Open AccessDigital Student Preferences: a study of blended learning in Norwegian higher education
Author(s) -
Charlie Keeling,
Astrid Haugestad
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
nordic journal of modern language methodology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1894-2245
DOI - 10.46364/njmlm.v8i2.765
Subject(s) - norwegian , blended learning , cohesion (chemistry) , mathematics education , higher education , psychology , qualitative property , pedagogy , collaborative learning , medical education , educational technology , computer science , medicine , philosophy , linguistics , chemistry , organic chemistry , machine learning , political science , law
For fall term 2020, institutions of higher education globally were preparing to run courses as online or blended learning due to Covid-19 restrictions. The ideal situation is for a relatively seamless transition from campus-based teaching to blended and/or online. The aim of this study is to examine the experience of a single cohort of students in order to identify trends in student preferences. The research model was mixed-method quantitative and qualitative analysis. The main research question is: What are student preferences for blended learning? The survey and interview results are from trainee teachers in a municipality in Norway in 2018 to 2019. The main research group consisted of 18 respondents from a group of 28 students with a response rate of 64 %. Four students were selected for semi-structured interviews. A clear majority of the students favor the use of blended learning. They experienced little difference in terms of teacher-centred practice and cooperative learning, i.e. traditional lectures and teacher-led tasks. In contrast, student-centred practice and collaborative learning were strongly favored as campus-based. The loss of social cohesion and more productive student-student dialogue and collaboration is clear. In addition, the data implies that lecturing could be effectively delivered online.