and second hypothesis of the study. In this chapter, I have interwoven the
quantitative data (students’ scores in the achievement tests and satisfaction questionnaire) and
qualitative data (students’ opinions of the course during the group interviews) in order to
understand the results of the study more deeply and to get more solid answers to the research
questions. It also helps explain why and how I have been able to obtain the results of this
study.

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Chapter 7: Summary of Results, Conclusions, and
Recommendations

This chapter provides a summary of the study and draws several conclusions in the light of
those results as well as making recommendations and suggestions for further research.

7.1 Summary of the purpose and questions of the study

The study has identified the effect of using the blended learning method on academic
achievement and students’ satisfaction in a university course for female students at the
College of Basic Education in Kuwait. The key problem of the study can be summarised in
two main questions:
3. What is the effect of using blended learning in the course (304) on academic
achievement of the students, as compared to face–to–face learning alone?

4. What is the effect of using blended learning in the course (304) on students’
satisfaction, as compared to face–to-face learning alone?

I have addressed the study questions through the mixed method research approach using
the Explanatory Sequential Design in order to determine the nature and objectives of the
study. In this approach, I started with the collection and analysis of quantitative data (using a
quasi-experimental approach), which has priority for addressing the two questions studied
above, and then followed it up with the collection and analysis of qualitative data (using
group interview) to help explain the quantitative results.

The researcher identified a study sample of 96 female students at the College of Basic
Education in Kuwait. The sample consisted of the first experimental group (n = 39) who
followed the course (304) by blended learning using VLE of Blackboard, the second
experimental group (n = 31) who followed the course (304) by blended learning using PLE of
Facebook, and the control group (n = 26) who followed the course (304) using face-to-face
learning alone.

There were positive advantages of having an all-female cohort. For example, because of
the cultural context, it is often more difficult to engage young women students with an issue

178
such as change, and this made me challenge myself to think more deeply about how I can
succeed with all-female students when using this new approach to teach them.

7.2 Summary of the study variables

The independent variable of the study was the teaching method of either the blended learning
method for the experimental groups or the face-to-face learning method for the control group.
While the dependent variables were academic achievement (as assessed in the course’s mid-
term, final and practical exams), and students’ satisfaction (assessed by the questionnaire,
giving a total mark and 3 sub-marks in reference to the students’ satisfaction about the
teaching method of the course, the content of the course, and the instructor's support in the
course).

The control variables of the study were the students’ previous academic records (GPA) for
both college and high school, the students’ use of computer and the internet, the students’
academic disciplines (English, Art, Physical Education and Music), and the students’
marriage status.

7.3 Summary of results from the study:

Results related to the first question of the study

There was a significant difference in both mid-term and final tests between the first
experimental group (studying through the blended learning method using VLE of
Blackboard) and the control group (studying through face-to-face learning alone). However,
there was no significant difference in both mid-term and final tests between the second
experimental group (studying through the blended learning method using PLE of Facebook)
and the control group, and there was also no significant difference in the practical test
between the two experimental groups (each separately) and the control group.

Results related to the second question of the study

There was a significant difference in terms of the teaching method dimension of the
satisfaction questionnaire between the two experimental groups (each separately) and the
control group. And there was also a significant difference in terms of the instructor’s support

179
between the first experimental group and the control group, and no significant difference was
found between the second experimental group and the control group. There was also no
significant difference in terms of the course content between the two experimental groups
(each separately) and the control group.

7.1Validity and reliability of the results

A specialised committee comprising a small group of academics from the Department of
Curriculum and Instruction at the College of Basic Education have already prepared and
checked the validity and reliability of all the achievement tests of the Course (304). And all
types of questions in both mid-term and final tests of the course were objective test questions
(MCQ, true-false, matching). This type of questions has right or wrong answers only. This
means that students’ response to this type of questions can be evaluated objectively. Also, it
can be seen how the results of the qualitative data supported the results of the quantitative
data in terms of what students in the first and second experimental groups mentioned in the
interviews, namely, that the teaching method of blended learning used in this course (304)
was very effective in facilitating, explaining and clarifying the course content as well as
helping them save up on study time for the mid-term and final exams. As they put it, they did
not need any intensive study on the ‘test night’. This is about the validity and reliability of the
results from the first question of the research (students’ achievements).

