Page 153 - BLENDED LEARNING

the reader/listener as customer) and the ‘politeness’ of being concise/avoiding
redundancy. Both courses emphasised the importance of language as an organising
and highlighting tool, and developed language awareness of ways to describe how
findings were obtained, classifying and integrating visuals into text or presentation.
Technicalities and timetabling

Both courses began with an introduction to the blended learning approach and it
was possible to run the face-to-face course over the two months that the participants
were in country. Timelines were more fluid for the online element of the course. With
a flexible approach to timetabling, the majority of trainees were able to attend seven
three-hour face-to-face sessions on presentation skills. Sessions were occasionally
repeated to accommodate everybody. As trainees were engaged in giving real-life
briefings outside the classroom, it was possible to maintain pace despite the sessions
being widely spaced.

Had I been developing the online report writing course today, I would have made
more use of virtual learning environment technology, Moodle in particular. At the
time, not all of today’s technology was accessible and my own technical knowledge
was quite limited. The solution was therefore simple. Thirty hours of materials (partly
adapted from previous face-to-face courses, much of it innovated) were developed
and issued to trainees in hard/soft copy form, with keys for self-access tasks and
commentaries on possible answers to more open-ended tasks (see Tomlinson, 1998:
322). Trainees undertook self-access tasks throughout each unit and completed an
assignment at the end of each module (generally a report sub-section of 150 –200
words) which they emailed to me. I guaranteed to provide feedback by email within
three days. Trainees were also asked to complete a final assignment of around 400
words, working to guidelines but on a topic of their own choice, which I also received
by email and which contributed to final assessment.
By today’s standards, the system was rudimentary and there are of course a multitude
of ways in which the course could be developed further. If we accept though that
technical platforms are only a means to an end, I would argue that the relative
simplicity of this no-frills approach is effective in situations where (for whatever reason:
time, cost, or lack of technical skills) a full range of IT resources cannot be exploited.

Lessons learned

‘Did it work?’ is the fundamental question. Certainly, within limited parameters,
it seemed to be effective in meeting trainees’ needs:
a. All 40 trainees completed final assignments for the course which were assessed
according to a simple but usable set of criteria as ranging from excellent to
satisfactory.
b. Trainee post-course evaluations were very positive (90 per cent rating the
course as high quality) and contrasted with an element of initial scepticism.
Trainees consistently stated in end-of-course questionnaires that they had
enjoyed the flexibility and asynchronicity of the course and could fit it around
their busy lives and foreign service.

150 | Blended learning for English for occupational purposes Blended learning for English for occupational purposes | 151