Effects of Blended Learning on Academic Achievement and Knowledge Retention of Students in Word Processing in Colleges of Education in Yobe State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study determined the effects of blended learning on academic achievement and knowledge retention of students in Word Processing in Yobe State Colleges of Education. The study adopted the quasiexperimental research design. The study was conducted in the two colleges of education in Yobe State. Federal College of Education (Technical) Potiskum, and Umar Sulaiman College of Education Yobe State. The population of the study was (127) 200level business education students in the two Colleges of Education. The instrument used for data collection was Word Processing Achievement Test (WPAT) and Word Processing Retention Test WPRT). Both WPAT and WPRT were 40 items multiple choice objective questions with options of A, B, C, and D with only one option as the correct answer. The validity of the instrument was done by three experts in business education. To ascertain the reliability of the instruments, a trial testing was conducted at the Department of Business Education, State Polytechnic Bauchi State which is outside the study area. Toanalyse data collected, Means and standard deviation were used to answer the three research questions that guided the study, while the null hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that blended learning strategy is more effective than lecture method in improving academic achievement and retention. Based on the findings of the study it was therefore concluded that blended instructional method is better than lecture methods.