A comparison of online/face-to-face students' and instructor's experiences: Examining blended synchronous learning effects

The blended synchronous teaching and learning mode is gaining currency in higher education, while its effects on students' and instructors' experiences are yet to be fully explored. Little research has been done to contextualize the teaching and learning effects of this teaching and learning mode. This paper reports a qualitative study of the experiences of simultaneously teaching online and face-to-face students in an engineering course. It aims to gain better understandings of the effects on the students' learning and instructor's teaching in terms of 3 dimensions: instructional, social and learning, in the advent of information and communication technology. What teaching and learning effects were revealed in the blended mode? How did the effects impact on attaining the intended learning outcomes? This paper focuses on the potential of blended synchronous teaching and learning effects for quality educational experiences. The results reveal that (1) there were different teaching and learning effects on the blended synchronous instruction; (2) an unexpected pattern of interactions emerged in the blended synchronous communication; and (3) both the online and face-to-face students attained similar learning outcomes. This paper concludes that universities adopting blended synchronous learning need to provide sufficient support for both the students and instructors in the instructional, social and learning dimensions. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.