Blending traditional teaching methods with learning environments: Experience, cyclical evaluation process and impact with MAgAdI Ainhoa Álvarez * , Maite Martín, Isabel Fernández-Castro, Maite Urretavizcaya University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Donostia-San Sebastian. Apdo. 649, E-20080, Spain article info Article history: Received 10 October 2012 Received in revised form 26 March 2013 Accepted 4 May 2013 Keywords: Evaluation of CAL systems Improving classroom teaching Interactive learning environments abstract This paper reports the experiment carried out at the University of the Basque Country concerning the integration of the MAgAdI on-line system within traditional teaching/learning methods. MAgAdI is an adaptive web environment devoted to supporting the learning processes in overall contexts, in which several knowledge fields, courses and teachers are involved. So far, a three-year cyclical evaluation- improvement process has been developed on several subjects and participants (n ¼ 80) of a Computer Science degree programme. This process embraced formative and summative evaluation phases with the aim of: discovering the implications of the blended-learning loop on the satisfaction of teachers and motivation of students confirming improvements in student learning; and testing the usability of the Student Workspace. Experimental data were collected by means of a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Results of this study detect improvements in the students’ acquisition of knowl- edge in the three phases where it was evaluated (Wilcoxon-test, p ¼ 0.02, p ¼ 0.048, p ¼ 0.044), which may be attributable to the use of MAgAdI. In addition, increments in student’s motivation and teacher’s satisfaction were also perceived. Thus, these results agree with previous findings of related works. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Current educational trends in education involve a blended use of technological media together with more social learning approaches (Lin & Wang, 2012). Consequently, students often split their time over several learning contexts, such as lectures, individual study or group work, each of which may or may not be supported by the use of computers. The term Blended-learning (B-Learning) is used to name the approach that combines face-to-face (F2F) instruction with computer-mediated instruction in a unique learning scenario (Graham, 2005; Howard, Remenyi, & Pap, 2006). In fact, Learning Management Systems, e.g. Moodle (Moodle, 2012), Edvance360 (Edvance360, 2012) or Blackboard (Blackboard, 2012), are used with increasing frequency to support the basic needs of administration and higher-education teaching. This increase in use is achieved through the teachers’ promotion of the computer platform, a major factor that influences how and when learners use technology (Lin & Wang, 2012). However, web-based systems are common and mainly used for content delivery (i.e. information presentation) and all their functionalities for helping learning are not fully exploited, so improvements in user learning or reductions in teacher workload are not always assured (Kember, McNaught, Chong, Lam, & Cheng, 2010; Schober & Keller, 2012). Therefore, in this context, teachers and students need on-line tools that are wholly integrated in the learning–teaching cycle in order to promote synergies among all the learning styles in use. Thus, the challenge is to promote tight integration between traditional classrooms and on-line learning environments (Graham, 2005) in a thoughtful way so as to provide a unique and congruent learning experience for the students (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008). Following this aim, we designed the B-Learning-oriented theoretical framework OWLish (Overall Web Learning) (Álvarez, 2010), which gave rise to the implementation of the MAgAdI (Multi Agent Adaptive Instruction) web environment. This supports complex and long learning processes, over several knowledge fields, and with the possibility of several teachers managing learning. The system has been Abbreviations: B-Learning, blended-learning; F2F, face-to-face. * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ34 943015111; fax: þ34 943 015590. E-mail address: ainhoa.alvarez@ehu.es (A. Álvarez). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Computers & Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu 0360-1315/$ – see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.05.006 Computers & Education 68 (2013) 129–140