AN ANALYSIS ON THE STUDENT INTERACTION AND COLLABORATION IN AN UNDERGRADUATE BLENDED LEARNING COURSE

In a blended learning educational context, technology-enhanced teaching and learning plays a vital role which directs the students to learn by themselves. Learning Management System (LMS) can be considered as a platform which supports technology-enhanced teaching and learning. This paper presents a study carried-out to analyse the student interaction and collaboration in a final year undergraduate course conducted in a blended educational environment. The course has been offered for a fully complete academic year and consisted of both online and blended activities such as discussion forums, presentations, magazine article writing, and poster design. All the components were based on emerging topics suggested by the students. For the evaluation, both quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques comprised of LMS log data and a questionnaire were used. Forum participation was analysed by generating a graph using the log file data of the LMS. The average mark distribution was also used to check the competencies of the students towards the course. As the conclusion, it is possible to say that in order to maintain the student interaction and collaboration in blended courses, more time and focus need be allocated for student-centred activities. Also, a considerable portion should be assigned to f2f activities in the course. By considering the analysis, blended mode courses can be implemented with the aid of technology to get maximum benefit to the higher education.