‘I’ve stuck to the path I’m afraid’: Exploring student non-use of blending learning By Orton-Johnson

‘I’ve stuck to the path I’m afraid’: Exploring student non-use of blending learning
Orton-Johnson, Kate. “’I’ve Stuck to the Path I’m Afraid’: Exploring Student Non-use of Blended Learning.” British Journal of Education Technology, 40.5 (2009): 837-847.

Orton-Johnson, K. (2009). ‘I’ve stuck to the path I’m afraid’: Exploring student non-use of blended learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(5), 837-847.

Abstract
This paper draws on qualitative data from a study of student use of blended learning as part of a conventionally taught undergraduate Sociology course. Findings from an early evaluation questionnaire highlighted an overwhelming pattern of non-use of the material and subsequent research with a group of 16 students evidenced limited and inconsistent engagement with the resources. In an analysis of the category ‘non-use’, the students’ rejection of the materials is seen to be closely related to a trust in traditional texts as authentic academic knowledge and an instrumental and strategic approach to study. Blended learning resources are shown to challenge existing learning patterns and practices, reconfigure existing understands and expectations of academic scholarship and reconstruct academic boundaries in new spaces.

Summary
The course used a custom built website with “documentation, online readings, study skill resources, materials for tutorial group preparation, lecture summaries, revision materials and a space for synchronous and asynchronous discussion” (839)

Students were taught how to use the website in their first lecture. After three weeks of being in the course, a survey showed that 33 of the 35 students had not used the website, mostly because they had forgotten about it. A focus group of 16 students was formed for further research. All students had access to computers, so the lack of proper equipment is not a consideration for non-use. The three main reasons for non-use included sticking to the reading lists, lacking the ability to identity “’proper’ academic information” (840) and “their perceptions [of] what was expected of them as students” (840). Students expressed concerns with uncertainty about the expectations of course work at the university level and stuck to the reading lists because the lists were viewed as trustworthy. Online sources were view “as the ‘easy option’” (842).

Students who did use the website used it with a task-oriented approach and saw it as the most efficient way to complete work. This approach came not from being lazy or wanting to succeed in the class, but rather as a way for students to manage their time between studying, working a job and their social life. The students viewed the website as a practical way to study, “not as the self-directed motivated and empowered learners that constructivist pedagogical models would suggest” (844).