Page 107 - BLENDED LEARNING

Figure 3: The homepage in a Module One Moodle room

Access to the Moodle is indefinite despite the course duration. In fact many
participants continue to use it as a resource during subsequent Delta Modules.

a. Input
Participants can (if they wish) attend one afternoon a week for four hours, broken
into three sessions. Each of these sessions introduces or explores an aspect of
the syllabus. The aim is to capture interest, point participants to areas that they
can and should research and suggest ways they might do this. These face-to-face
sessions are delivered in a mix of group work/jigsaw activities/guided discovery/
mini presentations by peers and other techniques. Online participants have access
to notes that outline the areas, have links to reading where it is accessible online and
suggestions for books where it is not. Notes include tasks such as guided discovery
activities that were used in sessions. Having access to materials online can be
empowering (Sharma and Barrett, 2007: 45); as participants can work through the
material at their own speed. However, as material is being presented in face-to-face
sessions, the programme allows some materials to be hidden and then time released
by the tutors.
b. Mini quizzes
These are quick ‘click through’ activities that course participants can use to check
what they have understood so far and what they need to work on. At present there
are one or two for most of the weeks and they are one of the most heavily used
components. These components aim to act as a self assessment/learning tool. We
also encourage course participants to make their own quizzes and share links using
sites like Quizlet, and to explore tasks in wikis that have been set up for that purpose.

104 | Creating a blended Delta Module One Creating a blended Delta Module One | 105