Abstract:

Blending academic research strategies and e-learning technology is becoming the innovative university teaching/learning policy, focusing on students’ self-endeavor to access information in order to improve their knowledge on any subject. As a result, the university has shifted its focus from the traditional teaching approach, consisting of cramming the students’ minds with a huge amount of information, to a more rationalized focus on the students conducting their own research to access the knowledge and valuable information they need under the guidance of their instructors. In other words, it shifted its attention from the product to the process–based learning, using reliable sources of information such as the internet and libraries. From this standpoint, the instructor’ role is mainly restricted to guide his students and equip them with research strategies and steps in the information literacy course rather than provide them with the course content per se.

The purpose of this research is then to study the impact of blending academic research strategies and e- learning approach used in the information literacy (the big 6 research steps) to conduct online academic research and the 21st century technologies. It will also stress the importance of the students’ necessary research collaboration and the development of their critical thinking in selecting reliable and authentic information and discarding irrelevant and useless data. In addition, it helps them acquire the presentation techniques to display such information in academic way in the classroom in forms of projects presentations and product delivery mode, the associated learned skills, and in reflective essays. Finally, and most importantly, it will evaluate the students’ academic performance and personal presentation skills to see whether their performance has improved or not. These will be done by appraising the final product- the projects content, and the presentation skills involved, by comparing pre-test and post-tests scores, administered at the beginning and at the end of the course respectively and through reflective essays, to see whether or not, there is a students’ performance significant improvement.

Keywords:

Blended learning, Academic Research Strategies, Big 6 Steps, Product Learning, Process learning, e-learning, Traditional Learning, Performance Evaluation.