INTEGRATION OF BLENDED LEARNING AS A MEASURE FOR FACILITATING INSTRUCTION IN THE TERTIARY BUSINESS EDUCATION PROGRAMME IN THE NEW NORMAL IN DELTA STATE

Abstract

The study investigated the integration of blended learning as a measure for facilitating instruction in the tertiary business education programme in the new normal in Delta State. Two research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 109 business educators from five tertiary institutions in Anambra State. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire. The instrument was subject to a pilot test on 20 business educators in Anambra State. The application of the Cronbach Alpha reliability test on the returned data yielded coefficient values of 0.85 and 0.83 for clusters B1 and B2 respectively with an overall reliability coefficient value of 0.84. Data collected from the respondents were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test. Findings revealed that the benefits of integrating blended learning as a measure for facilitating instruction in the tertiary business education programme in the new normal in Delta State are that it offers a platform to facilitate greater interactivity between students, helps students achieve higher and more meaningful levels of learning, allows students practice the ability to project themselves socially, makes global networks of information available for learners and creates opportunity for collaboration. Findings revealed that the measures for facilitating instruction in the blended learning environment in the business education programme in the new normal in Delta State include creating a detailed syllabus with documented learning outcomes, creating the right blend of activities for deep and meaningful learning, offering students opportunity to learn together, allowing open communication between business educators and students and promoting inquiry based learning in the business education programme among others. The result of the hypotheses are the years of the experience of the respondents did not significantly influence their mean ratings. It was recommended that Government at all levels in conjunction with the administrators of the business education programme should organize a comprehensive review of the business education curriculum so as to allow for flexibility and the application of the blended learning approach so as to scale the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Keywords: Integration, Blended Learning, Instruction, Business Education