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Drawing on data from five large enrolment introductory courses in a public university, we compared students’ perceptions of blended learning on design, interaction, learning, and satisfaction in four different blended models. The models, which were the result of a course redesign initiative, had different combinations of face-to-face lectures, online sessions, and small group tutorial classes. Our findings suggest that students perceived courses with fully online lectures and in-class tutorials most positively on design and overall satisfaction, while those enrolled in courses with in-class lectures and in-class tutorials, supplemented by online discussions, felt most positively about interaction. Students perceived learning in the former courses more favourably than the latter, however the differences were not statistically significant. The least preferred model overall was the one that had in-class lectures and tutorials that alternated weekly between in-class and online sessions.

Examined in this study is the question of whether students in STEM courses perform better and have more positive perceptions than students in non-STEM courses, when both are offered in the blended format. As part of a blended learning initiative, 6 STEM and 8 non-STEM university courses were redesigned using the blended format. Students (n = 318) were surveyed on perceptions of their blended experience and courses grades were compared. Results indicated that STEM students performed significantly higher than non-STEM students; however, STEM students did not perceive their courses as positively as non-STEM students. The conclusion was that focusing blended learning course redesign in STEM fields in higher education may be advantageous, although more research is needed to confirm the findings and to investigate why student perceptions were relatively low for STEM students.

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