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Insights from pre Covid-19 perceptions of law students on four learning methods: implications for future design of blended learning

Tsipi Heart (Department of Business Administration, Ono Academic College, Kiryat Ono, Israel)
Elad Finklestein (Department of Law, Ono Academic College, Kiryat Ono, Israel)
Menashe Cohen (Department of Law, Ono Academic College, Kiryat Ono, Israel)

Quality Assurance in Education

ISSN: 0968-4883

Article publication date: 21 October 2021

Issue publication date: 6 January 2022

322

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to assess students’ perceptions of four teaching and learning (T&L) methods used in a blended learning Contract Law course, namely, frontal, written assignments, simulations and online asynchronous T&L.

Design/methodology/approach

Law students (n = 417) filled in an anonymous questionnaire on their relative satisfaction with the four methods and their preferences. Participation was voluntary. The questionnaire was administered at the end of term, in class, prior to the Covid-19 restrictions. The results were calculated using Statistical Package for Social Sciences.

Findings

The students preferred face-to-face T&L in class and ranked online T&L last. Notably, 84% preferred blended learning combining all four methods. These results suggest that the online T&L for this Contract Law course setting was unsuccessful and that teachers should experiment with blending various T&L methods to maximize learning effectiveness and students’ satisfaction.

Research limitations/implications

The results only reflect one course in one year among law students, thus affecting the generalizability of the findings. This is further exacerbated by the convenience sample and the fact that only one type of blending was evaluated. Overall, the findings indicated that the survey participants were not yet ready to embrace online T&L as a primary component of blended T&L.

Practical implications

This study Alternative online solutions should be sought to foster social learning when face-to-face learning is not feasible for reasons, such as geographic distance, students’ disabilities or the current pandemic that prohibits social gatherings. This conclusion is particularly pertinent with respect to the impact of Covid-19 on face-to-face learning. Designers of blended learning programs should listen more carefully to students’ voices, and bear in mind that minimizing face-to-face T&L for various reasons might jeopardize students’ satisfaction, which is likely to decrease learning effectiveness.

Social implications

It is important that students’ perceptions be considered when building future T&L programs, especially students’ need for collaborative and social learning.

Originality/value

This study assessed four T&L methods administered in one course during the pre-Covid-19 era. This setting, which is rare, enabled a real-life assessment of the effectiveness of these popular methods as perceived by students.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This study was not funded by any funding resource.

Citation

Heart, T., Finklestein, E. and Cohen, M. (2022), "Insights from pre Covid-19 perceptions of law students on four learning methods: implications for future design of blended learning", Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 32-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-12-2020-0169

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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