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Integrating technology in most aspects of modern life has become a crucial issue that requires substantial and radical changes in every field especially in the field of education. Therefore, it is necessary to keep up with technological developments to cope with the problems that may arise as corollaries, such as large amounts of information, increase in the number of learners, shortage of teachers and long distances. Such developments have led to the need for many methods for teaching and learning, especially with the advent of the modern revolution in information technology, which has made the world a small village with a greater need for sharing experiences with others and providing learners with multivendor rich environments in research and self-development. As a result, a lot of styles, methods and new ways of teaching and learning, including the appearance of e-learning and blended learning, have emerged (Tayebinki and Puteh, 2012).
There is no doubt that the e-learning approach has remarkable advantages as many scholars have concluded (e.g. Arsham, 1995; Codone, 2001; Pollard and Hillage, 2001; Wagner and Kozma, 2005; Naidu, 2006; Alshetwi, 2014; Arkorful and Abaidoo, 2014). As one of the best learning methods at hand, it helps in finding solutions for knowledge explosion and the increasing demand for education (Alshetwi, 2014). Nonetheless, other scholars have found that the e-learning approach involves some disadvantages and shortcomings. O’Donoghue et al. (2004) and Nedeva et al. (2010) have asserted that e-learning students lack the sense of community and feel somehow isolated because of the scarcity of interpersonal communication skills with their peers and teachers through awareness of how they can make this possible. More disadvantages have been pointed out by Lewis (2000), Dowling et al. (2003) and Hameed et al. (2008).
Findings concerning the negative aspect of the e-learning approach did pave the way for the emergence of the blended teaching method. Yılmaz and Orhan (2010) said that the ideal method to solve the inadequacy of interaction problem confronted in technology-based learning is to blend traditional learning and online learning to benefit from the advantages of both. Graham (2006:1) defined blended learning as “a combination of instruction from two historically separate models of teaching and learning: traditional face-to-face learning systems and computer-mediated learning”.
Blended learning is of a great benefit since it gives students access to global networks and shifts the role of the teacher more into a facilitator and mentor in an environment that enables learning groups to use multimedia, e-mails, virtual libraries, and all internet data collaborative software. Besides, it allows learners to listen, feel, see, think about and interact with the learning materials. It helps them to practice what they learn and not to depend only on theoretical knowledge (Fakhir, 2015). Learners can gain more confidence, responsibility and creativity since the class becomes more student-centered rather than teacher-centered (Al Fiky, 2011). They can learn at their own speed, which creates the chance for more individualized education (Bailey and Martin, 2013) and they can learn from different real-life resources which can provide them with more authentic information (Chen and Jones, 2007).