The experience of creating and using learning contracts in a higher education blended course: analysis of student voices in an on-line discussion

This paper illustrates students’ reflections on the experience of implementing Malcolm Knowles’s 1986 model of learning contracts in an online discussion forum. The study was an attempt to improve and adapt the tool to a master’s degree course at the University of Padua. Based on this qualitative inquiry three major themes come to light in our analysis : (a) Learning Contract and the learning process, (b) Characteristics of Learning Contracts and (c) Dynamics of collaboration. The findings encouraged our reflection on how to improve the contract and better involve the students in their learning process of becoming more self-directed. Finally, we can affirm that the Learning Contract can be considered an appropriate tool to elicit reflection for the learner and facilitator in higher education.