As to the results of the second question of the research (students’ satisfaction), I have
explained in detail in the methodology chapter how I checked the validity and reliability
under the supervision, guidance and cooperation of my Supervisor and some other academics
at the College of Basic Education. It can also be seen how the results of the qualitative data
supported the results of the quantitative data in terms of what students in the first and second
experimental groups mentioned in the interviews about the teaching method of blended
learning used in this course (304), and how they were very satisfied with this particular
teaching method. The results obtained by the quantitative methods (satisfaction
questionnaire) matched up with the results obtained from the qualitative methods
(interviews). This is confirmed by the data from both the satisfaction questionnaire and
interviews. The statements on the first dimension of the satisfaction questionnaire (the
teaching method) showed greater satisfaction among the two experimental groups than the
control group. This dimension contained statements such as the following: I enjoyed the

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teaching method in this course; the teaching method in this course helped me understand the
content; the teaching method encouraged me to exert more effort in studying. And it is to be
noted that the students in the first and second experimental groups expressed their views over
such statements during the interviews.

For the group interviews, I consulted the interviewee-students about a suitable and
comfortable time and location for them to conduct the interviews in order to avoid any
unwanted influence on their response during the interviews. All of them agreed to conduct
the interview at the same time as the weekly lecture on the General Teaching Method Course
(304), and to have it in the same room of the weekly lecture as well. I started the interview
with an introduction as to the purpose of the interview. And I reminded them about the
importance of this research, assuring them that all information will be translated to English
and will be treated as fully confidential. During the interviews, the same method was used to
ask the questions and provide an opportunity for all students to express their views, before
asking them again to confirm the accuracy of the information they have provided, and this
was done in all the interviews to be sure that all students have responded to the interview
questions under the same conditions. All the interviewee-students accepted and agreed to use
the digital voice recorder during the interviews to help with transcribing their responses.

7.2Limitations
The results of this research can be generalised within the limitations of the undergraduate
female student-teachers at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait during the second
semester of the academic year 2009/2010.

If I were to do this study again, I would implement the following:

 I will compare public college students to private college students.

 The study sample will be made up of both male and female students in order to
compare them, and that in spite of the positives that I found in this study when
working with all-female students.
 I would carry out my research for a longer period of time (one full academic year
instead of four months) and measure the achievement of the students more than once
with a certain period of time between them.

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  I will not oblige students to purchase any specific book to be the main source-text of
this course as happened in this study when the Department of Curriculum and
Instruction at the College of Basic Education obliged all students in this course to
purchase a particular book as the main source-text.

7.3 Contribution
- To my knowledge, only a very few Arabic and Kuwaiti researchers have tackled the
issue of blended learning using VLE and PLE. Thus, the current study constitutes a
new addition to Arabic and Kuwaiti studies relating to the effect of blended learning
on the academic achievement of female university students at Education College.
- Aligning the project with the recommendations and solutions to the education crisis
in Kuwait as provided by Tony Blair and other specialists in the field of education
in Kuwait.
- Aligning the project with the desire of Kuwait’s Ministry of Education and the
Public Authority for Applied Education and Training to use and apply blended
learning in education.
- Contribute to the use and application of blended learning on student teachers whose
preparation is now a key focus of the State of Kuwait. And as pointed out by some
recent studies regarding weaknesses in the programmes to prepare them, one of
which is a lack of use of modern methods in their teaching in the College of Basic
Education under the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training or in the
College of Education at Kuwait University.
- Kuwait University seeks to discover the effects and results of adopting blended
learning on different electronically-developed courses using Blackboard. And this
study will provide good information on the impact of the use of blended learning as
a teaching method on the academic achievement and satisfaction of college
students, especially female ones.
- This study is to be considered in relation to other studies (especially Arabic ones)
which dealt with the impact of two methods of blended learning in comparison to
the face-to-face learning method alone (blended learning method using VLE of
Blackboard, and blended learning method using PLE of Facebook) within one

