scholarly journals Perceptions of Saudi students to Blended Learning Environments at the University of Bisha, Saudi Arabia

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 261-277
Author(s):  
Ammar Anas
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ammar Anas

In this study, a survey is conducted to examine learners’ perceptions and satisfaction towards blended learning environments designed around the transactional and transformational approaches of learning theories in a blended course in the College of Arts & Sciences, Al-Namas, the University of Bisha, Saudi Arabia. The study aims to evaluate students’ perceptions and preferences towards the three components of a blended learning environment: multimedia learning materials, assessment, and interactive activities. A mixed-method of research design is used to collect the data. Quantitative data is collected in the form of 12 Likert items in which 22 Saudi students are asked to evaluate their learning experiences in three categories of the blended learning environment. These categories are multimedia learning materials, assessment, and interactive activities in a blended course on Blackboard, a virtual learning platform used by the University of Bisha to support on-line learning. The researcher’s observation is used to decode, and explain the responses of the participants qualitatively. The result reveals that learners prefer illustrated text materials to video, plain text and audio materials, flexible assessments to non-flexible assessment, and embedded communication tools like WhatsApp, blogging, wikis, collaborative activities, and discussion forum.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Majed Gharmallah Alzahrani ◽  
John Mitchell O’Toole

The purpose of this study is to investigate student experience with the Internet, and their attitudes towards using it, inan attempt to determine the impact of these experiences and attitudes on their view of the implementation of blendedlearning. Data from 142 Saudi students at a leading university in Saudi Arabia were collected via an onlinequestionnaire. The results reveal that students have both experience with and positive attitudes towards using theInternet. Demographic variables had no effect on these attitudes, but experience variables showed significant effects.Interestingly, there were mixed interactions regarding student study year; negatively with Internet experience andpositively with preference for the implementation of blended learning. Neither experience with the Internet norprogram of study appeared to influence student preference for blended learning but age, study year, and attitudestowards the Internet were associated with positive attitudes towards blended learning. Importantly, students in thepresent study supported the implementation of blended learning, but not entirely online learning. Student attitudestowards the Internet in general appeared to influence their attitude to learning approaches that use the Internet inblended learning environments. Discussion of these results is presented with suggested implications.


Author(s):  
Steve Wheeler

This chapter explores the use of the wiki and its role as a cognitive tool to promote interaction and collaborative learning in higher education. The importance of the software to enable student created content, storage, and sharing of knowledge is reviewed. This chapter provides an evaluation of some of the affordances and constraints of wikis to promote critical thinking within a blended learning context. It assesses their potential to facilitate collaborative learning through community focused enquiry for geographically separated students and nomadic learners. One particular focus of the chapter is the development of new digital literacies and how students present their written work in wikis. The chapter also examines group dynamics within collaborative learning environments drawing on the data from a study conducted at the University of Plymouth in 2007, using wikis in teacher education. Finally, the chapter highlights some recent key contributions to the developing discourse on social software in what has been termed ‘the architecture of participation.’


Author(s):  
Yaqun Zhang ◽  
Fayruza Rebrina ◽  
Fairuza Sabirova ◽  
Julia Afanaseva

The modern education system in most countries is built on providing equitable education opportunities to all people, regardless of the limitations they have. There are no significant problems in primary and secondary inclusive education, while most traditional higher education models are not sufficiently adapted to the needs of people with learning disabilities. Thus, it has been replaced by a blended learning model built on new digital learning environments in recent years. The aim of the article is to study the blended learning environment of inclusive educa-tion systems in China and Russia. The article presents the findings of a “The Global Learner Survey”, conducted on behalf of Pearson in May 2019 by The Harris Poll. The survey involved over 11,000 learners aged 16-70 across nine-teen countries. Additionally, statistics on the higher education development in Russia and China were used. The analysis of the current state of higher education in Russia and China, as well as the development of a blended learning environ-ment, shows the positive effect as that it allows students with limited educational opportunities to integrate into the educational and public life of the university and implement all types of rehabilitation along with the educational process.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 124
Author(s):  
Islam Ababneh

