Abstract:

Students’ performance links to the teaching, cognitive and social presence (henceforth TCS presence) in online learning in general. However, the influence of these presences on the performance of students in different educational and cultural settings in blended learning (BL) has not been much explored. As such, this study investigated the influence of TCS presences on performance of students in BL courses in three Tanzanian Universities. BL in these universities includes face-to-face lectures, online assignments, online feedback, and provision of course materials, online discussions, and online messaging. The study is a quantitative correlational design. We examine the extent to which TCS presences in BL environments relate to students’ performance; how students’ characteristics such as gender, nature of the course, university they study, year of study, and ICT skills, relate to their performance. This study adds empirical evidences in the field of blended learning, especially in the Tanzanian context in which BL is quite new. In this context, students’ characteristics such as ICT skills and courses they pursue play a significant role in influencing their performance. Students from eight BL courses participated in this research. For these BL courses, online delivery supplemented a number of activities such as tests; provision of course syllabi, online discussions, course work provision, and feedback via Moodle and Edmodo. The Community of Inquiry survey (CoI) was administered to 565 students. About 60% of participants were male and 40% were female. Students’ performance data was based on their final examinations grade. The majority of participants were in the age group of 22-34 with many reporting to be comfortable in using computers. Sampling adequacy as measured by The Keyser–Meyer– Olkin was highly acceptable. The Principal Components Analysis verified the TCS elements of the CoI survey. The findings indicate that TCS presences were not predictors of students’ performance in BL courses. However, Students ICT skills predicted their performance. While students in higher years of study performed better than those in lower years, unpredictably, students with low ICT skills performed better than those with intermediate and advanced skills. This may be due to the fact that ICT is only one among the factors mediating learning. There was no difference in performance between male and female students. In general, students’ ICT skills, university they belong, nature of the courses, and year of studies accounted for 30% statistically significant variation in their performance. The study concludes that TCS presences were not predictors of students’ performance in BL courses in the Tanzanian Universities. Nature of the course, study year, and nature of the university tend to influence students’ performance in these courses. However, certain elements of TCS presences are very important in the BL courses in Tanzanian universities.

Keywords:

Blended learning, cognitive presence, social presence, teaching presence, students’ performance, community of inquiry, higher learning, Tanzania.