Prospects and Challenges of Using Blended Learning Strategies for Part Time Students of Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

In a bid to cope with the 21st century technological demands, most tertiary institutions across the globe have queued into the paradigm shift in instructional process through the integration of technology in instructional delivery. One of such technologies is the use of blended learning to complement traditional teaching methods. This study therefore aims at finding out the prospects and challenges of using blended learning strategies for part time (evening and weekend) students. The study was guided by two research questions and two null hypotheses. The study purposively selected the entire 46 lecturers involved in Evening and Weekend Programme (EWP) and 287 EWP NCE students in Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri. A 20-item questionnaire was designed by the researchers with 4 point modified Likert response scale patterned thus: SA, A, D and SD. The questionnaire was given to experts who did both face and content validation and a reliability r of .77 was attained. Mean was used to answer the research questions while t- test was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 significance level. The findings of the study indicated; enriched learning experiences, active involvement of students in instructional process, collaborative learning, access to learning content from anywhere and any device as some of the prospects of using blended learning for part time students while the challenges include; inadequate facilities, lack of technical support, network challenges and problem of self directedness in device usage. Based on the findings, recommendations were made and conclusions drawn.