The SMARTER model, an innovative educational framework, is designed for blended learning environments, seamlessly integrating both online and face-to-face instructional components. Employing a flipped classroom methodology, this model ensures an equitable division between online and traditional classroom interactions, aiming to cultivate a dynamic and collaborative learning atmosphere. This research focused on developing and rigorously evaluating the SMARTER model’s validity, practicality, and effectiveness. Adopting a research and development (R&D) approach informed by the methodologies of Borg, Gall, and Gall, this study utilized a mixed-methods strategy. This encompassed a robust validation process by experts in design, content, and media, alongside an empirical analysis of the model’s application in actual educational settings. The aim was to comprehensively assess its effectiveness and practicality. The findings from this study affirm the SMARTER model’s validity, practicality, and effectiveness in improving students’ information literacy skills. Comparative analysis between a control group, taught using a traditional expository approach, and an experimental group, educated under the SMARTER model, highlighted significant improvements in the latter group. This effectiveness underscores the model’s capacity not only to efficiently deliver content but also to actively engage students in a collaborative learning process. The results advocate for the model’s potential broader adoption and adaptation across similar educational contexts. They also establish a foundation for future research aimed at exploring the SMARTER model’s scalability and adaptability across diverse instructional environments.

This research aimed to explore the concerning characteristics of information literacy in the physical education faculty of higher education institutions in Yunnan Province. This study provides a systematic meta-analysis of 33 peer-reviewed papers from 2019 to 2023. It discusses that information literacy includes basic research skills, critical thinking, and problem-solving, which include their application in the learning process. The paper describes some approaches that can be used to implement information literacy into teaching and learning, including courses with learning objectives, learner-centered approaches, and institutional support. The study also explored technology and its relation to adopting competencies for the growing technologies’ evolution within the region’s education sector. In addition, the following factors could have enhanced the process: time constraints, differences in discipline, and variations in the usage of information technology. The results indicate the need for context-specific professional learning and policy intervention to facilitate the practice of physical education faculty in Yunnan. The information collected here serves as the framework for effective regional policies regarding education, curriculum, and teacher training, among other related aspects.