BLENDED LEARNING AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE ON PROBLEM SOLVING AND PROGRAMMING I OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Blended learning provided enhancements to face-to-face interaction between teachers and students through the use of the Internet and computer-based tools. This study primarily investigated the effect of the blended learning mode to the academic performance of first year BSIT students taking up the Problem Solving and Programming I of Bachelor of Science in Information Technology in Benguet State University. The study was undertaken during the first semester of the school year 2011-2012. Only the regular first year BSIT students were the respondents of this research. There were two sections that took up the course totaling to 97 students where Section A, with 49 students, used the blended learning mode while Section B, with 48 students, employed the traditional face-to-face learning mode. With regards to blended learning, the respondents used Claroline in their online mode. The study aimed to answer the following objectives: to determine the level of academic performance of students in Problem Solving and Programming I course of first year BSIT students employing the blended learning mode and face-to-face mode; to compare the academic performance in Problem Solving and Programming I course of first year BSIT students using blended learning mode and face-to-face mode; and to elicit the benefits and problems encountered by the BSIT first year students in using the blended learning mode in Problem Solving and Programming I. T-test was used to compare the level of academic performance in Problem Solving and Programming I of the students using blended learning mode with students using the face-to-face mode. T test was also used to compare the level of academic performance in Problem Solving and Programming of students with the average level. The benefits and problems encountered in the blended mode were analyzed using frequency and rank method. Results showed that the level of academic performance of the respondents who used blended mode was below average as indicated by the computed mean of 2.68 and significantly different from the average academic performance mean of 2.00. The same was true with the face-to-face mode which got an average of 2.83. Furthermore the level of academic performance of students on both blended mode and face to face mode were both below average but the level of academic performance using the blended mode differs significantly from that of the face-to-face mode as indicated by the computed t value which was significant at 0.05 level of significance. Those who took up the course using the blended mode perform significantly better than those who were in the face-to-face mode. The respondents also identified that practice cases were accessible and lecture notes can be downloaded and viewed whenever needed were the most beneficial among others when using the Claroline which was used for the online part of the blended mode. However, the respondents identified that sometimes the unavailability of the Claroline made the necessary class' documents not accessible as the number one problem in the blended mode. It is recommended or encouraged that faculty members who are teaching computer programming subjects to use the blended-learning in teaching Problem Solving and Programming I to take advantage of the possible benefits of this kind of teaching modality. Similar study could also be conducted to further bring out other factors which affects students' performance using blended learning mode.