Blended Learning (BL) is considered a promising pedagogical approach. Some researches demonstrated that students' satisfaction ishigher for BL courses compared to completely online or face-to-face (F2F) courses. Moreover, the explosion of web 2.0 tools and the success of the "read-write Web" are reconfiguring the individual and collaborative blended learning processes. Based on this assumption, this paper investigates the effectiveness of web 2.0 BL for the design and delivery of a pilot course on e-business topics. Two experimentations have been organized involving undergraduates engineering students of the University of Jordan. According to the obtained results assessing students' reaction, learning and behaviour, the BL model proposed in the article revealed more effective than traditional F2F learning. A survey conducted at the end of the course also showed that students were satisfied with the pedagogical approach, and their academic achievements were also significantly improved. Findings demonstrate that successful BL programs require innovative curriculum design strategy based on new principles such as: a) the involvement of heterogeneous stake holders in the course's design phase; b) the focus on competence developmen trather than on knowledge transfer; c) the choice of team work as an additional component to evaluate individual students' performances; d) presence of remote and F2F interactions among peers and between teachers and students; e) the usage of web 2.0 tools as enablers of collaborative learning processes and social networking; f) continuous tutoring both for content and technological issues. These findings can help engineering colleges and universities to design and offer more effective learning courses
Web 2.0 blended learning to introduce e-business contents in engineering education: A pilot case study in Jordan
G. Secundo;
2014-01-01
Abstract
Blended Learning (BL) is considered a promising pedagogical approach. Some researches demonstrated that students' satisfaction ishigher for BL courses compared to completely online or face-to-face (F2F) courses. Moreover, the explosion of web 2.0 tools and the success of the "read-write Web" are reconfiguring the individual and collaborative blended learning processes. Based on this assumption, this paper investigates the effectiveness of web 2.0 BL for the design and delivery of a pilot course on e-business topics. Two experimentations have been organized involving undergraduates engineering students of the University of Jordan. According to the obtained results assessing students' reaction, learning and behaviour, the BL model proposed in the article revealed more effective than traditional F2F learning. A survey conducted at the end of the course also showed that students were satisfied with the pedagogical approach, and their academic achievements were also significantly improved. Findings demonstrate that successful BL programs require innovative curriculum design strategy based on new principles such as: a) the involvement of heterogeneous stake holders in the course's design phase; b) the focus on competence developmen trather than on knowledge transfer; c) the choice of team work as an additional component to evaluate individual students' performances; d) presence of remote and F2F interactions among peers and between teachers and students; e) the usage of web 2.0 tools as enablers of collaborative learning processes and social networking; f) continuous tutoring both for content and technological issues. These findings can help engineering colleges and universities to design and offer more effective learning coursesI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
