Effectiveness of blended learning in higher education. Case of Astana IT University.

Abstract

Globalization and informatization of society are important indicators of the 21st century which influenced people’s lives in all spheres and educational spheres included. The educational system and methods have always been subject to constant change throughout the history of teaching. The most crucial changes started to emerge in the past 20 years since the advancement of technologies which made the process of teaching easier, enriched the tools for instructors and gave the opportunity for students to study independently. The traditional format of teaching is now slowly shifting to a more flexible half online mode which is called Blended learning. The study undertaken in framework of this article is aimed at evaluating the student’s English language performance at Astana IT University. The research included 285 participants: first-year undergraduate students between16-18 years old. Study used a paired t-test to identify if there is a statistical difference between before and after incorporating blended learning into the educational process. Analysis revealed that the pvalue (0.001) is less than the alpha level (0.05), thus it was concluded that the scores are higher after implementing Blended learning in the course; furthermore, it is suggested that this format benefits not only the students but instructors as well.