LEARNER SATISFACTION AND KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION IN BLENDED LEARNING

The learning process can be incomplete without learners’ satisfaction and the ability to construct their own ideas. Learner characteristics such as age and gender could me important factors in their satisfaction and knowledge construction. This study investigated the levels of satisfaction and knowledge construction among different age groups, schools and gender. It sought to find out the differences in satisfaction and knowledge construction that exist between different ages, sexes and schools in a private Ugandan university. Descriptive statistics revealed high levels of learner satisfaction with the instructor, course content, technology, interactions and face-to-face sessions and high levels of knowledge construction with regard to initiation, discovery and accomplishment with mean ranges between 3.8 and 4.3 in all the measurements. T-test results revealed no statistically significant differences between age groups and male and female learners in satisfaction and knowledge construction. One-way Anova results revealed no statistically significant differences between the students in different schools in their satisfaction with blended learning and knowledge construction abilities. Blended learning therefore is potential as an innovative pedagogical approach in teaching and learning in higher education in view of the variables dealt with in this study and its potentiality in view of other variables such as learner performance and instructional factors remains a focus for further research.