he Effectiveness of Applying the Blended Learning Strategy through Blackboard in the Skills Development of the Electronic Programs Production, Patterns of Learning & Thinking and the Attitudes towards it among the Students of Faculty of Education

Abstract: The current research aims to identify the effectiveness of applying the blended learning strategy through the Blackboard system and the trend towards it in developing skill of electronic programs production, patterns of learning, thinking and learning achievement among the students of kindergarten and special education, at Faculty of Education.
To achieve this objective, the strategy was applied on teaching the computer skills course and the students’ performance was observed, through a card, to evaluate the skills of producing electronic programs. The Torrance test, concerning learning and thinking patterns, was applied (Torrance, 1982), in addition to an achievement test to measure the cognitive aspects in the content of the computer skills curriculum and the pre-measure and post-measure of the trend towards it, on a sample of (64) distributed as follows: (32) kindergarten students and (32) special education students. The experiment took 75 hours (12 theoretical hours, 24 practical hours, and 15 hours for applying tests and pre & post measures)
The research results showed the effectiveness of applying the blended learning strategy through the Blackboard system in developing the skill of producing electronic programs, learning and thinking patterns, improving learning achievement, and creating positive attitudes among the students towards interacting with the strategy. The study recommended the necessity to teach courses using e-learning strategies in university education, with the need to take into account the characteristics of the students. Besides, the Arab universities should provide smart classrooms to support and implement the Blended Learning model suitable for the Arab environment, and train the faculty members on the skills of the optimal use of interactive e-learning strategies.