182
 experimental study. Most other experimental studies on education have focused on
only one method of blended learning.
- The study will provide positive information for academic staff in colleges in
Kuwait, and this information may also help them change their ideas about using
new teaching methods such as the blended learning method. From the experience of
the researcher in the practical field of this study, it was found that the majority of
the academic staff at the College of Basic Education are still using the traditional
methods of face-to-face learning, without making use of the benefits and advantages
of the blended learning method in their teaching. So, they still play the key role in
the teaching and learning process, and students still need to listen to them in class
without being given the chance to participate in the activities or discussions,
whether online or offline (in class).
- This study proved that using a blended learning approach would make the studies
easier and more comfortable for Kuwaiti female students.
- I employed the ADDIE instructional design model with some modifications in order
to suit the needs and characteristics of the students in the course (304), as well as the
teaching method to be used (blended learning using VLE of Blackboard and PLE of
Facebook).

7.4 Recommendations and suggestions

In the light of the attained results and what was found in the literature reviews, the
researcher recommends and suggests the following:
- It is necessary to pursue the use of blended leaning methods using virtual learning
environments during university education in Kuwait so as to benefit from the
advantages of both face-to-face learning and online learning. This will enable
making use of the technologies and facilities as well as exploring the possibility of
establishing and spreading the courses, conducting activities and exercises using
modern communication tools.
- It is necessary to encourage and train the teaching staff of universities and colleges
in Kuwait on how to use the virtual learning environments such as Blackboard and
how to benefit from the latest technologies.

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 - Required facilities for teaching through blended learning using virtual learning
environment whether material or technical support should be provided in order to
improve the teaching process.
- It is necessary to establish eLearning centres in colleges and universities in Kuwait,
and to provide specialised and qualified educationalists in ICT so that the
instructional course design process will be done on an accurate educational basis
using an accurate scientific method. This is to be done through the process of
transferring solid theoretical knowledge into active interactive subjects for students,
and not being satisfied only with the outer design of the course content.
- New courses ought to be developed in the colleges of education about blended
learning for the students’ teachers and to train them on how to design electronic
courses using VLE on a correct scientific and educational basis.
- Training courses are to be offered to the academic staff and to the university
students’ teachers on how to use virtual learning environments in teaching and
learning and how to deal with its tools.
- Electronic publishing methods in universities and colleges should be introduced
through attempting to transform the university library into an electronic library
which would benefit all students.
- Similar studies to this one should be conducted on other courses being provided in
the College of Education.
- Studies should be carried out on the attitude and obstacles that teachers face when
using the blended method in teaching.

7.5Conclusions

This chapter has provided a summary of the study in terms of its aims, research
questions, research design, study variables, study results, limitations, contributions as well as
recommendations and suggestions for further research.

In light of the results of the current study, policy-makers, curriculum designers,

teachers and teacher trainers can benefit from these findings, which demonstrated the
effectiveness of blended learning on students’ achievement and satisfaction. They should

184
seek to adopt these modern teaching methods in education, let alone making decisions in this
important issue that would contribute to the development of education in Kuwait.

Policy-makers in Kuwait should look at the current status of education and why there is a
need for change. The current status is not satisfactory because the curriculum, methods of
teaching and assessment methods in Kuwaiti schools and even in Universities and Colleges
are still dedicated to indoctrination, receiving and saving information, but do not yet allow for
much dialogue, discussions and exploratory active learning. The key role in the educational
process is that of the teacher, while the student is still a passive listener to his/her teacher
without any positive participation.

The shift in the education process, from mere indoctrination by the teacher and the
process of receiving and saving information by the student to an interactive dialogue process
between the student and the teacher, and between the students themselves, is one of the most
important issues that policy-makers, curriculum designers, teachers and teacher trainers
should focus on, put into consideration, and seek to apply it in the field of education because
of its benefits and advantages to student learning.

