The analysis of the responses to the completed questionnaire began with an assessment of the descriptive data drawn from the students’ feedback about how they perceive online learning and the culture of learning – whether the latter has been influenced by the advent of online learning. The analysis of the open items and field notes from the interviews (coding, constant comparison) was completed after reading and re-reading the short answers, using constant comparison. Representative responses, quotes, and field notes were selected to illustrate the themes and to serve as evidence for the assertions related to each research question.
The methodology used for this study had two main parts. The first involved an analysis of the discourse surrounding online integrative or blended education. This emphasized Saudi Arabia, a country where this is a new strategy in education as well as a new area of research. The second part of the study involved an analysis both of personal observations and of a survey created by the author and distributed among Saudi female first- and second-year undergraduate students from various classes of two major universities. All 67 of the participating students had experienced the integrative approach to online education through the requirement to use online learning as part of their university studies alongside traditional methods of education.
Prior to distribution, the survey was examined by an ethics committee and by professors at other institutions. The survey was undertaken in person and was data-driven, with a view to exploring how students’ culture of learning had changed as a result of accessing and working with an integrative approach to online learning. The survey questions were supplemented with probes designed to steer students’ thinking towards the relationship between learning culture and online education. The survey data were coded, themed, and analyzed according to their relevance to the research question. The results were read and re-read by the author to find similarities and differences in respondents’ answers to the questions. As indicated below, there was a general consensus among the respondents that online education had positively influenced their learning experiences and outcomes.