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ISBN 978-952-5726-09-1 (Print)
Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Networking and Network Security (ISNNS ’10)
Jinggangshan, P. R. China, 2-4, April. 2010, pp. 081-084
The Evaluation System for Blending Learning
Based on Blackboard Academic Suite
Lin Xin 1 , Xixiang Zhang 2 , Kede Qin 3 , and GuangxueYue 2,4
1 Business School of Jiaxing University , Jiaxing, China
2 Mathematics and Information Engineering School of Jiaxing University , Jiaxing, China
3 Economics School of Jiaxing University , Jiaxing, China
4 Guangdong University of Business Studies ,GuangZhou, China
Email: Zhangmiddle@126.com
Abstract—Blending learning becomes popular in Chinese
colleges and universities with the rapid using of Internet.
Many universities use the BlackBoard Academic Suite( it is
abbreviated as BB) to improve the interaction between
teachers and students. It is important to evaluate the effect
of the blending environment. Thus, the paper made study on
assessing blending study based on BB. The paper build a
blended learning system based on BB and it build the
evaluation system for blending learning. Three indicators
and 12 sub-indicators were used to evaluate blending
teaching through document analysis and interviewing. Then,
420 questionnaires were distributed to collect opinions
about the importance of each indicator, which used
linguistic 2-tuple representation model to deal with fuzzy
linguistic terms in it. Thus, an evaluation system with
weight for blended learning was put forward, which can be
used by the manager of university to assess the blending
learning environment provided by a teacher.
Index Terms—blending learning; evaluation; linguistic 2-
tuple representation model
I. INTRODUCTION
University of Michigan Business School proposed a
technical software platform to enhance the effective
learning based on the concept of blended learning and
proved that the blended learning was better in improving
student’s learning abilities[1]. Professor C·K·Prahalad
found that the student was transferred from a listener in
traditional classroom into a knowledge creator and the
network learning activities were as important as that in
the classroom. In 2003, Professor He with Beijing normal
university introduced the concept of blended learning in
the seventh session of global Chinese computer education
meeting held in Nanjing[2], which triggered the research
on blended learning in China. Professor Li with Huadong
normal university gave the definition of blended learning
and carried out blended learning in his teaching career[3].
In 2003 the Chinese Education Bureau began a project to
set up 1500 excellent courses for higher education to
provide best teachers and teaching materials using
information technology, which promoted the revolutions
in teaching and learning idea, teaching method and
teaching schema. To improve the leaning effect of
students, many university in China applied the
BlackBoard Academic Suite ( it was abbreviated as BB).
BB is a software developed by American Black-board
company, which is professional platform for network
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teaching and learning. Since it entered the Chinese
market, it becomes an effective media for transporting
and storing education resources and bridged the gap
between students and teacher. Blending learning theory is
developed from behaviourism and constructivism, which
takes the advantage of traditional face-to –face learning
and electronic learning. It does not only focus on the
instructive role of teachers in guiding, enlightening and
supervising students, it also enhances the leading role of
students in encouraging them study actively, creatively.
The BB platform provides such a tool for effective
blending learning. With its popularity in Chinese
universities, the result of blending learning based on BB
platform should be evaluated. Thus, the paper made the
research on evaluation system for blended teaching and
learning based on BB. The rest of the paper was
organized as follows: part Ⅱ introduced the related
research on blended learning; part Ⅲ demonstrated the
blended learning environment based on BB, part Ⅳ
illustrated the indicator of the evaluation system for
blending learning and the weight of each indicator, partⅤ
gave the conclusion.
II. REVIEW OF RELATED WORK
Margaret Driscoll(2002)[4] gave a detailed concept of
blended learning, she thought that learning process was a
combination of technologies based on WEB, such as
virtual classroom, cooperative learning and stream
medium, learning process was also a mixture of teaching
techniques and different teaching ideas. Harvi Singh and
Chris Reed ( 2004 ) considered that blended learning
centered around the learning effectiveness for a student
using suitable approach in appropriate time, so that the
student can master the knowledge and technique[5].
Donald Clark(2005)divided blended learning into two
parts: offline learning and online learning in “White
paper: Blended Learning” [6]. Chen and Looi(2007)
investigated that the concept of blended learning should
be introduced into curriculums to promote the learning
effectiveness[7], that is to say, online discussion should
be integrated with traditional discussion to improve
learning result.
In China He and Li [2,3] gave different definition for
blended learning, but they had the common point that
blended learning could not just mixed traditional