Students’ Understanding of Open Education and Blinded Learning in Higher Education Institutions in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Abstract

The current study aimed at investigating students’ understanding of open education and blinded learning that is implemented by the Arab Open University, Bahrain’s branch in the Kingdom of Bahrain from the students’ point of views. The study also attempted to explore the success that Arab Open University has made in spreading the culture of open education and blended learning in the Kingdom of Bahrain. To aachieve the aims of the study, the analytical descriptive methodology was implemented through designing a questionnaire to collect and analyse data under the light of the research questions. The sample of the study consisted of 385 students distributed between both the Arab Open University (210) and University of Bahrain (175). The study findings revealed that there is a good level of students’ understanding of the concepts of open education and blended learning in higher education but they also have different perceptions of how both concepts differ from each other. The results also showed that the students at the Arab Open University have better understanding of both learning styles than their peers at the University of Bahrain probably because of their educational system at the Arab Open University thatis based on open education and blended learning.