a.

Blended learning effectiveness: the relationship between student characteristics,

design features and outcomes Blended learning effectiveness: the relationship
between student characteristics, design features and outcomes
b. This paper investigates the effectiveness of a blended learning environment
through analyzing the relationship between student characteristics/background,
design features and learning outcomes. It is aimed at determining the significant
predictors of blended learning effectiveness taking student
characteristics/background and design features as independent variables and
learning outcomes as dependent variables. A survey was administered to 238
respondents to gather data on student characteristics/background, design
features and learning outcomes. The final semester evaluation results were used
as a measure for performance as an outcome. We applied the online self
regulatory learning questionnaire for data on learner self regulation, the intrinsic
motivation inventory for data on intrinsic motivation and other self-developed
instruments for measuring the other constructs. Multiple regression analysis
results showed that blended learning design features (technology quality, online
tools and face-to-face support) and student characteristics (attitudes and self-
regulation) predicted student satisfaction as an outcome. The results indicate that
some of the student characteristics/backgrounds and design features are
significant predictors for student learning outcomes in blended learning.
c. Research design
This research applies a quantitative design where descriptive statistics are used
for the student characteristics and design features data, t-tests for the age and
gender variables to determine if they are significant in blended learning
effectiveness and regression for predictors of blended learning effectiveness.
This study is based on an experiment in which learners participated during their
study using face-to-face sessions and an on-line session of a blended learning
design. A learning management system (Moodle) was used and learner
characteristics/back-ground and blended learning design features were
measured in relation to learning effectiveness. It is therefore a planning
 evaluation research design as noted by Guskey (2000) since the outcomes are
aimed at blended learning implementation at MMU.
The plan under which the various variables were tested involved face-to-face
study at the beginning of a 17 week semester which was followed by online
teaching and learning in the second half of the semester. The last part of the
semester was for another face-to-face to review work done during the online
sessions and final semester examinations. A questionnaire with items on student
characteristics, design features and learning outcomes was distributed among
students from three schools and one directorate of postgraduate studies.
a. Effectiveness of Modular Approach in Teaching at University Level
b. The study was experimental type. Equivalent group study design was used.
Population was university students of Master in educational planning and
management. Sample size was consisted on 30 students. The data were
collected from both groups(controlled and experimental) analyzed and
interpreted by using mean, standard deviation and t-test through the use of
statistical package SPSS. The result’ scores were in the favor of usage of
modular teaching approach. So it is recommended that the modular approach
should be widely used at various levels of education.
c. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of modular teaching
approach on learning ofbuniversity students. In order to test the relative
effectiveness of independent variable, i.e. an instructional paradigm (Modular
teaching), the selection of most suitable design for this experiment was the main
step. Campbell and Stanley (1963) postulate a number of factors, which affect
the internal and external validity of experimental designs. Relevant to internal
validity, there are eight different factors (these include history, maturation,
testing, instrumentation, statistical regression, differential selection, experimental
mortality, and selection maturation interaction. The pretest-posttest equivalent
group design was considered most useful design for this study. The study was
experimental type. Equivalent group study design was used. The collected data
of both groups were analyzed and interpreted using mean, standard deviation
 and t-test, and conclusions were drawn. The results of the research were in the
favor of modular teaching approach, therefore, it is suggested that this
approach should be widely used in conventional classroom at various levels of
education.

a. The Impact of Students' Academic and Social Relationships on College Student

Persistence
b. The purpose of this research study was to determine the connection between
students’ relationships and their choice to persist at a post-secondary institution.
Although other literature has centered around why students chose to leave an
institution or the importance of student involvement and engagement, this study
focused on who is most influential in encouraging students to work toward their
degree attainment. The study includes results of the influence of peers, family,
college faculty, and college student affairs staff on student persistence decisions.
This research sought to make a contribution to the literature on retention and
attrition issues at colleges and universities. Findings from the research study
demonstrated that students who are persisting through college tend to have
positive relational influences on their persistence decisions and also have had
positive college experiences and interactions with both their social and academic
social relational groups. Findings showed that overall students had positive
interactions with both social and academic relational groups both on and off
campus that influenced their decisions to persist in college. However, findings
also showed that relationships that were more socially associated, such as those
with family and friends, had a stronger influence on students’ persistence choices
than did students’ relationships that were more academically associated, such as
those with classmates, faculty, and student affairs staff. In other words, students’
human relationships over which the university had the least
amount of control are the ones that students believe have the greatest influence
over their success in college.
c. The purpose for conducting this research was to explore the importance of the
 impacts of students’ various relationships on their decisions to persist in college
toward degree attainment. The results demonstrated to what degree students’
varied relationship types influence them in choice and action in regards to their
staying at or departing from college in which they are currently enrolled. The
researcher had two expectations for the study results:
1. The relationships tied more closely to the students’ social lives (i.e., family and
friends) will have a stronger impact on students’ decisions to persist in college
than the relationships that students have that are more closely tied to the college
(i.e., relationships with classmates, faculty, and other university staff).
2. Even though social relationships are more apt to strongly influence students’
life decisions, academically founded relationships, such as those with
classmates, faculty, and other university staff, will also have a positive influence
on student persistence decisions.

