Page 109 - BLENDED LEARNING

Figure 5: The projects page carries links to a variety of different formats for input
and presentation of finished products

d. Exam practice
There are one or two exam task types each block for individual exam practice. These
are from past papers. Participants are free to do them under exam conditions or not
as they see fit, but are strongly encouraged to upload them for feedback from a tutor.
This includes individualised comments on what they have done well, where they need
to change their approach and things they might do to work on an area.

Course development
The process has been one of organic development rather than of having an end
goal ‘grand design’. Prior to the Modular Delta our online support was a matter of
electronic access to documents. The change to modular came at a time when we
were beginning to realise that the ubiquity of the web and Web 2.0 were things we
should explore and exploit. The technology has demonstrated many advantages:
access to resources, a medium through which to interact and collaborate, provision
for individual learning pathways in a secure environment. We can monitor how people
are interacting with the online components and can react accordingly. It is easy to
trace what is being accessed more, by whom and when. It is far more flexible than
books; we can adjust individual components to meet need or demand within a course
while it is being used.
Some things that have been perennial issues have been exaggerated by the blended
courses. The training ethos at ITI is do as you would be done by. The approach of the
tutors is to guide trainees to rational positions/answers/conclusions rather than to
tell them. The materials on the websites are designed in the same way. However, the
reaction of trainees to the more digitised delivery is that more should be delivered.
Exhaustive and comprehensive lists of what should be ‘learnt’ are sometimes asked
for. Such lists are neither available, nor in a sense desirable. Participants need to
become familiar with a range of reading and to apply that knowledge to the texts
and problems they are presented with. Being able to access more and more content,
but not interacting with it/using it/applying it is unlikely to have the desired effect.
We hope to put across the idea that in the same way that teachers cannot ‘deliver’
English to learners (but only show them how they might go about learning) we cannot
deliver complete the knowledge participants (personally) need for the exam. More
instant online access to some of the materials means they then need other things
in place to allow them to take in and retain content from those materials. What once
might have been achieved by taking notes on something, if the notes are provided

106 | Creating a blended Delta Module One Creating a blended Delta Module One | 107