How can I implement blended learning in my programme?
How can I implement blended learning in my programme?
You can approach blended learning at different levels. You can start small, or you can completely (re)design your course.
Three approaches
Alammary and colleagues (2014) formulated three different levels for designing blended learning. The levels describe the impact of a blended learning (re)design on you as a lecturer.
1. Low-impact blend
In the low-impact blend, you add a number of additional activities to your current course design, for example, an online discussion forum or a walk-in Q&A session. The risk of this may be that the mutual components of your course design are not well aligned and, as a result, the new activities do not align well with the intended learning objectives and/or assessment. On the other hand, it can lead to a richer learning experience for the students, without a whole lot of effort for you as a lecturer.
Suitable for lecturers with relatively little teaching experience.
Tips:
- Make sure the new activity solves a problem or meets a need. Don’t just do it without a reason.
- Start with small adjustments and simple tools.
- Align your learning activities with the intended learning objectives and assessment.
- Discuss the adjustments within your team and ask for feedback.
+ It takes little time for you as a lecturer.
+ It can quickly lead to positive learning effects.
– Coherence between activities may decrease.
– Coherence between learning objectives, learning activities and assessment may decrease (constructive alignment).
2. Medium-impact blend
In the medium-impact blend, you replace some activities in your current course design with new activities, for example replacing a traditional on-site lecture with a knowledge clip for students to watch prior to class so that there is more time for interaction during class.
Suitable for lecturers who already have some experience in teaching design but do not yet want to change their entire educational design.
Tips:
- Don’t start too big. If necessary, start with the low-impact blend and progress to the medium-impact blend from there.
- Change your course design step by step.
- Discuss your ideas with colleagues and collect best practices. You don’t always have to reinvent the wheel.
- Make use of support teams, such as educational and IT experts.
+ It is fairly easy to start with.
+ It is a way to change your teaching gradually.
+ It offers a lot of room for experimentation.
– It takes more time and effort than the low-impact blend.
– There are no ready-made solutions, so you have to dare to fail sometimes.
3. High-impact blend
In the high-impact blend, you will completely (re)design your current course, for example by using the flipped classroom model throughout your course. During the redesign, you will consider which teaching activities best support the intended learning outcomes and how you will design those teaching activities. This will ensure good alignment between the intended learning outcomes, teaching activities and assessment (constructive alignment).
Suitable for lecturers who have extensive experience in teaching design and relatively high levels of educational and technological knowledge.
Tips:
- Don’t do it alone. Involve your colleagues and do it as a team.
- Make use of support teams, such as educational and IT experts.
- Involve students in the redesign.
- Work gradually towards a high-impact blend. Start with several low- and medium-impact blends.
- Take at least six months (preferably a year) for the redesign.
+ It can enrich your teaching and solve potential problems.
+ It leads to good consistency between your intended learning outcomes, teaching activities and assessment (constructive alignment).
+ The student perspective is central, making you more responsive to their needs.
– It takes as much time as designing an entirely new course.
– You need a lot of educational and technological knowledge.
– There is a higher risk of failure.
Sources
Alammary, A., Sheard, J., & Carbone, A. (2014). Blended learning in higher education: Three different design approaches. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 30(4). https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.693
Last, B. (2022). Blended learning in de praktijk. Modellen, strategieën, voorbeelden en andere handvatten. Boom.