# Institutional Adoption and Implementation of Blended Learning in the Era of Intelligent Education
## 4 Results and Discussion
### Development of Instructors' Professional Skills
#### 4.4.2 Instructors' Perception on Professional Development  
Questionnaire results indicated that 7.8% (\(n=27\)) of the 346 instructors started BL in 2015, with a steady increase from 2016 to 2018. Entering Stage 3 in 2019, there was a leap in the number of instructors (\(n=51\)) who newly converted their courses to be BL courses. The school closure period due to COVID-19 in the spring semester of 2020 led to a steep rise of more instructors beginning to conduct BL courses (\(n=119\)). The year 2021 welcomed another 37 instructors to the BL reform. Altogether, 82.66% (\(n=286\)) of the instructors have been conducting BL courses, whereas 17.34% (\(n=60\)) of the interviewed instructors have not yet tried out a BL course (see Figure 4). According to the results in the second part of the questionnaire, most instructors actively involved themselves in the BL reform and have benefited greatly from it in terms of professional development (see Table 8). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l l l l l} \hline \hline
**Level**Year** & **2015** & **2016** & **2017** & **2018** & **2019** & **2020** & **2021** \\ \hline School & 31 & 25 & 18 & 9 & 18 & 26 & 23 \\ Provincial & 1 & 3 & 3 & 2 & 2 & 7 & 14 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 6: S University’s BL projects. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l l l l l} \hline \hline
**Publication** & **2015** & **2016** & **2017** & **2018** & **2019** & **2020** & **2021** & **Total** \\ \hline National & 1 & 1 & 10 & 10 & 8 & 10 & 13 & 53 \\ International & & & & 1 & 1 & 1 & 3 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 7: S university’s publication of journal papers on BL. Table 8 indicates that 82.37% of the instructors read the institutional BL policy and reached a consensus on the goal of the institutional BL reform in terms of strategy. As for structure, most instructors (71.97%, 83.24%) reported to have received feedback from a school inspection and/or peers and students on their BL course implementation and had benefited from it (M = 3.40, 3.55, respectively). When it comes to support, technically, 76.30% of the instructors benefited from the LMS provided by the university and utilized them for BL course implementation (M = 3.55). Meanwhile, 56.94% of the instructors joined the institutional BL community of practice and received immediate technical support from the support team and peers (M = 3.32). Pedagogically, 68.50% of them benefited from the BL lectures, workshops, and salons arranged/funded by S university (M = 3.60). As for incentives, 19.08% of the instructors enjoyed the institutional funding on the BL course transformation and gained professional development (M = 3.64). It is noteworthy that the number of these instructors equaled the number of instructors funded during the year of 2015-2016. In contrast, 64.74% of the instructors conducted BL course transformation without institutional funding and benefited  
Figure 4: Number of instructors who joined S university’s BL reform. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Category**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Indicator**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Involvement**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Perception on Gains**} \\ \cline{3-3} \cline{5-5}  & & **No. of Ts** & & **Percentage** & **(M)** \\ \hline Strategy & The institutional BL policy & 285 & 82.37\% & 3.44 \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Structure} & Feedback from school inspection and/or peers & 249 & 71.97\% & 3.40 \\  & Feedback from students & 288 & 83.24\% & 3.55 \\ \hline \multirow{6}{*}{Support} & LMS for BL course implementation & 264 & 76.30\% & 3.55 \\  & The institutional BL community of practice (the & 197 & 56.94\% & 3.32 \\ \cline{1-1}  & Wechat Group) & 237 & 68.50\% & 3.60 \\ \cline{1-1}  & The BL lectures, workshops, and salons & 66 & 19.08\% & 3.64 \\ \cline{1-1}  & BL course transformation without institutional funding & 224 & 64.74\% & 3.21 \\ \cline{1-1}  & Provincial BL reform projects and/or provincial award in & 92 & 26.59\% & 3.64 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}