Blended learning studies to address student isolation: lessons from the literature

Original title: Las enseñanzas híbridas (blended learning) ante el aislamiento del estudiantado: lecciones de la literatura: lessons from the literature.

Julio Navío-Marco
,
Claudia Sevilla-Sevilla
,
María Jesús Jerez-Jerez
,
María Bujidos-Casado

Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
,
Business & Management Research Institute (BMRI)
,
Graduate School of Business
,
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

Distance education can lead to feelings of isolation, disconnection and depersonalisation on the part of the learner. The objective of this study is to analyze whether the literature on blended learning addresses student isolation and what lessons it provides. A systematic critical review of the literature was conducted following the PRISMA 2020 protocol. Eighty-four articles from the Web of Science were selected and analysed, and a cluster analysis was performed using VOSviewer. The results show that the sense of isolation resulting from the pandemic somewhat hides the isolation that blended methodology can provoke. Isolation is still attributed to the online part of the hybrid teaching and especially to the asynchronous part, but little is said in the literature about blended learning as a whole. We must move beyond the focus on the pandemic and encourage studies that assess thisphenomenon, studyingthe appropriate design of hybrid courses to address isolation holistically. This study itself makes some recommendations and suggestions for further work to lessen the isolation that students may feel in blended learning, and in distance learning in general.