Reflections on experiences of blended learning among leading countries in this field: Lessons for Iranian Higher Education

The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of top universities in the field of blended education in different countries in order to develop and improve the quality of Blended education in Iran’s universities. Blended learning as the third wave of learning environments, afterwards face-to-face and electronic environments in universities and educational organizations to respond to changes in society (including and most importantly, the pandemic of Covid-19 virus) with the aim of enhancing the quality of learning, border on expanding the scope of coverage and cost reduction. In order to reach appropriate solutions in this field, the researcher has used the qualitative research approach and the comparative study method. The selection of top universities (Boston of USA, York of Canada, Manchester of England, Hong Kong education of China, Open University of Malaysia) in the field of blended education based on the official reports of the Times (2021), which considers teaching and learning in the Covid pandemic era and online education, and ranks universities. This approach is aligned with the purpose of the study and made the selection of universities possible for this study. In addition to the ranking of universities, geographical distribution and availability of data were considered in this regard. Count on theoretical foundations, specifically in the realm of the exploratory community, in addition to examining the concept and approach of the university to Blended education, categories such as the structure of the higher education system, the type of university, policies and strategies, management style, educational resources, educational and technological supports, teaching style, the tools and evaluation system were selected and then George Brody's four-stage model was used to analyze the collected data. The findings show that all five universities have officially presented a specific and systematic definition of Blended education and in this regard targeted activities such as the development of technological infrastructure, educational and technological supports, efficient teaching methods according to the nature of Blended education in this course have followed. As a result, a look at the structure and type of the higher education system of these universities illustrate that those who have enjoyed more independence have predicted a more creative planning and strategy in relation to the studied components. The support system in all five universities is prepared according to the cultural and social conditions of the audience. Teaching and face-to-face interactions between students and professors are carried out in regional units, and it is in this regard that students can benefit from professors' guidance in online classes and using software capacities during offline training. In all the studied universities, formative and final evaluation have been used to monitor the quality of the course. According to the results and these three strategies (educational changes, social changes, and cultural changes), and taking into account the existing infrastructure of virtual education in Iran, some lessons have been proposed for Blended education in Iran’s universities.