A study on learners’ perceptional typology and relationships among the learner’s types, characteristics, and academic achievement in a blended e-Education environment

This study explores and describes different viewpoints on blended e-Education by using Q methodology to identify students’ perspectives and classify them into perceptional types. It is also designed to examine possible relationships among learner’s perceptional type, characteristics (i.e., academic self-efficacy, interest in blended e-Education, and extraversion) and academic achievement levels. Fifty undergraduate students taking blended e-Education courses at a Korean university were chosen as participants in this study. As a result of the study, four types of learners were identified and given the following descriptive labels: (I) e-Education Interested Type, (II) Traditional Lecture Friendly Type, (III) Social Interactionist Type, and (IV) Yes-But Mixed Type. Further, it was found that those who have either higher academic self-efficacy or extraversion achieved higher academic achievement. It is also shown that female students in general have less interest in blended e-Education. Implications of these results are discussed in the context of blended e-Education course design.

► A Q-method was used to discern learners’ viewpoints on blended e-Education. ► Four types were identified and a type was labeled as e-Education Interested type. ► The others were Traditional Lecture Friendly, Social Interactionist, and Yes-But Type. ► Those who have higher academic self-efficacy achieved higher academic achievement. ► Those who have higher extraversion also achieved higher academic achievement.