Facilitating Students to Earn Computing Certificates via Blended Learning in Online Problem-Solving Environment: A Cross-Course-Orientation Comparison

The vocational schools in Taiwan regard professional certifications as a badge of skills achievement. However, due to a national policy, pure online courses are not permitted. Moreover, it remains unclear whether every subject is suitable to be delivered via online courses. In this regard, the author conducted a quasi-experiment to examine the effects of applying blended learning (BL) with different course orientations on students’ computing skills, and explored the appropriate combination for teachers who teach computing courses. Four classes in successive semesters, with a total of 195 students from the courses of ‘Database Management System’ and ‘Packaged Software and Application’, were divided into 2 (Design-oriented vs. Procedural-oriented) × 2 (BL vs. Traditional Learning) experimental groups. The results showed that students from both design-oriented and procedural-oriented courses delivered in BL environment, had significantly higher grades on the examination for certificates than those who learned in traditional learning environment. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-468-0.ch010