What kind of support do teachers really need in a blended learning context?

Abstract

Teachers in higher education are the principal participants in blended learning (BL). Without their engagement, any attempt at BL might fail. In the process of BL implementation, they are faced with various challenges and are mostly not well prepared. However, studies have often neglected the feeling of teachers and their anxieties during BL implementation. There is insufficient research on teacher-related factors, especially teacher support. To address this question, a questionnaire was conducted among 123 respondents from 10 universities in China between March and May 2020. An analysis of the data collected shows that BL is widely recognised by teachers, but they lack confidence in their competence in BL implementation. The top three difficulties that faculty face are increased workload, a lack of funds to build their own courses and a lack of time to prepare online activities. Further, respondents have a clear need for pedagogical support, financial and infrastructure support, policy support, technical support and emotional support. These findings indicate that a targeted support system should be constructed to address these difficulties. Special attention should be paid to formulating BL guidance, offering a supportive environment that values BL efforts and relieving the workload of faculty.
 
 Implications for practice or policy:
 BL teachers need various support to design and implement BL courses.
 
 Higher education institutions should formulate guidance and clarify the definition and key implementation elements to guide BL practice.
 Management departments of higher education institutions should take effective measures to alleviate the burden of teachers.
 The training of teachers in the application of BL technology should focus on strengthening technological content knowledge and technological pedagogical knowledge.

ICT Self-Efficacy, Organizational Support, Attitudes, and the Use of Blended Learning: An Exploratory Study Based on English Teachers in Basic Education

“…In this research, we built a construct to assess teachers' perceived organizational support for blended learning, and the direct path coefficient between them indicated that they are positively related to each other. This finding is in line with implications proposed by Garrison and Kanuka ( 2004 ) and Zhao and Song ( 2021 ), although with more concrete evidence.…”

“…Organizational support for blended learning was measured with four items in this research. The items were modified based on Eisenberger et al ( 1986 ) and Eisenberger et al ( 1997 ) for the concept of perceived organizational support and Garrison and Kanuka ( 2004 ) and Zhao and Song ( 2021 ) for organizational issues of blended learning.…”

“…Organizational support of blended learning (Eisenberger et al, 1986;Eisenberger et al, 1997;Kanuka, 2004, Zhao andSong, 2021) O1 I can perceive the administration's support for blended learning.…”

“…Nayir ( 2012 ) points out that teachers feeling more supported by their school tend to contribute more to the objectives of their school, so the perception of organizational support is crucial for them to internalize the organizational objectives. In the case of blended learning, the research results of Zhao and Song ( 2021 ) indicate that teachers expect organizational support, such as recognition and understanding, guidelines, incentive policy, funds, network conditions, training on educational technology, technical assistance, and experience sharing from their schools for blended learning implementation. From the above literature, the following hypotheses were proposed.…”

Fra nødundervisning til bæredygtig digital undervisning

“…Hertil er det centralt, hvordan man i så fald fremadrettet bør understøtte digital undervisning. Vi ved fra tidligere forskning, at manglende teknisk kunnen og selvtillid (erfaring) samt manglende organisatorisk understøttelse fungerer som barrierer for underviseres implementering af digitale undervisningsformer (Zhao & Song, 2021). Et andet dansk studie peger ligeledes på, at organisatorisk understøttelse er vigtigt (Lyngdorf et al, 2021).…”