Potential Impact of Blended Learning on Teacher Education in Mongolia

Abstract

Mongolia is a developing country with little infrastructure capacities, but with rapid economic growth for the past few years. Within the past few years, internet and mobile technologies have become more affordable and widespread. Even though there are improvements, it is no secret that quality in all levels of educational sector in Mongolia is inadequate. E-Learning is becoming a driving force of the pedagogical and technological innovations in the higher education institutions worldwide. The most practiced form of the e-Learning in the higher education institutions is blended learning. Some researches show that use of a blended learning course in higher education can result in better quality in instruction. Design and implementation of blended course in particular situation, revision and assessment of quality, would not only enable to share the experience with the similar higher education institutions but also contribute to the overall research in quality in higher education. This paper presents implementation and improvement of the blended “Pedagogy course,” using Moodle Learning Management System and discusses the potential impact on teacher education in Mongolia. Pilot blended “Pedagogy course” was designed and implemented during 2012-2013 school year then revised in 2014-2015 school year. To ensure effectiveness, Keller’s ARCS model of motivational design, validated by many researches was chosen. At the end of the implementation, the students’ blended learning experience survey was completed followed by focus group discussion and statistical analysis. Results show that students in blended class could achieve better grades than traditional class, with high satisfaction. The outcome of the research shows that blended learning implemen-tation can improve quality in higher education has a potential to improve teacher education and should be recommended in similar educational institu-tions in developing countries with similar situation in Mongolia.