Abstract:

Blended Learning has been discussed for over a decade, yet it is still being carefully implemented in health and sciences programs. Though it is considered a fairly new term, its meaning changed with time, but invariably BL is still considered a cost-saving strategy that mixes e-learning technology with traditional training by instructors. Three major aspects of virtual content have been extremely explored: product utility, costs and learner satisfaction. In Brazil, only a few universities adopted this strategy. The purpose of this study is to analyze and discuss how well students are adapting and defining their motivational status in comparison with students engaged by traditional instructor training. Noticing in previous articles a lack of quality materials in Portuguese, Positivo University ordered anatomy e-books and videos using the Blackboard®, one of the most widely used learning-management systems by the medical teaching community. The Chi-square test was used. Thirty one students answered the Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS), a measure of situational intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, already adapted and validated to Portuguese.

It can be seen that the blended learning students had average values assigned to intrinsic motivation that were slightly lower, although very close to those obtained by the group of students in classroom teaching (with p > 0.05) when compared with the Chi-square test. The identified regulation, in turn, obtained the same average in both groups compared. Thus, we can infer that the students that comprised the surveyed sample were mostly intrinsically motivated or extrinsically motivated as autonomously as possible, i.e. in addition to being motivated to carry out academic activities with prospects facing the personal benefits that may result from such activities, these students have interest and pleasure in performing those tasks, both in the classroom and hybrid.

Extrinsic regulation and amotivation showed higher values among blended students, although, previous results, regarding intrinsic motivation and identified regulation, are still significantly higher (p<0.05). What draws the most attention; however, are the scores for external regulation in blended learning.

As a teaching methodology which prioritizes the more active participation of the student in the learning process, it was expected that external regulation would achieve a lower value. However, because it is a recently established discipline in the course, still in its second month of activities, students may feel dependent on the guidance of a teacher to understand and carry out the proposed activities.

According to Guimarães and Bzuneck (2008), these numbers are associated with how important the activity is to reaching the student’s goal. Therefore, more research is still needed to compare blended learning and traditional classroom based training.