Antecedents and Consequences of the University Professors’ Blended Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The need for virtual education in the context of the COVID-19 crisis (due to the problems encountered), the weaknesses and strengths of this educational approach during this period, and attention to the experience of teachers in the traditional educational approach or, in other words, face-to-face. The motivation and objective of the present study are to examine the predictors and outcomes of blended learning in university professors. The research method was a descriptive-correlational one and the path analysis method was used to study more variables. The statistical population consisted of all professors of Islamic Azad University. This research was conducted in the first semester of the academic year 2021-2022. Accordingly, 235 university professors were randomly selected. The questionnaire (designed by the researcher) was completed online by them, after explaining the objectives of the research and attracting the participation of the participants. SPSS 26 and Amos software were then used for the analysis of the collected data. The results showed that attitudes and skills in virtual education were directly related to the skills and attitudes of blended teaching, skills in face-to-face teaching were correlated with those in the blended teaching; further, attitudes and skills in blended teaching were related to the performance in face-to-face teaching and skills in the blended teaching was correlated with the performance in the virtual education. In addition, skills attitudes in e-learning were directly related to performance in e-learning, and attitudes in face-to-face teaching were correlated with performance in face-to-face teaching. Based on the above explanations, it can be concluded that professors have a positive attitude towards blended learning. In other words, they possess sufficient skills in virtual instruction and are capable of effectively utilizing and generating appropriate course content for students' access to relevant courses. Additionally, they are adept at assessing students' progress throughout the term using new technologies in a virtual format.