The roles of both teacher and learner must change. The learner ought to become
active (not passive) and be the centre of the educational process. And the teacher ought to
become more as advisor and facilitator. And the blended learning environment supports this
and develops the student's ability to think and letting the student take responsibility,
motivating him/her towards learning through a diversity of methods and technological tools
(such as the tools of VLEs and PLEs) and make the role of the learner become more positive
by participating in discussions and varied educational activities.

Education in Kuwait suffers from major problems that I have referred to in Tony Blair’s
critique of Kuwait’s education system in chapter two. And some of the proposals and
solutions provided by many Kuwaiti educational specialists and by Tony Blair have focused
on the importance of Kuwaiti teachers’ preparation and on the use of e-learning and blended
learning, benefiting from its advantages to the process of teaching and learning, and to the
teacher preparation programmes at the College of Education. And because I used blended
learning in my teaching with student-teachers in one of the specialised courses on teacher

185
preparation, I can say in addition to what I have mentioned in the contribution section that I
am also to a certain extent (in this work) trying to fulfill a key aspect of the national mission.

Al-Anood: At the beginning of this course, I was thinking of withdrawing

from it because I was afraid of the new teaching method, and I thought maybe
I cannot continue because this new teaching method would require certain
skills of me.. and by nature I don’t like change! But I said to myself, let me
wait three weeks then I will decide whether to continue or withdraw. And the
thing that reassured me is that we meet once a week face-to-face in the class
in addition to learning via Blackboard.. and if there will be any difficulties,
we (students) will let you know about it, and you (researcher) will explain to
us in the face-to-face session what to do about those.. Then, with your support
on how to use the Blackboard, and with my group’s help in the class, I’ve
learnt how to use the tools of the Blackboard, and after about 4 weeks of this
course, I found it very easy to use.. in fact with this type of teaching method, I
feel that I am free .. I mean that there are no restrictions in terms of the time
and place to learn.. I can ask any question .. I can discuss .. I can participate
in some online activities at any time from any place via Blackboard using my
iPhone or laptop ..

A Student in the first experimental group

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Appendices
Appendix 1: Approval letter from the Research Ethics Committee of Brunel University

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Appendix 2: Letter from my research Supervisor to the College of Basic Education

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Appendix 3: Letter of consent from the Dean of the College of Basic Education

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Appendix 4: Letter to the Kuwait Cultural Office in London

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Appendix 5: Letter of consent from Kuwait Cultural Office in London

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Appendix 6: Letter to Kuwait University for developing a space for the Course (304) on
Blackboard

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Appendix 7: Information sheet and a consent form for the students

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Appendix 8: Mid-term Test of the Course (304)

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Appendix 9: Practical Test of the Course (304)

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Appendix 10: Student Satisfaction Questionnaire

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 Appendix 11: example of one groups’ interview

Interview 3: First Experimental Group (Blended learning using Blackboard)

Hello and welcome to this interview. I will ask in this interview for your personal opinion
about the positives and negatives of the General Teaching Method Course (304) which you
have followed in this semester. I am going to ask you about three things (three dimensions).
Firstly, I am going to ask you about the teaching methods which we used in this course: what
do you think of these methods? what is your opinion? what are the positive aspects? what is
the most useful thing you have found in this teaching method? What was interesting and
enjoyable about this teaching method? And on the other side, what are the negative aspects of
the course teaching method? Was there anything you really did not like about the teaching
method? This is about the teaching method. The second dimension will be about the content
of the course, the information you studied: did you find them useful or not? do you think that
you will benefit from this information in your practical life or in your work in the future
when you will be teachers? And also, what are the negative points of the content? What is the
thing you did not like in the content? what were the positives and negatives? The final
dimension will be about the instructor of the course: did you find him helpful and supportive
or not? again, what are the positives and negatives of the course’s instructor?

Let us start, Fatimah, would you like to start?

