The Effect of Blended Learning on Educational Performance of Secondary School Students in Art in Gonabad City

The present study aims at investigating the efficacy of blended learning in distance education on educational performance of 7th grade secondary school students in the lesson of art in Gonabad city. The research method is quasi experimental with post-test, pre-test and control group design. The statistical population consists of all female students in the 7th grad secondary school in Gonabad city who were studying in the academic year of 2016-2017. The research sample was 58 participants selected through available sampling and assigned into two experimental and control groups who were homogeneous based on educational achievement. The experimental group was given instruction based on blended learning system and the control group was under traditional teaching style. The pre-test of educational performance of the lesson of art was performed on both experimental and control groups and after 12 instruction sessions in blended learning to experimental group, the post-test of educational performance in art was administered among both groups. The results were analyzed using Covariance Analysis in SPSS software. The findings indicated that the educational performance of experimental group in Iranian painting, designing applicable objects based on fruit and flower patterns, new ideas and new pattern of objects, and educational performance in regular design textures have been enhanced and there was a significant difference between educational performance of experimental and control groups in art lessons with a higher achievement of experimental group.