Page 173 - BLENDED LEARNING

Figure 7: Student dialogue for class produced video

Adaptations
I am currently blending wiki and face-to-face with six different classes. I use an
induction strategy and participation is strongly encouraged. It is interesting to
notice the different contributions made by learners. Old pages have been archived
into an accessible folder so present business English students can learn from the
previous year.

Reflections on this blend
This blended approach allowed valuable flexibility and interactivity which reinforced
classroom learning and empowered learners, for example with the ‘News page’.
Wiki allowed multiple asynchronous views of class-produced videos and allowed
learners to reflect on, and offer suggestions to improve, their classmates’ written
work. However, the success of the online aspect depended on the personalities
in the class, the friendly atmosphere, scaffolding and task design.
In order to contribute, students needed IT ability or to be well supported. For example,
photos with large file sizes would not easily attach to the wiki and this could have
discouraged learners if it was the first task that they attempted to achieve. Learners
may come up with innovative solutions to IT problems (see Figure 8). One learner
explains that they had trouble inserting text so wrote it in Word first, saved it as a
picture and inserted that on the page.

170 | Using a wiki to enhance the learning experience on a business English course Using a wiki to enhance the learning experience on a business English course | 171