Fatimah: Yes, the teaching method was diverse, there was nothing in it to cause boredom.. it
was moving from lecture to discussion to learning with groups to e-learning … this teaching
method was not traditional.. we followed this course using many kinds of teaching methods
which were blended together and this did not make us bored at all ..
Omar (researcher): Ok Fatimah .. what do you think about the VLE of Black?
Fatimah: To me, because I use the internet every day, I did not find any difficulties using this
system.. but because this is my first time in College to use this kind of software in education,
I found it in the first week to be strange. This does not mean that I did not know how to use
it! No! But because this is new for us and we are used to studying in this College via the
traditional way, I mean lecture only inside the class and nothing outside the class!
The most positive thing for me is to feel free to learn at any time that is suitable for me .. I
can access the Blackboard and participate in the discussion and do activities at any time..

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Also, sometimes I benefit from the participation of the other students when they ask you in
the general questions department in the Blackboard System or when they discuss the topics in
the discussion board.
Also, the communication tools in the Blackboard gave us a very good opportunity to discuss
and exchange ideas in online groups. Also, through these online tools in the Blackboard, I
learn more about some students whom I did not know in the class through knowing their
opinions and ideas and now we are friends.
Some students who have difficulties with using the computers and the internet benefited from
this teaching method because in the groups we taught some of them how to use the tools of
the Blackboard as well as other thing in the course.
Also, one of the positive things is being able to know the ability of the students .. you know
some students do feel shy inside the class ..but in online learning, they feel free ..
Omar (researcher):Ok Fatimah, you have mentioned many positive points. Now I would like
to hear the negative points about the teaching method in this course?
Fatimah: There was none.
Omar (researcher): Ok Fatimah, what about the content of the course?
Fatimah: The content was good but in some parts it was long, for example, in Unit 4 there are
a lot of information and examples.
Omar (researcher): Ok, what about the course instructor? positives and negatives please?
Fatimah: He was really very cooperative and helpful...

Omar (Researcher): Okay, thank you Fatimah and let me ask Rabia? The same thing, what do
you think? The teaching method first (positives and negatives)?
Rabia: Everything was good and clear to me especially the Blackboard which I liked very
much.. in fact, in this semester all the lectures in the other modules were boring except this
module.. I mean I come to the class and I am pleased and happy because we are
communicating not only face-to-face in class but also in online class using the Blackboard.. it
was really a very interesting method. Also, the discussion either face-to-face in the class or
online via Blackboard was really very helpful for us .. I think this discussion helped prepare
us for the exams and it saved us time to study for the exams ... I mean when I studied for the
exams I did not take much time because we already discussed most of the topics in this
module. I really enjoyed the teaching method in this module.
Omar (researcher): Ok Rabia, any negative points about the teaching method in this course?
Rabiaa: None
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Omar (researcher): Ok Rabiaa, what about the content of the course?
Rabiaa: The content was very good, simple and organized.. and had good examples for
explaining an idea.

Omar (researcher): Ok, what about the course instructor? Positives and negatives?
Rabiaa: He was very cooperative, and helpful .. I am really pleased because the instructor
replied to my question within one hour!

Omar (Researcher): Okay, thank you Rabiaa and let me ask Razan? What do you think? The
teaching method first (positives and negatives)?
Razan: Firstly, in this module I do not have any negative point, everything was great except
one point which is discussion face-to-face?
Omar (Researcher): Can you tell us why do you think that face-to-face discussion is
negative?
Razan: Because I think the discussion in the real class makes me confused and sometimes
embarrassed and so I tend to hastily express my opinion on the subject of discussion in class
.. But for me, the online discussion using the Blackboard is much better because it allows me
to concentrate more and gives me a lot of time to think before I put down my opinion on the
subject of discussion. And I agree with Rabiaa that the online discussion saves us time and
effort in preparing to the exams because when I studied for the exams I did not take much
time to study because I remember most of the ideas in the content, because the online
discussion makes me remember a lot of things relating to the course.
Rabiaa: I did not mention that only the online discussion helped us and saved us time, I meant
that both of them did, face-to-face and online discussion. I think both of these methods of
discussion help us remember the information and save us the time and effort when preparing
for the exams by making it simple.

