The Implementation of Blended Learning in English for Arts Education Program: A Case Study

History: Received: 2020-09-22 Accepted: 2020-11-27 Published: 2020-12-26 This study aims at exploring the blended learning implementation in English for Arts Education Program and reporting lessons learned from the practice. Some theories regarding blended learning adoption and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) were utilized as the theoretical framework. As this case study was conducted in the ESP course in the Arts Education study program of a private university in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, a qualitative case study research design was employed, resulting in an indepth description of the overall implementation. The data were collected through in-class and online observations, a semi-structured interview, and a focus group discussion (FGD) conducted in two classes employing blended learning, 20 representative students recruited by purposive sampling technique, and the lecturer of the course. The results were analyzed descriptively using content analysis. Based on the analysis, some stages undergone by the lecturer were drawn as they are in line with blended learning adoption stages and framework. Thus, some lessons learned reveal concerns on flexibility and accessibility to technologies and learning sources, a balanced portion of collaborative and independent learning, Information Technology (IT) knowledge, and material clarification and immediate feedback that play significant roles to students’ skill improvement and effectiveness of a blended learning course. This study offers new insights for lecturers, institutions, and students planning to adopt this approach for the findings present consideration of elements required in developing a blended learning course.


Introduction
In recent times, higher education institutions are faced with alternatives for employing technology-supported learning due to its use for resource sharing, virtual network use, educational program improvement, and industry needs fulfilment (Pavla et al., 2015). Technological learning appears as something crucial to be maintained within educational processes as university students are close to the use of technologies in their everyday life for communication and knowledge development. Therefore, in the shift of technology-enhanced learning, blended learning (BL) emerges as a promising alternative in higher education as it offers opportunities for students to strive for digital literacy skills needed (Pavla et al., 2015). This approach combines the best features of multiple instructional delivery modes; online instructional technology and a traditional face-to-face classroom that harmoniously create an interactive and meaningful learning environment for students (Kaur, 2013). Blended learning has been widely utilized in some subject areas in higher education as its rapid expansion is estimated to fulfil approximately 80 up to 90% of hybrid courses taught in universities LANGKAWI Journal 6(2): 173-185, 2020173-185, ISSN (p): 2460173-185, -2280ISSN (e): 2549-9017 -174 -in most of the countries (Lungu, 2013;Poon, 2014). Some prior studies revealed that blended learning in higher education best combines technology with pedagogy using multiple delivery media that supports students' cognitive learning and satisfaction (Khlaisang & Likhitdamrongkiat, 2015;Rahman et al., 2015;Ramakrisnan et al., 2012). Such innovative technological learning promotes equal opportunities for students with various cultural backgrounds and needs.
Blended learning is needed these days for a lot of inevitable advantages it can optimally perform, compared to a single traditional classroom or an online class in its pure form (Prohorets & Plekhanova, 2015). It accommodates flexibility and accessibility for more effective and convenient learning, more excellent learning sources in dynamic and interactive learning modes, various learning objectives, and students' learning styles (Boddy et al., 2013). However, in different circumstances, blended learning may encounter any technical, organizational, and instructional design challenges (Hofmann, 2011). Some constraints may concern unstable Internet network access, inadequate IT knowledge, restrictive time commitment, reduced immediate feedback, and diminished social interaction between lecturers and students (Holley & Oliver, 2010;Paechter & Maier, 2010;Smyth et al., 2012). Consequently, institutions are accountable for the determination of physical resources (costs, supplies, human resources) and IT-related skills development of lecturers and students to perform blended learning optimally (Poon, 2014). Hence, a sequence of stages containing exploration, adoption, and mature implementation and involving strategy, structure, and support frameworks need to be considered thoroughly (Graham et al., 2013).
In foreign language teaching, blended learning approach has also been exploited to enable students to learn the language beyond the lessons attained from traditional classroom interaction with interactive job tasks carried out in online learning regardless of time and place differences (Dias & Diniz, 2012;Hubackova, 2015;Kaur, 2013;Lungu, 2013). Supplementary online learning activities help students to personalize their language learning in a synchronous or asynchronous environment. To make both conventional and online learning effective, language teachers who usually have no expertise in IT areas need to work more on preparing and managing the learning environment, instructional strategies, and delivery media (Hubackova, 2015;Kaur, 2013). All institution's stakeholders should also take part in planning, finance, administration, ethics, and facilities for blended learning maintenance (Pavla et al., 2015). There must be a good collaboration between all blended learning elements.
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) emerges as a result of the needs of different fields that cause the adjustment of course contents and aims to students' particular needs required in specific professions or specialist studies (Richards & Schmidt, 2010). Helping students to be able to use a foreign language with its various terminologies sufficiently in particular professions (Yalçınkaya, 2015), some faculties of universities tend to provide a vocationally oriented language course emphasizing specific language skill improvement. In line with the paradigm change of instructional delivery strategies, blended learning seems to suit ESP pedagogical objectives for promoting authentic, self-directed, and meaningful materials served in an ideal learning environment (Behjat, 2013;Yalçınkaya, 2015). Some studies examining blended learning implementation in ESP courses indicated satisfactory results in terms of students' positive attitude to the language teaching, learning convenience, experience, and self-autonomy (Lungu, 2013;Yalçınkaya, 2015). The approach seems to fit the Indonesian ESP teaching for the settings are tailored to students' needs for constructive learning synchronously and asynchronously.
This research aims to shed light on how blended learning should be appropriately implemented in Indonesian ESP teaching. It is considered from the reality that blended learning practices in ESP courses in Indonesia still pose some issues to overcome, including large numbers of students in a class, varying language proficiency levels, low learning motivation, and lack of quality instructional resources (Dja'far et al., 2016;Marwan, 2017;Poedjiastutie, 2017). Furthermore, little research has been conducted on the examination of blended learning in ESP teaching of Indonesian higher education that overlooks the whole implementation stages and consideration of its possible outcomes. Reporting the optimal blended learning implementation in English for Arts Education Program course of a private university in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework underlies the blended learning adoption as the delivery of course contents covering all language skills involved the lecturer's IT knowledge, technology utilization, and pedagogical methods (Anthony et al., 2020). Therefore, this study attempted to answer two research questions: how is the implementation of blended learning in teaching the ESP course to Arts Education students?; and what are lessons learned from the successes and challenges of the blended learning implementation in the ESP course?

