Using Blended Learning to Enhance Students' Cognitive Presence

Abstract

The adoption of e-learning has had a great impact on the process of teaching and learning at Malaysian institutions of higher learning. More educators have started encouraging their students to participate actively within groups through online learning (Brindley et al., 2009) as it could enhance students' cognitive skills (Moscinska & Rutkowski, 2011). When the flexibility of online learning is integrated with the face-to-face method, it provides a new experience in teaching and learning. The important question raised was: Does learning in blended mode also increase the students' cognitive skills? As the study of blended learning is based mainly on content analysis (online transcripts), a case study with a qualitative approach was conducted. The findings proved that learning through blended learning could enhance students' cognitive skills.