Abstract
Purpose of the study. Career development courses often rely on extensive face-to-face workshops, personalized counseling, and interview training. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, career development educators adopted a blended learning approach using interactive online activities such as online peer assessment, pre-reading materials, and interactive video lessons, to raise students’ career awareness. The study aimed to address the potential of using the blended synchronous learning model to deliver a career development course and the effectiveness to improve students’ career awareness.
Methods. This study adopted a mixed-method, pretest-posttest research design. 163 sets of data were collected via online self-reported questionnaires before and after the 7-week course. 5 participants were invited to attend the interviews. Students’ performance in the course was assessed by a 28-item, 5-point Likert scale covering 4 domains in occupational identity, including Identity Achievement,
Identity Foreclosure, Identity Moratorium, and Identity Diffusion. Comments on the blended learning mode of the course were collected from the focus group interviews.
Results. Paired sample t-tests indicated statistically significant differences in students’ occupational identity achievement (t=3.13, df = 162, p=0.00), occupational identity moratorium (t=-2.97, df = 162, p=0.00) and occupational identity diffusion (t=-2.41, df = 162, p=0.02). Students reported positive feedback at the interviews that they were self-regulated to search for career-related information and to seek supporting service from the school after class.
Conclusions & Recommendations. This is the first study to explore the effects of a career development course adopting a blended synchronous learning mode on the career awareness of sub-degree students in Hong Kong. It shows that the 7-week course was effective in assisting students to formulate their career decisions. The students were more advanced in occupational identity
achievement and committed to a career choice after completing the course. Practical pedagogies involving technologies experience from the course facilitators would be discussed and shared. Future research of students’ acceptance of eLearning technologies in career development courses and the factors in driving their motivation toward making career decisions is warranted.
Methods. This study adopted a mixed-method, pretest-posttest research design. 163 sets of data were collected via online self-reported questionnaires before and after the 7-week course. 5 participants were invited to attend the interviews. Students’ performance in the course was assessed by a 28-item, 5-point Likert scale covering 4 domains in occupational identity, including Identity Achievement,
Identity Foreclosure, Identity Moratorium, and Identity Diffusion. Comments on the blended learning mode of the course were collected from the focus group interviews.
Results. Paired sample t-tests indicated statistically significant differences in students’ occupational identity achievement (t=3.13, df = 162, p=0.00), occupational identity moratorium (t=-2.97, df = 162, p=0.00) and occupational identity diffusion (t=-2.41, df = 162, p=0.02). Students reported positive feedback at the interviews that they were self-regulated to search for career-related information and to seek supporting service from the school after class.
Conclusions & Recommendations. This is the first study to explore the effects of a career development course adopting a blended synchronous learning mode on the career awareness of sub-degree students in Hong Kong. It shows that the 7-week course was effective in assisting students to formulate their career decisions. The students were more advanced in occupational identity
achievement and committed to a career choice after completing the course. Practical pedagogies involving technologies experience from the course facilitators would be discussed and shared. Future research of students’ acceptance of eLearning technologies in career development courses and the factors in driving their motivation toward making career decisions is warranted.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 7 Dec 2020 |
| Event | 15th eLearning Forum Asia, eLFA 2020 - Virtual, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Duration: 7 Dec 2020 → 8 Dec 2020 http://elfasia.org/2020/ (Forum website) http://elfasia.org/2020/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/eFA2020_Abstract-Book.pdf (Abstract book ) |
Forum
| Forum | 15th eLearning Forum Asia, eLFA 2020 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Hong Kong |
| City | Hong Kong |
| Period | 7/12/20 → 8/12/20 |
| Internet address |
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Scopus Subject Areas
- General
User-Defined Keywords
- Blended Synchronous Learning
- Career Education
- Occupational Identity
- Personal Development
