Evaluating the Quality of Blended BEd Programme: A Case of Bangladesh Open University

Abstract

Nowadays, quality assurance of basic degree of teacher education has become a great concern in general and of teacher education programme under blended mode in particular. The later leverages information and communication technology (ICT) for blending the modus operandi which provides more concerns about the quality. This paper addresses the quality of BEd programme of the School of Education (SOE) of Bangladesh Open University (BOU). The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of BEd programme with regard to the internal efficiency of School of Education of BOU. This study was conducted by the The Institutional Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) in association of the BLTeae team and the survey was done on a random sample of 252 BEd students drawn from 11 Regional Centres (RCs) located throughout the country using the common instrument by the University Grant Commission (UGC) with some modification considering the delivery mode of the programme. Data was collected through a questionnaire with 5 point Likert-Scale which was validated through a pilot study. The results exposed that BEd programme was effective in terms of uplifting teachers' pedagogical knowledge and skills. Teachers responded favorably the quality of BEd curriculum, lesson planning and presentation by themselves and their teacher educators, and had some reservations about the appropriate use of video lectures for effective blended teaching learning processes.