APPLYING BLENDED LEARNING IN ROMANIAN UNIVERSITIES: BETWEEN DESIDERATUM AND REALITY

In order to achieve an education reform aligned to the European standards, to withstand the challenges of an increasingly competitive environment and to enhance the academic reputation, the Romanian HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) perform steps for innovating the services they offer.
Researchers and practitioners state that the use of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) it is not imperative only for HEIs that offer distance education programs but it is also increasingly encouraged in order to improve the overall student experience. In consequence, Romanian HEIs focused their attention to determine a model for the integration of ICT in education in order to offer to their student’s skills and knowledge appropriate for the current and future society. Nowadays, the Romanian universities are endeavouring to apply the concept of blended learning and to implement/develop e-learning systems adapted to their own organizational structures. In this paper I will emphasize on the dimension of this phenomenon by conducting an analysis of the functionalities of e-learning systems developed/implemented in the Romanian academic environment.