Page 81 - BLENDED LEARNING

Clearly there are advantages to having only local participants on the blended version
of the course, as content can be tailored more specifically to the local context. On
the other hand, the insights and fresh perspectives provided by having a range of
participants from all over the world in the fully online iteration of the course are
lacking in the blended iteration.

The blend
Our case study may be slightly unusual in this volume, in that our blended course was
in a sense ‘reverse’ engineered: we looked at providing a face-to-face component of
what was already a fully online course.

In our work giving face-to-face training workshops and short courses around the
world, we have the opportunity to talk to many teachers about technology, training,
and their perceptions of working face-to-face and/or online. These contacts, and
emails that we received from teachers all over the world, asking whether the Cert ICT
existed in face-to-face mode, informed our decision to offer the course in blended
mode. We also felt that some parts of the course content (learning how to use
specific technologies) lent themselves especially well to being taught face-to-face:
for example, learning how to set up a blog, or how to create a podcast, or how to
contribute to a wiki, can easily and effectively be modelled and practised face-to-face.
In short, offering the Cert ICT as a blended option, with the initial 50 course hours
taking place face-to-face, was seen as an easier and less threatening ‘way in’ to
learning about technology for many teachers. The blended course starts with a one-
week online orientation period in the course Moodle platform, in which participants
complete three very short introductory tasks: they complete their profile page
with personal information; share their attitudes to technology; and outline their
expectations for the course. These tasks aim to familiarise the participants with the
Moodle platform they will be using during the course, and they also help them get
to know a bit about their course colleagues before meeting face-to-face. The course
then officially starts with the face-to-face component. There are a number of reasons
for starting with the face-to-face component, rather than the online component:

■ ■ The content of the course, especially in the initial stages where participants
are building up their ICT skills, lends itself well to a face-to-face delivery mode,
as noted previously. The online component of the course then deals with more
theoretical issues (such as online assessment, integration into the curriculum,
e-learning and m-learning). It also makes sense to start the course with the more
practical training, so that by the time the more theoretical issues are considered
in the online component, participants have some experience in using ICT on
which to reflect.
■ ■ The group dynamic and relationships built up face-to-face help sustain participants
through the online part of the course. Feedback from participants after the face-
to-face component of a blended iteration reflects this perception:
I think that due to the face-to-face component, our future interaction via emails
will be much more relaxed and fruitful now that we’ve all had the chance to get

78 | Reversing the blend: From online to blended Reversing the blend: From online to blended | 79