Method
A qualitative case study research design was employed in this study for it dug a holistic view of a case deeply to interpret meanings and gradations from the participants' feelings and actions involved in the case (Creswell, 2014;Yin, 2014). This research design was chosen as the results of multiple sources of evidence from this case were used to illustrate the topics that occurred in the real-world situation using in-depth and descriptive explanations (Yin, 2014). Aimed at generating qualitative and explanatory hypotheses using words rather than numbers, this study was conducted within a one-semester course by employing observation, interview, and focus group discussion (FGD) as data collection techniques for the needs of triangulation.
The study was conducted in the English for Arts Education Program course taught to the first semester students of the 2019/2020 academic year, starting from September to December 2019. The course consisted of 16 meetings: 9 traditional classes done in the classroom and seven online classes done through Google Classroom as the primary online learning platform. The participants were the students coming from two classes of Arts Education study program enrolling the course and the lecturer of the course. The two classes consisted of 72 students: 38 students coming from class A and 34 students coming from class B whose demographic backgrounds mostly differ from school majors, hometowns, English language proficiency levels, learning motivation, but predominantly are similar in age range (17-20 years old) and economic levels.
Beginning the case study, the researchers underwent some processes as suggested by Yin (2014) by reviewing literature and gaps, having a preliminary study, defining possible research questions, setting up the case, deciding research design and methods, and preparing instruments for data collection. In collecting the data, the researchers initially held the observations on six classroom meetings and Google Classroom interactions using field notes and a blended learning implementation checklist as the instruments. Then, the researchers conducted a semi-structured interview with the ESP lecturer comprising 15 pre-determined open-ended questions and an FGD session involving 20 representative students (9 male students and 11 female students) in 4 groups. To synthesize all evidence from the participants' explanations and views of the blended course, the researchers went through some processes of categorization and codification under a pseudonym, theme selection, and analysis using experts' theories (Yin, 2014).

Findings and Discussion
This section will dive into two main issues: implementation of blended learning in English for Arts Education Program and lessons learned from the practice.

