THE EFFECTIVENESS OF E-LEARNING FOR BLENDED COURSES IN COLLEGES: A MULTI-LEVEL EMPIRICAL STUDY

Abstract

Teaching and learning are no longer restricted to traditional classrooms, while e-learning (electronic learning) has become one of the powerful supporting tools which have diversified the traditional context of learning in colleges. With the rapid development of technology, the Internet as a delivery platform has motivated colleges to invest their resources on developing online programs. Meanwhile, the blended course, which combines online components with the conventional face-to-face components, has emerged as alternative mode of teaching and learning and a substantial supplement. With opportunities and barriers as well, however, the development and management of e-learning are still challenging, especially for the continuous improvement of students` learning effectiveness via e-learning for blended courses. This paper applies the socio-technical systems theory to review and integrate theories on students` e-learning from a macro view. To make up the insufficiency of related research, literature review is conducted first, and an analysis model is constructed to thoroughly explore factors affecting e-learning effectiveness. Later, through a questionnaire survey on students` adoption of e-learning and subsequent multi-level data analysis, hypotheses on the relationship of the influencing factors and the research model are verified. Results show that e-learning effectiveness (usefulness of e-learning, use, and e-learning performance) is simultaneously or alternately affected by direct or moderating factors of the technical system and the social system at the learning environment level and the individual level. Compared with the existing research, this paper uses a more comprehensive system view to construct the theoretical model and empirically verify it. The results can be a reference for future researchers and managers of e-learning in colleges.