Blended Learning in Higher Education: Faculty Perspective through the Lens of the Planned Behaviour Theory

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Teaching and Learning Centre of the
University of Liège (Belgium) administered a questionnaire to disclose the main
predictors of faculty’s intention to resort, within a timespan of two years, to
blended learning in at least one of their courses. The instrument was constructed
according to the Theory of Planned Behaviour, a sound conceptual framework for
probing intentions and their antecedents. In the responses of 114 faculty members,
multiple regression analyses detected that attitude towards blended learning, subjective
norm and perceived control explained 73% of the intention to use blended
designs for teaching purposes in a not too distant future. Data treatment also singled
out beliefs working indirectly in favour of the intention to use hybrid approaches:
the inclination to think of blended learning altogether in a student-centred, conformist
and pragmatic way. Moreover, respondents who declared having already
used blended learning in the past expressed stronger opinions congruent with the
constructs of attitude, norm and perceived control. The results also establish that
pre-lockdown e-learning practices remained rather basic. A better knowledge of
what can facilitate or impair the diffusion of blended learning is of importance for
higher education institutions and their staff training efforts.