Implementation of Blended Learning in English for Arts Education Program
The decision for serving the course in two modes: in the classroom and beyond the classroom, was derived from the needs analysis on learning objectives, class nature, and preferences indicating the need for more flexible and comprehensive English learning for the students to learn at their own pace and determination. The course was designed with integrated listening, reading, writing, speaking, and vocabulary skills in such a way that the students with low learning motivation and poor English proficiency were accommodated to attain English competencies for knowledge mastery of arts and artwork presentation with higher interest and responsibility. Thus, the implementation processes undergone by the lecturer, represent stages and framework of blended learning adoption from Graham et al. (2013), as shown in the categorization of the table below. by the lecturer. In the exploration stage, the awareness and support were raised by the instructor, faculty, and institution regarding the motives and possibilities for employing blended learning techniques (Graham et al., 2013). The lecturer built a strategic framework of blended learning design, its purposes, degree of implementation, technology and Internet network availability, and appropriateness to students' needs as follows.
"The online classroom makes it possible for me to give them assignments outside the class because they were struggling with their English as it was not their major. The lecturer believes that such an online class was accommodating to the classroom activity management as the supplementary materials handed for students' independent learning gave them spaces to explore their language abilities with higher responsibility and self-autonomy (Lungu, 2013;Yalçınkaya, 2015). Then, the lecturer began to decide which learning contents were practicable to comprehend students' knowledge about arts and artwork presentation skills as the course objectives.
"The objective that I set for this classroom is that the students are able to use their English for practical purposes, such as for presenting their artworks, describing the things related to their artworks, and describing their artworks in more practical ways. I also need to give them more vocabulary related to the arts." (Mrs. Rose, Interview, December 20 th , 2019) As in this stage, the exploration of blended learning purposes and forms has been maintained by the lecturer with support from the faculty, and it was aimed to ensure that the blended learning contents were authentic, self-regulated, and meaningful to attain outcomes of the ESP course (Behjat, 2013;Yalçınkaya, 2015).

Determination of Appropriate Teaching Modes and Designs
Existing in the exploration stage, the lecturer designed the course containing interaction, discussion, and lecture presentation as teaching modes with a structural framework concerning the model and scheduling. The lecturer generated that the course was completed with some engaging activities for the students to experience peer discussions, group and class discussions, text identification, and vocabulary enrichment mainly through personal and art choices information exchange and discourse analysis for meaning identification of texts and vocabulary comprehension. Accordingly, as the course was designed for blending online and offline learning, the lecturer clarified the form and class design: "I also found that the materials and the exercises that I give to the students during the class meetings are actually not enough for them to explore their English. That way, I found that I still needed to prepare some extra assignments outside the class meetings for them to explore their English while doing their online works." (Mrs. Rose, Interview, December 20 th , 2019) In regards to which blended learning model to be employed, a balanced blend of an instructor-led classroom and web-based learning was chosen as the instructional design convenient to students' more interactive and meaningful learning (Kaur, 2013).

Selection of Relevant Learning Platforms and Resources
In the next exploration stage, the lecturer chose the primary online learning platform that was capable of delivering lessons, organizing assignments, and communicating announcement, assessment, and feedback. Google Classroom was then chosen as it is easy to use and familiar to the students.
"I used Google Classroom because first when I asked my students, some of them have already got the accounts. In Google Classroom, it's very much acceptable and fair for the students to still submit the works late, although I already got the notifications that some students were late. It becomes a consideration when deciding their final grades. So, I think the Google Classroom makes it possible for me to organize their works better." (Mrs. Rose, Interview, December 20 th , 2019) In addition, this platform's encouraging deadline availability is also deemed suitable for compiling assignments since it enables students' late submission despite it being overdue. The lecturer also managed Google Form for quiz distribution and some facilities of offline and online consultation resources through email, chat help via WhatsApp, physical library, and website links or references in the handouts.

