Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 25th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Main Conference Theme Author(s) Lan Umek University of Ljubljana Ljubljana Slovenia Aristovnik Aleksander, Tomaževič Nina, Damijana KERŽIČ, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Administration, Slovenia Title Satisfaction with Blended Learning in Public Administration Education: An Application of Factor Analysis File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract With the advent of digital revolution and digital innovation blended learning takes on new dimensions and merges the best features of conventional face-to-face instruction and online learning (Graham, 2006). The course of establishing a brand new (IT) technological mode in the public sector, such as e-government, e-learning, etc., the development of the IT sphere are becoming the main competitive advantages for economies. At the Faculty of Public Administration (FPA), a member of the University of Ljubljana, blended learning has been used for over a decade. In the last few years, three-quarters of each undergraduate course has been held in a traditional classroom while one-quarter in a virtual classroom (e-course). Because one-quarter represents a significant amount of the content of each course, blended learning forces the students to be self-initiative and well-organized. They should also have sufficient skills in IT and motivation to use them in their study process. Such expectations may exert influences on students’ satisfaction with blended learning. In 2015, we started collecting students’ opinions on satisfaction with the blended learning for all undergraduate courses. We developed a web-based questionnaire and measured 16 aspects of students' satisfaction with blended learning and their learning preferences. In our study, we analysed the records of 202 students from the spring semester of 2015/16. We used exploratory factor analysis and, from 16 aspects, extracted three distinct factors. The factor which explained the highest amount of total variance had large factor loadings on the variables which describe the characteristics of e-courses (clear workload demands in e-course, general impression of e-course, teachers’ feedback etc.). On the contrary, the second factor had high loadings on the variables describing face-to-face learning (lecture, tutorials, content). The third factor had high loadings on variables which measure students’ preferences for face-to-face learning or e-learning. The results of the empirical analysis will help us develop a new questionnaire and give us a closer look on IT technology usage benefits for nowadays educational systems and wider public sector. The new survey will focus on a smaller number of aspects which will hopefully increase the response rate and provide a better insight into the students’ opinions on blended learning.
