Using blended synchronous classroom approach to promote learning performance in rural area

Highlights

• BSC was proposed to promote students' learning performance in rural area.

• Students‘ performance in a rural school was improved after the practice of BSC.

• Perceptions of BSC from local and remote students has no significant difference.

• Teachers pay equal attention to local and remote students is a key factor.

Abstract

The advancement of the Internet technology has changed the way how different types of classrooms can be created including the blending of multiple physical classrooms, synchronous cyber classrooms and asynchronous cyber classrooms. Classes in rural and urban schools could be fully integrated together by using various synchronous tools such as video conferencing systems, electronic whiteboards, interactive response systems, etc. The way of fully integrating two or more physical classrooms together to support online real-time interaction among teachers and students in different locations is called Blended Synchronous Classroom (BSC) in this study. Rural schools cannot attract enough number of good teachers which creates a serious problem of education inequality. A promising solution to this problem is to bring good teachers from urban schools to rural schools by using BSC approach. In this study, a two-year long project of applying BSC approach in two primary schools in Ningbo China is reported, and the effectiveness of BSC is explored through comparative analysis, questionnaire survey and classroom video analysis. The results of this study include: (1) students' learning performance in rural school was improved significantly after the two-year practice of BSC; (2) there are no significant differences in the perceptions of the efficiency of BSC between students in local class and remote class; (3) teachers pay equal attention to students in both local and remote classrooms is the key factor to the success of BSC implementation. The large-scale application of BSC to deal with urban-rural divide is discussed based on the results.

Introduction

The urban–rural divide in education tends to be more pronounced in developing and emerging economies where it is closely related to a general gap between socio-economic development of rural and urban areas (Amini & Nivorozhkin, 2015). Lots of rural schools struggle with a lack of necessary resources and difficulty in attracting and retaining talented teachers (Donachie, 2017). Rural schools cannot attract enough number of good teachers and resources which creates a serious problem of education inequality, an even worse problem of digital divide (Hillier, 2018).

In China, the eastern and western divide in education exists along with the urban-rural divide in education. With the development of information and communication technology (ICT), researchers has utilized different kinds of technology to deal with the problem of educational inequality. For example, elite teachers in urban area are invited to offer cyber classes for the rural students (Zhang, Yang, Fan, & Huang, 2015), quality digital learning resources are provided to rural schools (Yu & Wang, 2006), computer-supported collaborative teaching are utilized between urban and remote schools (Yang, Zhu, & Macleod, 2018). However, there is still far away from a practical solution which could solve this problem in a systematic and scalable approach.

Classrooms in different places could be connected so that a teacher teaching in a local classroom can deliver to students sitting at remote classrooms at the same time. This particular type of classroom setting could be called Blended Synchronous Classroom (BSC). In BSC, students in local classroom could receive education as normal, while students in remote classroom could also interact and communicate with teachers and students in local classroom via versatile advanced synchronous tools such as video conferencing systems, electronic whiteboards, interactive response systems, etc. In BSC, students in local and remote classrooms are blended as one class, this solution could become a regular and sustainable approach for promoting educational standard of remote rural schools.

Blended synchronous learning (BSL) is defined as learning and teaching where remote students participate in face-to-face classes by means of rich-media synchronous technologies such as video conferencing, web conferencing, or virtual worlds (Bower, Dalgarno, Kennedy, Lee, & Kenney, 2015). BSL can provide students with a wide range of educational access opportunities and a richer learning experience (Cunningham, 2014; Norberg, 2012), and students who are unable to attend school can participate in classroom learning through BSL (Pope, 2010). Remote students can learn with local teachers in cyber face-to-face via the Internet, and they can ask and answer questions to improve their participation in class (White, Ramirez, Smith, & Plonowski, 2010). Students can carry out higher-order cognitive activities in BSL, including mathematical problem solving and language learning, and the effect is the same as the face-to-face physical classroom (Dennis, Fuller, & Valacich, 2008). This type of blended synchronous learning and teaching has become ubiquitous and has gained much attention in higher education (Szeto, 2015). However, very few BSL research related to K12 can be found in the literature.

To extend the BSL model, if the remote students are also sitting together in a physical classroom, we could connect this remote physical classroom to a local classroom. The past research of BSL on technological tools and their functions can provide insight for implementing BSC. The technological software and tools used for BSL includes Polycom (Okita, 2013), Skype (Cunningham, 2014), Blackboard Collaborate (Spann, 2012), Adobe Connect (Butz, Stupnisky, Peterson, & Majerus, 2014), Second Life (Bell, Sawaya, & Cain, 2014), etc. These software and tools could be used in both Windows and Mac system, and also in mobile operating systems, such as Android and IOS. Based on the analysis, the basic functions of these tools for BSC include presentation of teaching and learning materials, interaction via cyber face to face manners, free writing on electronic whiteboard, synchronous text chatroom, lecture recording, etc. The qualities of real-time audio and video communications are the main criterion for the selection of these software and tools and also the keys to BSC's success.

The functionality of BSC includes the deployment of local and remote classrooms, and the communication methods between the two sides. Video/audio devices and interaction systems should be installed in both local and remote classrooms, and there should be a tutor in remote classroom to assist teacher in local classroom for synchronous cyber teaching. As shown in Fig. 1, the functional supports are the basis for conducting BSC, which includes the functions of contents presentation, audio/video interaction, resources sharing, and real-time feedback.

Although lots of practices are happening in different parts of the world, few empirical research could be found on the effectiveness of BSC (Ran, 2017), especially the effectiveness from a long term project last for years. Now it is believed that BSC is an important way to deal with educational inequity by delivering quality teaching and learning resources from urban schools to remote schools (China Ministry of Education, 2018). The effective utilization of BSC approach could help students in rural and remote areas in a sustainable way. Therefore this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of BSC through two years empirical studies in two schools. The research questions are: 1. Is the BSC approach effective for promoting remote school students’ learning outcomes? 2. Are there any perception differences on the effectiveness of the BSC approach between the remote students and the local students? 3. Are there any differences on teacher's behavior for local students and remote students in BSC?