Sense of Community: How Important is this Quality in Blended Courses

TL;DR

This study explores how integrating face-to-face components into online courses enhances students' sense of community and overall satisfaction, highlighting the benefits of hybrid learning environments.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that blended courses improve students' sense of community and satisfaction, emphasizing the complementary roles of face-to-face and online learning.

Findings

Students perceived increased sense of community in hybrid courses.

High satisfaction levels linked to the sense of community.

Face-to-face and online classes are complementary pedagogical tools.

Abstract

Combining online classes with the traditional classes foster the advantages of both learning environments.The aim of this study was to examine the effects of integrating face to face classes in fully online courses.Forty eight undergraduate students studying at the e-learning center of a public university in Iran were the subjects of this study.They were required to provide their feedback on the inclusion of face to face component in their e-learning classes.Data collected through open ended questions indicated that the most dominant outcome of such a hybrid course on the students was the perception on the sense of community.The findings suggest that students' high satisfaction on blended learning courses was due to the fact that it promoted their sense of community.This supports another conclusion of the study that face to face classes and online classes are complementary and provide a balanced pedagogical role for each other.