Arab Educational Information Network

The research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of blended learning via the Blackboard platform in developing critical thinking and technical skills among female students of the College of Education at Hail University. A quasi-experimental design was used to achieve this goal, with a sample of 60 female students, and they were divided into two groups, one of which was experimental, with a number of 30 students studying using the experimental treatment of the research, and the other was a control group with a number of 30 students studying in the usual way. Some measurement tools were also used, namely: the Watson & Glass (1982) scale for critical thinking standardized in the Saudi environment, and the technical skills scale prepared by the researcher. The research resulted in the superiority of the experimental group in both the critical thinking test as a whole and at the level of its sub-skills, and the technical skills scale as a whole and at its sub-levels over the control group, with a statistically significant difference, indicating the effectiveness of blended learning in developing critical thinking and technical skills with a very large effect size. Except for the skill of using social networking sites, there are no statistically significant differences between the average scores of the students of the experimental and control groups. The research presented a number of recommendations, including holding training courses and workshops for faculty members to learn about blended learning models and how to apply them in the teaching process, and to develop various learning outcomes, especially critical thinking skills. (Published abstract)