Utilization of Resources and Teaching Strategies
In the early adoption of the approach, the lecturer began to inform the students about the course design plan, class schedules for both class settings, time allocation, class code of their Google Classroom for regular meeting enrolment, and WhatsApp group for communication. She also managed and distributed assignments and quizzes on the set timetable of the online classroom schedules and deadlines.
"At first, of course, I managed the materials. I needed to choose the materials I should use or give in the classroom and the materials I should give online. For the online, I prefer the most for the quiz, so we discuss the text first in the class and then the quiz is given online, so it gives them time to explore their English after learning the text or materials in the classroom. Then, the second one, I also choose online classes when I have some assignments for the students to submit because it's also useful for me to monitor who has submitted the assignment and who hasn't. That way, I can remind them of the assignment due date on the students' WhatsApp group, which I join." (Mrs. Rose, Interview, December 20 th , 2019) The learning materials administered by the lecturer through Google Classroom and class meetings consisted of three central units of materials and additional activities: Unit 1. Fine Arts and Painting, Unit 2. History of Arts, Unit 3. The Role of Arts, 1 unit of mid-term test reading texts, five units of assignments, quizzes of text comprehension, artwork description outlining, and presentation practices. Setting up all offline and online learning tutoring activities, discussions, tasks, and quizzes, monitoring students' progress, and encouraging those lacking motivation and advancement were the lecturer's teaching strategies to address the material delivery and students' self-reliant construction of the lessons harmoniously. For the most part, all teaching strategies managed by the lecturer were adjusted to students' needs for skill development and faculty support, including physical resources for any classroom activities and IT skills of the lecturer and students (Graham et al., 2013;Poon, 2014).

Management of Student Engagement in the Learning Process
In this adoption stage where the lecturer experimenting policies and practices to the new design of blended learning course (Graham et al., 2013), interaction in both face-to-face and online learning was regularly maintained among the lecturer and students through group discussions, reading discourses, outlining practices, and final presentations. The materials consisting of some units were designed to engage the students in knowledge building and practices within the class and group discussions, and independent tasks assigned in the Google Classroom. Reasonably, the discussions were held in the class meetings since the elaboration of critical reflective ideas built in an oral discussion is higher in quality (Bliuc et al., 2011) so that the lecturer kept inviting every student to join each discussion voluntarily or with encouragement. In line with the structural framework in a blended learning adoption (Graham et al., 2013), management and monitoring of the progress of the blended learning model were made continuously to invite more students' active participation in learning.

Evaluation of Learning Outcomes
As the last stage in which the implementation of blended learning was cultivated to be mature, a structural framework should be regularly maintained to see whether the blended strategies have been well-established and led to a better approach adoption (Graham et al., 2013). Hence, formative and summative evaluations were carried out by looking at students' responses, active participation, skill improvement, learning outcomes or achievements, materials, and Internet access feasibility.
"The evaluation could be either on the online materials, like quizzes, questions, texts, or kinds of works that I gave to the students. I also evaluate how they performed their English in my class. As to the assessment techniques, I combine both online and offline assignments. Both the works that they did in the classroom, such as the presentations that they already made and those done online, such as tasks completed on Google Classroom, are equally graded to determine their final grade." (Mrs. Rose, Interview, December 20 th , 2019) In analyzing the combined assessment results, Google Classroom helped the data exported through a grading tool to get the final scores. Further, the lecturer evaluated and improved the effectiveness of learning materials covering the learning objectives from students' performances.
"At the end of the semester, I usually evaluated what things I have done with my classroom, especially works that were done online. I usually evaluated the materials by finding out which materials are challenging for the students, which ones are interesting for them, and which parts of the quizzes are difficult for them. Sometimes, the difficulty lies in the way I use the words or the questions I formulate so that I change them into simpler ones. I also try to evaluate who can catch up with the online works and who cannot." (Mrs. Rose, Interview, December 20 th , 2019) Therefore, the evaluation of approach usability was on the students' presence, performance in both learning settings, concept comprehension, and outcomes.

Lessons Learned from the Successes and Challenges of Blended Learning Implementation
In determining whether a design of blended learning approach fits an ESP course and its learning objectives, consideration of substantial aspects needs to be taken into account beforehand the approach adopted. Therefore, some lessons gained LANGKAWI Journal 6(2): 173-185, 2020173-185, ISSN (p): 2460173-185, -2280ISSN (e): 2549-9017 -180 -from students' voices marking any benefits and constraints in the implementation are summed up to draw attention to possible impacts and strategies that may lead to better ways of optimizing the implementation and minimizing the adverse outcomes.