The main aim of this study is to highlight the writing errors made by Saudi students majoring in English. The study selected a sample of two groups of female Saudi students residing in two Saudi regions: Tabuk and Hafr Al Batin. The students were requested to write approximately three to four paragraphs about one of three topics related to Saudi Arabia: social media and its effects on Saudi social life, marriage customs in Saudi Arabia, or the economy of Saudi Arabia. In analyzing the collected writing data, the students’ writing errors were identified and classified into four categories: grammar type, syntax type, mechanics type, and lexical type errors. Then, the frequency and error percentages of each subcategory were calculated for both groups. The findings show that both groups produced most errors in the subcategory of spelling followed by tenses subcategory even though the students from the University of Hafr Al Batin made overall higher percentages of errors than the errors’ percentages made by the students from the University of Tabuk. Further investigation reveals that all students in both regions hardly practice English writing and that Arabic interference contributes to the students’ English writing errors. The findings also imply that the curricula specialists at the Saudi ministry of education might consider including more educational material to improve the English writing skills of Saudi university students.


Author(s):  
Issam Mostafa Taamneh

The current study aimed to investigate the most common translation problems that encountered the Saudi students in translating some of the literary items from Arabic into English. In addition, the study tried to investigate the most difficult terms that the students faced while translating them. Moreover, it aimed to explore the participants’ point of views behind such translation problems. To achieve the purpose of the study, a translation test, which involved 20 items and expressions, was prepared in advance. Furthermore, an interview was made to the participants to ask them about their point of views concerning the reasons behind encountering such translation problems. The sample of the study consisted of 15 male fourth year English-majored university students, who were chosen purposefully, at the University College of Taymaa in the first semester of the academic year 2017/2018 in Saudi Arabia. The design of the study was a qualitative as well as quantitative method. The data that were obtained from the participants’ answers in the translation test as well as the participants’ point of views in the interview were analyzed using the appropriate statistical analyses. The findings of the study showed that the students’ achievement in translating the items of the terms of address was the best compared with their results in the other two groups (lexical and cultural). Moreover, the analysis of the students’ interviews indicated that the lack of practice and lack of translation courses are a main reason in facing such these problems. Based on the findings, the researcher presented some recommendations and suggestions to develop students’ translation competence such as increasing the number of the translation courses that are presented to the students in their studying to have more practice in the process of translation. Moreover, more concentration should be given to the lexical, cultural, and terms of address problems in translation. Besides, students must be trained on how to use the bilingual dictionaries in the process of translation to get the intended meaning while rendering from Arabic into English and vice versa.


Author(s):  
Panagiotes S. Anastasiades

This chapter focuses on the designing and development of blended learning environments for adult education, and especially the education of teachers. The author argues that the best combination of advanced learning technologies of synchronous and asynchronous learning is conducive to the formation of new learning environments, which, under certain pedagogical conditions, will adequately meet the special needs of adult students. Particular emphasis is given to the designing and development of a pedagogical blended learning model based on the principles of transformation adult theory and constructivism. This model implements advanced learning technologies in a pedagogical context, aiming at the formation of a collaborative blended learning environment, which will encourage critical thinking and reflection, providing the necessary conditions for a polymorphic distant education for teachers. Finally, we present a case study of a blended environment of teachers’ training designed by the Center of Intercultural and Migration Studies (E.DIA.M.ME.) at the University of Crete.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin Petrescu ◽  
Florian Popescu ◽  
Alina Gligor

AbstractUsing blended learning method, Blast Furnace subject was analysed inside the DidaTec Project. The analysed factors were the quality of presentation, quantity of information per page and human – computer interaction. The analysis shows the preference of students to work with different learning environments.


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