Investigating Design Features of Blended Learning in a Graduate Program of TEFL

Blended learning, which has various design features, has been increasingly used in higher education. This study was conducted to investigate the design features of blended learning environment, which consisted five main scales of online resources and tools, interactions, technology quality, face-to-face support, and effectiveness of LMS. To this end, a survey on design features of blended learning was administered to ۷۰ graduate students of TEFL at the Iran University of Science and Technology. The results revealed that given usability, TEFL students found that logging into the learning management system was not hard, the same as locating course content and assignments on. The TEFL students' perceived usefulness and their satisfaction with online system, tools, and resources was to a great extent. The average percentage in collaborative learning was also quite high with the highest agreements on posting challenges to other students' ideas online and posting their ideas for their colleagues to read online. Considering the sub-scales of technology quality, the TEFL students stated that they could easily access the new materials online; online chats comprised of essential information to aid their learning, and it was easy to download the necessary materials for study from Internet. Relating to Internet quality, they noted that there was some intermittent breakdown of Internet during online study, and the Internet speed was averagely good to facilitate the online activities.They also maintained that face-to-face sessions should continue, since they were enjoyable experiences and the quality of the class discussions was high.

کلیدواژه ها:

Blended learning ، design features ، face-to-face support ، learner interactions ، technology quality