Flexibility and Easy Access to Technologies and Learning Sources Improve Learning Motivation
Learning through blended learning with the help of online learning was viewed as flexible, time-saving, effective by most students for learning could be done at any place without any time constraints. Instead of going to the campus to attend weekly meetings, the students could still learn using the provided online materials at home within the scheduled online meetings regardless of their place and enrolment mode.
"Blended learning saves time. For instance, we can complete our English assignment while working on other assignments. We have free time at home, implying such learning approach is flexible." (Lily, FGD 3) It indicated that learning flexibility gained by most of the students had offered them more time and space for exploring their knowledge through the assigned online lessons while working on other duties at their learning pace and preference. Also, the significant exposure to technologies and the Internet, mainly the learning media or platform used in the course, provided easy access to comprehensive learning sources and familiarity with technology use for learning.

"The activities have improved our English vocabulary and competence of technological enhancement. We can learn English by accessing learning sources from the Internet." (Caldwell, FGD 1)
Simultaneously, some students took the experience of using technologies as an opportunity for enhancing the quality of vocabulary apprehension and technological learning for their future teaching practices as Art teachers. The awareness signals the increased motivation for gaining sufficient language terminology understanding and digital literacy skills which are essentially required in meeting the demands in their study and future working fields (Pavla et al., 2015;Yalçınkaya, 2015).
"I think I should learn to optimize the use of the learning platform from this course as it will be beneficial to be applied in my future class as an art education teacher." (Caldwell,FGD 1) Figuring out the best practice of online learning activities, the students felt that the use of Google Classroom as the primary learning platform used to personalize learning performs easiness due to its' simplicity as follows.
"Google Classroom puts us at ease. We can complete our assignments anywhere we want; we do not have to necessarily do them at the campus. We can still do so despite being so distant from campus." (Jennifer, FGD 2) "I think Google Classroom is already sufficient. It's already well-structured and easy to use." (Lily, FGD 3) The excerpts above represent the students' acceptance of Google Classroom use to simplify their online learning as it was thought of as being accessible and affordable by its easy-to-use and structured features for downloading lessons, uploading assignments, seeing announcements, comments, and feedback of their works.
Reflecting on students' past difficulties, the blended course has raised their enthusiasm about learning English for having the right competencies for jobs related to art.
"Although I do not like learning English, it becomes more fun in this class because I get more relaxed to learn in the class and more serious to study the materials outside the class. I have become more interested in learning English further because art is closely connected to English use. I ever experienced losing my customer because I could not speak English well to describe my artwork properly." (Richard,FGD 4) The flexibility and accessibility offered by such electronic learning in blended learning has optimally promoted more excellent learning resources interactively and increased students' motivation for learning the language (Boddy et al., 2013).

A Balanced Portion of Collaborative and Independent Learning Better Facilitates
Learning Comprehension Aimed at extending learning contents and resources obtained from the classical meeting or classroom interaction with no time and space boundary (Dias & Diniz, 2012;Moskal et al., 2013), a balanced portion of the blended classroom was wellmaintained for its effective classroom meetings for material delivery and online classes for lesson comprehension. The students viewed that blended learning harmony has facilitated them to apply theoretical concepts to practical uses of English.
"The class meeting became more effective since the materials were taught in the classroom, while the assignments were done online. Thus, we can learn them entirely." (Megan,FGD 3) Broadening the learning contents obtained from the regular meetings, the autonomous learning that the students encountered outside the meeting hours trained their listening, reading, writing, speaking, and vocabulary skills comprehensively within the assigned tasks relevant to their art subjects. Some opinions representing their skill improvements along the course were given by some students as follows.
"My listening skill has improved as I got more English exposure. This is one thing I didn't acquire at Senior High School." (Grace,FGD 2) "Reading lesson used to be stiff. But it has now been fun and a lot less rigid." (Ignacio,FGD 2) "I am really satisfied with the artwork presentation activity as it was my first experience of having an artwork presentation done in English." (Herbert,FGD 2) "My speaking skill has now been improved even though it is not perfect, but I have become more confident to present my artwork in English in front of my friends." (Caldwell,FGD 1) The students recognized that they had improved some core skills required in their future professions as art teachers or artists with the support of authentic, selfdirected, and meaningful ESP materials (Behjat, 2013;Yalçınkaya, 2015). The exposure and habit of using English during all learning activities have enabled them to have the consciousness and experience that lead to better improvement.