a. Understanding the Purpose of Higher Education; An Analysis of the Economic

and Social Benefits for Completing a College Degree
b. A comprehensive search of the literature was conducted between June 2014 and
June 2015 to identify recent relevant publications (2000 to 2016) that explored
the economic and social benefits of higher education. Specifically, this study
utilized Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) to compare education providers’ and
student perspectives’ on the goals and purposes for completing a college degree.
CIS, a qualitative method derived by Dixon-Woods et al. (2006), aims to establish
theories and concepts from diverse bodies of existing literature through
systematic review and meta-ethnography methodologies. Generally speaking,
CIS allows for holistic judgments of the quality and coherence of the literature,
with the goal of stimulating questioning of taken-for-granted assumptions about
new concepts and methods that are derived from the text (Dixon-Woods et al.,
2006). Rather than deconstructing such issues into units of decontextualized
study, CIS questions the ways in which the problems, assumptions, and
 solutions are constructed in the literature from new interpretations of existing
concepts and constructs. Furthermore, CIS draws on strategies from meta-
ethnography (i.e., Lines-Of-Arguments as analysis strategy), and makes value
judgments of many discourses and arguments in various articles in order to
develop synthetic arguments and claims for existing and emerging
concepts/constructs. That is, rather than focusing on isolated articles as units of
analysis, CIS treats the literature collected in qualitative study as an object of
inquiry. The ultimate goal of CIS is to bring together different types of research
data, quantitative or qualitative, with other data sources in order to identify and
categorize an underlying mechanism of effect.
c. Higher education world is facing unprecedented challenges—the dramatic rise of
for profit institutions, rapidly increasing expectations about what services colleges
and universities should provide, and a complex society that demands college
graduates with even more skills and capacities. To understand how higher
education can effectively address these challenges, this paper investigates the
public and private purpose of higher education and what it means for higher
education’s future. Utilizing Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) and signaling
theory, this research reviews the changing meanings of
‘public’ and ‘private’ in higher education from the perspective of (1) education
providers and (2) undergraduate students. A comprehensive search of the
literature selected 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and twenty-five books
published between 2000 and 2016. Nine synthetic constructs of the goals were
found and while there was some agreement between
institutions and students on the economic and social benefits of higher education,
the review was characterized by a significant misalignment. The findings suggest
that student expectations for a college degree tends to be very instrumental and
personal, while higher education purpose of undergraduate education tend
towards highly ideal life- and society changing consequences. This paper offers
eight recommendations for policymakers to consider that address the growing
misalignment gap between education providers and undergraduate students. The
 ultimate goal is to develop renovation or repurposing strategy across competing
imperatives and to outline success measures to critically define, measure,
and evaluate the achievement of specific goals and outcomes in hopes of
resolving potential skills mismatch in a world of massive cataclysmic change.

a. The Employability Skills of BSBA-Marketing Management Students

b. The study used the descriptive research design to explore the significant
difference in Learning and Innovation Skills, Information, Media and Technology
Skills and Life and Career Skills as per response of the students and companies.
The questionnaire consisted of two parts to measure the studied variables: the
first part asked the profile of respondents (both the students and prospective
companies), second part was about the 21st Century Skills as divided into three
skills, namely: Learning and Innovation Skills, Information, Media and
Technology Skills and the Life and Career Skills. No modification was made to
the current questionnaire. The survey used a faceted approach to the
measurement of Learning and Innovation Skills in terms of specific, identifiable
characteristics It measured three aspects of students’ learning and innovative
skills: creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, and
communication and collaboration. Under the Information, Media and Technology
Skills, it measured the students’ information literacy, media literacy, ICT
(Information, Communication and Technology) literacy. The Life and Career
Skills was also measured in terms of flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-
direction, social and cross-cultural skills, productivity and accountability,
leadership and responsibility were the five skills needed in developing adequate
life and career skills. A 5-point Likert scale format with choices per item was
used, ranging from "poor" to"outstanding.”There were 136 students enrolled in
their OJT/Practicum subject for 2nd Semester, AY 2015-2016. From among this
number, 114 Fourth Year BSBA-Marketing Management Students and 104
prospective companies answered the same questionnaire to evaluate the
Employability Skills of BSBA- Marketing Management OJTians. The retrieval rate
 of the questionnaires from students and companies were 83.8% and 76.5%,
respectively. From among the students, eighty-three (83) or 72.3% were female
respondents, while the males were only thirty-one (31). They were designated
under the Marketing department of the different companies, and other business
functions including Finance, Accounting, and Production among others. On the
contrary, prospective companies from which students took their OJT were mostly
in the service industry, logistics sales, and manufacturing, just to name a few.
Ninety-two (92) or 88.46% of those OJT companies were private entities while
only twelve (12) or 11.54% were public or government agencies.
c. This study examined the significant difference between the BSBA- Marketing
Management students’ and companies’ evaluation of employability skills. A
structured questionnaire was distributed to (1) Fourth Year students enrolled at
Tarlac State University in their On-the-Job-Training (OJT) subject and (2) OJT
companies where the students have taken their OJT. This study utilized the 21st
Century Skills as the benchmark of employability skills. The study found out that
no gap exists between the evaluation of employability skills between students
and companies. The three dimensions of employability skills scored the following
significance .889 for learning innovation; .962 for information, media and
technology skills; and, .397 for life and career. The study raises implications to
the college and the department.