Is Blended Learning in The Students’ Favor? Exploring Thai First-Year Students’ Readiness to Learn English through Blended Learning
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It is crucial for the successful implementation of blended learning to understand students' attitudes towards the various aspects of learning. This study is aimed to evaluate students’ readiness and investigate the benefits and challenges of learning English through blended learning of 322 first-year undergraduate students in their second semester of the 2021 academic year at Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna, Chiang Mai, Thailand. The data collection instruments were a questionnaire developed from Tang and Chaw's (2013) six dimensions of learning readiness, and a semi-structured interview regarding the benefits and challenges of blended learning. Means and standard deviations were used to analyze levels of readiness from the questionnaire. According to the study results, the participants believed that classroom learning was more beneficial than online learning. Although the results indicated that the participants were not ready to study independently, they valued the flexibility of online learning. It is suggested that learners with positive views toward learning flexibility are more likely to adapt to blended learning. Nonetheless, various factors contributing to the difficulty of implementing blended learning, such as low motivation, lack of self-discipline, internet connection, and workload, should also be considered to offer learners the opportunity to adapt to blended learning.
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