Razan: I do not know.. for me I feel I like the online discussion more than the face-to-face
discussion. This is the only thing which I did not like, but everything else was great. I liked
the diversity of teaching methods used in this class, for example the self-learning method
which was used in the final unit in this module, as well as communication and the study at
any time and from anywhere through the Blackboard system. Also, I disagree with what
Fatima said that the content is long and there are too many examples. I think we need to

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know and we have to read more and more about the subject because this can be useful for us
and it also helps us to participate in the online discussion.

Omar (researcher): Ok Razan, do you have anything you would like to add?
Razan: For the instructor of this course, I like the fact that in the first week of the course, the
instructor gave us everything about the course, what we need, what subjects we are going to
study, how many units, the teaching method of the course, information about the assessment,
all of these information gave us a very clear picture of what we should do and what we
should not do. But other instructors in the College do not seem to like what you did with us in
the first week!

Omar (researcher): Ok Razan, let us move on to Shoroq, what do you think?

Shoroq: The teaching method first?
Omar (researcher): Yes please.
Shoroq: I like the teaching method that you used in this module.. I like it very very much
because the Blackboard. I think we are the first group in this College used this system in
Education. I like this great system because it is include very effective tools which motivate
me to be active in this course, and communicate with the instructor and other students using
communication tools and to participate in the discussions topics in the discussion tool. Also
self-assessment tool, chat, working together in online groups in the Blackboard, the useful
links tool, I liked all of these tools . At the beginning of the semester, I had difficulty using
the Blackboard, but over time it has become simple and easy to use. I hope that we used this
system in other curses in this College.
Omar (researcher): Ok Shoroq, what about the content?
Shoroq: For the content of the module, I think that I had difficulty studying the last unit
because I was not used to this method (self-learning) at all.
Omar (researcher): What about the instructor of the course? Negatives and positives?
Shoroq: He was very helpful .. he was available online if we need to ask him any question..
the instructor was replying to my question very quickly through the Blackboard .. thank you
very much.
Omar (researcher): Anything else you would like to add?
Shoroq: Thanks a lot.

Omar (researcher): let us go to the final question in this interview:

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 If in the second semester there is another course to be followed through merging
the online learning though Blackboard and the face-to-face learning (Blended Learning) –
the same method used in the General Teaching Method Course – and another course to be
followed through the face-to-face learning method alone, and the time of the class was
suitable for you and the instructor was the same for both groups, what will you choose?
Blended Learning “using Blackboard” group or face-to-face learning group - and why?
Omar (researcher): What do you think, Rabiaa? What are you going to choose? Blended
learning method or face-to-face learning method?
Rabiaa: I think I am going to choose the Blended Learning method using the Blackboard
because this method helped us understand the content of the module better and because of all
that I have mentioned about the positive points of using this method.
Omar (researcher): Fatima?
Fatima: Certainly, I would choose the blended learning group using the Blackboard. In fact, I
use every day the computer and the Internet, and if one day I cannot use the computer and the
Internet, I feel that I am cut off from the outside world.. Also, in face-to-face learning I feel
bored, and occasionally want to communicate with the instructor of the course but usually I
do not find him in his office. This is exactly what is happening with a lot of instructors and
academic staff in this College. Their offices are almost always deserted. They come to the
lecture and then once they finish, they leave the college, and then there isn’t any kind of
communication between the student and the instructor or between the student and other
students until we meet next time in the classroom for the next lecture.
Omar (researcher): Razan?
Razan: I will go with the Blended learning group, because I will then be updated 24 hours a
day about the course using the communication tools in the Blackboard system. I can also
access the course at any time from anywhere.
Omar (researcher): Shoroq?
Shoroq: Of course I will choose for the Blended Learning group because I liked it!
Omar (researcher): Many thanks to you all .. and I wish you every success in your study and
life ..

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