**5. Conclusions**

The aim of the study was to explore the students' experience of the BL model and its impact on their satisfaction and commitment to learning during COVID-19. This experiment was carried out in a university with students from several fields of knowledge, highlighting the impact of the student experience on their satisfaction and commitment to their learning using BL during COVID-19.

The results demonstrate that a positive experience with BL contributes positively to student satisfaction and affective commitment. These results are broadly in line with what has been suggested by the previous literature. Specifically, the different dimensions of experience influence satisfaction, with cognitive–affective and social–behavioural experiences having the greatest effect. The latter is of particular interest, given that Gao et al. [13] established that there was no relationship between the social–behavioural experience and satisfaction. However, this may be explained by the fact that the BL model encourages students to socialise [21,26], mainly through online communication, such as class forums and the use of social networks, which during the pandemic, when social interactions were reduced, became more important [22]. The effect of the cognitive–affective experience is underpinned by the fact that interaction and collaboration with other students encourage discussion and critical thinking, which translates into increased learning and satisfaction [9]. The positive influence of the formative and sensory experience is justified by the fact that the perception of an efficient and suitable study environment promotes satisfaction [5]. Another noteworthy result is the negative and significant effect that satisfaction has on normative commitment. This contradicts the previous literature but may be justified by the existing health situation, which may have conditioned and influenced this relationship. Affective commitment, on the other hand, has a positive relationship with satisfaction. This is explained by the fact that students in this learning model feel more comfortable and enjoy studying, which makes them more involved in learning as a matter of enjoyment [11,19,20].

These results deepen the study of the experience in the BL model, showing that it can be very satisfactory and can strengthen the affective bond of the student with the study and their academic training. This work takes the study of the BL experience to its ultimate consequence, student commitment, filling a gap unexplored to date.

Furthermore, it also has implications for the university by demonstrating the importance of managing the student experience for greater success in the implementation of BL. It stresses that universities are not external to the existing relationships in the markets and should consider their students as customers and act accordingly.

In concrete terms, the results encourage educational institutions to boost their investment in infrastructure and teacher training. Since, as demonstrated, the sensory and formative experiences positively influence student satisfaction, so improving aspects linked to these experiences would contribute to greater satisfaction. This study also highlights the importance of a clear and concrete institutional strategy in the implementation of BL, which reduces variability in the student experience. Finally, as shown above and revealed by earlier studies, BL as an environment is conducive to the socialisation of students through online and offline communications. In this regard, the realisation of activities inside and outside the classroom that involve students and lead to the development of personal relationships would be advisable for an improvement in the social–behavioural experience.

This work is not without limitations. Firstly, the data collected were self-reported by the students, so in order to fully understand the experience, additional information was necessary, for which in-depth interviews were conducted. In addition, self-reported data has the inherent limitation that it only considers the subjects' vision, so the results should be cross-referenced with academic results. This was not feasible in our study because, during the pandemic, the change in the educational model also involved a change in the evaluation system. Finally, the study has the limitations of transversal studies, such as data being obtained at a single point in time. However, since the objective of this study was to analyse the student's experience in BL during COVID-19, this type of study seems appropriate.

With regard to future lines of research, the replication of this study outside contexts of health crises or similar situations, which could condition the experience in these teaching models, can be considered. Furthermore, contrasting the students' experience with their academic performance could contribute to a greater understanding of students' experiences in this educational context.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualisation, D.G. and S.B.-T.; methodology, D.G. and S.B.-T.; software, S.B.-T.; validation, D.G.; formal analysis, S.B.-T.; investigation, S.B.-T.; resources, S.B.-T.; data curation, S.B.-T.; writing—original draft preparation, S.B.-T.; writing—review and editing, D.G.; visualisation, D.G.; supervision, D.G.; project administration, D.G. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This work has been supported by the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid-Spain) under the Multiannual Agreement with Universidad Complutense de Madrid in the line Excellence Programme for university teaching staff, in the context of the V PRICIT (Regional Programme of Research and Technological Innovation).

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by Ethics Committee of Complutense University of Madrid (protocol code CE\_20220317-09\_SOC and date of approval: 4 April 2022).

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Acknowledgments:** This research was supported by the Student Observatory of the Complutense University of Madrid through project POE 17-212.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **Appendix A**


**Table A1.** A sample of approaches from previous studies.

**Table A2.** Survey. (This survey has been translated from its original version used with the participants).




#### **References**


**Disclaimer/Publisher's Note:** The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
