PERSPECTIVES OF STUDENTS ON ADOPTING BLENDED LEARNING MODEL FOR POSTGRADUATE STUDIES IN A SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY

Blended learning (BL) is a new approach to learning in an effective and efficient way. Developed institutions use only blended methods in teaching and learning. As a result, BL constitutes best practice in education facilitation. In a collaboration between Statistics & Operations Research and Computer Science departments of the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, some BSc Honours students were not satisfied that their research projects were blended with various methods, where technology was fully incorporated in a Statistics (Stats) project. A study was then conducted to determine the perceptions of undergraduate Stats students to determine the degree of their interest in integrating BL in their studies. Data were collected from 96 first and second year students using a questionnaire. Though resistance was shown in some students, there were five factors identified as significant influencers of interest in BL. The factors are the ability to reflect on previous learning; the ability to engage more in the study; the use of personal devices; evidence of increasing pass rates; and the capability to provide information on the modules for which the students have enrolled. Without these conditions, students were basically unwilling to adopt BL. A BL approach was then designed for postgraduate supervision in order to improve quality and throughputs.