Lack of Information Technology (IT) Knowledge Leads to Technical Problems
During the implementation of a blended learning course, inadequate understanding of how to run the technologies for learning, particularly Google Classroom, appeared as a constraint among those rarely utilizing such a platform. Such a lack of IT skill of the students or even the lecturer could be affected by inadequate training for computer skills and abilities to access any learning platforms, programs, or applications available on the Internet (Holley & Oliver, 2010;Paechter & Maier, 2010;Smyth et al., 2012) or less intensity to that kind of technological learning. Furthermore, another issue was related to format differences that required the students to make more efforts for getting suitable formatted-files from Google Classroom, which were compatible with their smartphones and completing the assigned learning.
"I think different formats for sending pictures formatted JPG, or screenshot pictures, and Microsoft Word files have limited us to send the assignments easily since sometimes, our mobile phones are not compatible with certain formats." (Grace, FGD 2) As a consequence of those barriers, both the lecturer and students are expected to get exposed to more e-learning and blended learning models and skill development performed by them personally or with the help from the institution (Poon, 2014). Otherwise, other technical challenges could result in some problems concerning unstable Internet network access and restrictive time commitment on online works (Holley & Oliver, 2010;Paechter & Maier, 2010;Smyth et al., 2012).
"We find it difficult when the Internet connection was interrupted, the Internet balance was running out, and there was no clear notification of assignment submission." (Lily,Megan,Nathan,FGD 3) Internet connection fault as one of the biggest challenges encountered by most blended learning implementers (Alebaikan & Troudi, 2010) can be overcome through careful management of the delivery capacity and usage through an analysis of students' financial capacities and institution's alternative Internet sources (Moskal et al., 2013;Poon, 2014). On another note, a difficulty posed by the students was about time restriction of the online task submission deadlines that sometimes was not flexible for doing other responsibilities at the same time.
"I hope that the time management of the assignment submission will be adjusted to our schedule to make every task approachable and optimal to do." (Megan,FGD 3) Learning from those technical obstacles, careful consideration should be made to ensure the sufficiency of ICT competency owned by both the lecturer and students for utilizing any sorts of technologies. Besides, the determination of resources and skills development, particularly costs, supplies, human resources, and IT-related skills need to be taken into account by the institutions (Poon, 2014).

Online Learning Requires More Concerns on Material Clarification and Immediate
Feedback As the online learning was encountered by the students individually for accomplishing the lessons or tasks on their own, it somehow lacked the lecturer's material clarification and immediate feedback, compared to the greater intensity of the conventional meeting's direct explanation from the lecturer. The lecturer had to provide the students with monitoring, clarification consistently, and precise corrections in both class settings, otherwise some students might face problems of ensuring their language use correctly as expressed below.
"Compared to my previous experience in Senior High School, in which grammar and sentence making were emphasized more, in this course, I can learn more about using the language practically. Yet, I still need to learn how to form sentences with correct grammar that sometimes lack corrections and practices." (Alice, FGD 1) Emphasizing practical language uses for responding to texts and describing artworks, the students often faced problems with independent language formation. They thought that although such a translation machine has helped them to the works, it sometimes was not reliable enough in terms of accuracy for sentence formation and pronunciation, in which the lecturer's guidance was still needed.
"When using Google Translate, I sometimes find it confusing and uncertain to make sure about the correctness and consistency of my sentence formation and spelling." (Beatrice, FGD 1) Above all, those drawbacks can be minimized through comprehensive briefing, checking, and monitoring to measure that all students get the best access to technology and learning sources conveniently and hold a continuous evaluation within the course.

Conclusion
The findings of this study depict the importance of undergoing exploration, early implementation, and growth stages with the underlying principles of strategy, structure, and support framework (Graham et al., 2013). In addition, the reflection on some lessons learned from the successes and challenges of the approach implementation is expected to provide deeper insights and suggestions to future blended learning implementers and users for being able to deal with any obstacles that may appear and optimize the use of blended learning. This study identifies a rich field for future research concerning blended learning in ESP courses to involve a more indepth analysis of the approaching model using numbers signalling proofs of students' achievement. Finally, although the findings are discussed explicitly in the ESP course in the Indonesian context, the lessons drawn from this study are thought to be relevant to other populations in any culture and circumstance.