Online learning was initially developed to help students who are far from campus, have work/family obligations, and more. However, over time, online learning became an additional learning format alongside face-to-face learning, and in certain cases, it was the only learning format available for students (e.g., COVID-19). In this study, we wanted to check if these experiences may affect students’ learning format preferences, and what the reasons are for this. Overall, 158 undergraduate students from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, attended a hybrid physics course which allowed them to attend face-to-face, via Zoom, or skip class and watch via lesson recordings. After the first lesson,
students stated which learning format they preferred to attend by, and at the end of the course they filled in their actual learning format attendance during the course. Additionally, students wrote down their motives, and interviews were conducted.
Findings show that most students initially preferred to learn F2F, but many shifted to a hybrid format, combining face-to-face and online learning. Students’ motives revealed that in face-to-face learning, social connection provides the base for better focus and asking questions, and in online learning, time/space flexibility helps for learning. We believe that a good model should combine face-to-face and online learning to maximize the relative benefits of each learning format and minimize their pitfalls. However, for such a model to be effective, it is necessary to facilitate and promote students’ focus ability, the most commonly mentioned barrier to online learning in our study.
Link to the full article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09500693.2024.2355673
Authors: Amit Shlomo, Rinat Rosenberg-Kima Research group’s website: https://rinatrk.net.technion.ac.il/
