From Blended Learning to Curriculum Uptake in Higher Vocational Management Education: A Conceptual Structural Model with an Empirical Validation Protocol

Abstract

Blended learning has become a routine reform strategy in higher vocational colleges, yet its value remains uncertain when online tasks are added to classroom teaching without being absorbed into students' learning routines. This manuscript develops a conceptual structural model with an empirical validation protocol to explain how blended learning quality may support curriculum uptake in introductory management courses through digital competence and learner engagement. Curriculum uptake is conceptualised as an implementation outcome comprising acceptance, active use, participation fidelity, transfer of course routines and continuance intention. Drawing on the community of inquiry framework, self-determination theory, social cognitive theory, student engagement research and implementation outcome theory, the model argues that blended learning quality does not by itself guarantee uptake. Students first need course-related digital competence to work confidently and critically in the blended environment; this capability then supports behavioural, cognitive, emotional and social engagement; engagement, in turn, makes curriculum routines visible in students' actual learning practice. The manuscript proposes nine testable hypotheses, a baseline-plus-four-wave validation design, measurement guidance, learning management system triangulation indicators and a PLS-SEM reporting protocol. Its contribution is to reposition blended learning in higher vocational management education as a problem of curriculum implementation rather than platform adoption. The framework supports a shift from asking whether blended learning is available to asking whether its intended routines are accepted, enacted and sustained by vocational students.