An Exploration of First-Year undergraduates' Preparedness and Experiences in Blended Courses

Despite their advantages, blended approaches have been met with mixed results by learners. There is a general view that learners who are known as Digital Natives or Millennials, are technologically savvy. Research, however, suggests rather that they possess poor levels of digital literacy and have demonstrated some degree of avoidance towards e-learning tools (Boyd, 2014; Chigeza and Halbert, 2014; O’Connell and Dyment, 2014). This study thus intends to explore learners' preparedness in adapting to blended courses. We hypothesize that learners’ depth of engagements in blended activities is influenced by learners’ characteristics. We further hypothesize the influence of learning facilitators and the learning environment in moderating learners’ engagement. We aim to contribute in a theoretical and empirical manner by testing the proposed framework based on past literature. Expected practical contributions include enriching teaching practices to better cater to students’ needs, and improving on blended techniques, allowing learners to learn in a more effective manner.