Blended Learning Implementation at Bangladesh Open University
Keywords: blended learning, implementation, strategic approaches, Bangladesh Open University
Abstract
Implementing blended learning is challenging for low- and middle-income countries’ universities, including open universities. Limited studies addressed this issue by exploring strategic approaches to implement blended learning at open universities in low- and middle-income countries. The study aimed to formulate strategic approaches to implement blended learning at Bangladesh Open University (BOU). To that end, the narrative literature review method was used in this study. Thereby, purposively selected 38 peer-reviewed research articles related to blended learning within ten years were analyzed. The document analysis method was also utilized, i.e., data from the BOU website was collected and analyzed. To formulate the strategic approaches, the study analyzed the recent concepts, benefits, and challenges of blended learning. In addition, blended and face-to-face learning were also compared in terms of concept, application, and limitations. Based on these, this study offered a set of strategic approaches to implementing blended learning at BOU, including adapting the blended learning policy, customizing the BOU learning management system software, and converting the existing curriculum from traditional learning to blended learning mode. Policymakers of BOU and other similar open universities will benefit from this study regarding addressing the issue of implementing blended learning.
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References
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