Blended Learning Course Experience Scale (BLCES)

Abstract

The Blended Learning Course Experience Scale (BLCES), developed by Bhagat et al. (2023), is designed to assess students’ perceptions of their blended learning (BL) course experiences. The development of this scale addresses a critical need for instruments that evaluate student perspectives on BL. Blended learning offers students the flexibility to manage online tasks at their own pace. The initial development of the BLCES involved a comprehensive literature review and an analysis of existing scales, including those by Ginns & Ellis (2007), Dziuban & Moskal (2011), and Owston et al. (2013). Expert feedback was incorporated, resulting in a 19-item measure. The BLCES was subsequently administered to undergraduate students in Malaysia. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a robust three-factor structure with 19 items. The study also reported satisfactory results regarding the reliability and validity of the scale. The BLCES is an original inventory/questionnaire designed to measure the construct of Blended Learning Course Experience. It consists of 19 items, which are available in English. The administration method is electronic, and the items are located in the Appendix of the source at Page 3981.

Keywords

Blended Learning Course Experience, Course Design, Learning Experience, Personal Factors, Student Perceptions, Structural Validity.

Authors

Bhagat, Kaushal Kumar; Cheng, Chia-Hui; Koneru, Indira; Fook, Fong Soon; Chang, Chun-Yen

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Purpose

The primary purpose of the Blended Learning Course Experience Scale (BLCES) is to assess student perceptions regarding their experiences in blended learning courses. This measure was developed to fill a gap in existing tools for evaluating students’ attitudes and perceptions towards blended learning environments, which offer flexibility in completing online tasks.

Validity

The validity of the BLCES was established through several methods:

Structural Validity: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to establish the structural validity of the scale.
Convergent Validity: The Composite Reliability (CR) values for the factors were reported as follows: Course Design = 0.95, Learning Experience = 0.92, and Personal Factors = 0.71. These values meet the recommended threshold of 0.7 (Hair et al., 2006). The Average Variance Extracted (AVE) for Course Design and Learning Experience were greater than 0.5, while the AVE for Personal Factors was less than 0.5.
Discriminant Validity: This was confirmed by demonstrating that the square roots of the AVE for all constructs were significantly greater than their respective inter-construct correlations.

Reliability

Internal Consistency: The reliability of the BLCES was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. The coefficients for the individual factors ranged from .71 to .95, indicating good to excellent internal consistency. The overall Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the entire scale was .92, demonstrating a highly satisfactory level of reliability.

Factor Analysis

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA): Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation was performed. Following the recommendation by Hair et al. (2006), only items with factor loadings greater than .70 were retained. This analysis yielded a three-factor structure comprising 19 items, which collectively explained 68.06% of the total variance. The identified factors were: Course design, Learning experience, and Personal factors.
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): CFA was conducted to confirm the structure obtained from EFA. The results indicated a satisfactory fit for the three-factor model: χ² (149) = 355.71, p < .001; RMSEA = .06; CFI = .96; GFI = .92; NFI = .93; TLI = .96. These fit indices suggest that the three-factor model provides a good representation of the data.

Instrument

Test Type: Original
Format: Inventory/Questionnaire
Language Available: English
Population Group: Human (Male and Female)
Age Group: Adulthood (18 years and older)
Population Details: The sample consisted of undergraduate students located in Malaysia.
Test Methodology: The development and validation of the BLCES involved several psychometric methodologies, including Test Validity (Construct Validity, Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity), Test Reliability (Internal Consistency), and Factor Analysis (Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Principal Component Analysis).

Keywords

Course Design; Learning Experience; Personal Factors; Student Perceptions; Blended Learning Course; Structural Validity; College Students; Course Evaluation; Educational Measures; Student Attitudes; Blended Learning.

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Authors

Author OCRID Identifier:

• Bhagat, Kaushal Kumar: orcid.org/0000-0002-6861-6819

• Chang, Chun-Yen: orcid.org/0000-0003-2373-2004

Affiliation:

• Bhagat, Kaushal Kumar: Centre for Educational Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

• Cheng, Chia-Hui: Graduate Institute of Science Education, National Taiwan Normal University

• Koneru, Indira: e-Learning Department, ICFAI Business School

• Fook, Fong Soon: Centre for E-Learning, Universiti Malaysia Sabah

• Chang, Chun-Yen: Graduate Institute of Science Education, National Taiwan Normal University

Email Addresses:

• Bhagat, Kaushal Kumar: [email protected]

Correspondence Address:

• Bhagat, Kaushal Kumar: [email protected]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Contact Publisher
Commercial Use: No
Fee: No
Test Year: 2023

References

Bhagat, K. K., Cheng, C.-H., Koneru, I., Fook, F. S., & Chang, C.-Y. (2023). Students’ Blended Learning Course Experience Scale (BLCES): Development and validation. Interactive Learning Environments, 31(6), 3971–3981. doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2021.1946566

Items of the Blended Learning Course Experience Scale (BLCES)

The Blended Learning Course Experience Scale (BLCES) consists of 19 items, which are categorized under three main factors: Course design, Learning experience, and Personal factors. The specific items are available in the Appendix of the source article on page 3981. 

Blended Learning Course Experience Scale (BLCES)