Application of Blended Learning in Imparting Software Skills and Measuring Student Satisfaction

Abstract

Education - It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. - Albert Einstein (1879–1955) - The Global Village concept has emerged with key references to education. Higher education programmes worldwide attracts increasing number of students progressively. In the case of Government universities in Sri Lanka, it is a fact that higher education at present accommodates only less than 10% of the total student population vying for entry. In Sri Lankan Universities many courses accommodate, large groups of students, and now it has come to light that there can be a negative impact on the quality of education. Blended learning approaches have been planned and introduced to improve this situation healthily. This research focuses on the process of developing a learning environment that facilitates imparting application software skills to large student groups using a blended learning approach. The selected learning environment is a Computer laboratory complex of a Government University in Sri Lanka. The Student feedback obtained via a survey using a sample of 300 students reveals that the students overall perception at virtual lecturer session at a distance computer laboratory is at a satisfactory level, even though it is less than of the live lecturer session. The factors which affect the overall student satisfaction in the selected environment are revealed to be visibility of demonstration, audibility of Lecturer and non existence of technical difficulties. The research concludes by providing an insight into the limitations of the developed environment, and indicates the parameters for further research directions emerging out of this research.