Corporate blended learning in Portugal: current status and future directions

• Autor(a) principal: Marçal, J.
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Outros Autores: Caetano, A.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://ciencia.iscte-iul.pt/public/pub/id/12058; http://hdl.handle.net/10071/7858
• topic: Distance training; Blended learning; E-learning Corporate training; Portugal

The aim of this study is to characterize the current status of blended learning in Portugal, given that b-learning has grown exponentially in the Portuguese market over recent years. 38 organizations (representing 68% of all institutions certified to provide distance training by the Government Labour Office – DGERT -) participated in this study. The results revealed that in 2007, although the predominant instructional format in Portugal was still face-to-face training (65%), e-learning at 15% came in behind b-learning with 20%. Data also revealed that 50% of distance training department coordinators believe that b-learning produces better training outcomes than face-to-face training alone, when considering the same content and learning objectives. Furthermore, when comparing b-learning and e-learning outcomes with similar content and learning objectives, 78.1% of these coordinators declared that b-learning produces better outcomes than e-learning alone. Hence, the content analysis indicated positive perceptions with regard to the future direction of b-learning, leading to the conclusion that in the long-term, corporate b-learning training will develop considerably in this country.