Embedding blended learning in teaching is becoming more and more varied: from doing homework online to building interactive hybrid classrooms on site. In the earlier stages (especially during the pandemic) blended learning focused more on the practical implications for the teacher, whereas we now see the focus shifting towards the didactic goals of the program and the needs of the students.
Note: within this article, a Blended Learning Wave is defined as the design decision made regarding the integration of both online and face-to-face activities. An example of this is implementing Grasple as a homework tool that provides immediate feedback as an activity next to the in-class lectures. Another example could be providing your students with pre-lecture videos to discuss the theory and working on assignments in-class.
What to consider when planning and implementing blended learning in your teaching? (by educators, for educators)
We observe a growing amount of teachers reviewing and redesigning their educational set up with the seemingly endless possibilities of blended learning. A question that often occurs in the process: What would be the best way to incorporate interactive teaching and practice tools like Grasple in my course?
Instead of answering this question ourselves, we invited a group of educators to our community session on the 21st of February on Blended Learning Waves, to exchange stories, experiences and challenges with the goal of inspiring each other and formulating key takeaways that give an answer to the posed question. The session included the discussion of both courses with a very high level of self-service by students up to fully guided learning processes. Pieter Roos from University of Twente shared his structured approach to incorporating more practice for his students in multiple steps. Tugce Akkaya from TU Delft showed how teachers are there to guide, interact with their students and adapt to their needs.
Four takeaways for approaching the implementation of blended learning:
- Have a clear objective
- Iterate with colleagues
- Involve your students
- Keep it simple - one tool cannot replace all
1. Have a clear objective
Before starting the (re)design of your course, define a clear objective that steers the focus during the implementation and execution.
To formulate his objective, Pieter Roos (UTwente) identified a set of challenges and requirements based on his prior experience with teaching the course and experiences of students. He wanted to provide students with extra opportunities to practice with problem-solving techniques. This formulated objective then formed the guideline throughout the different stages of implementing a new learning activity from literature review and tool selection up to the evaluation phase.
Tugce Akkaya’s (TU Delft) objective is ensuring that students understand what is asked from them while completing assignments. This objective created a framework that made it easier to stay dynamic and directly evaluate the impact of possible changes and improvements among the different current learning activities.
To keep the objective central when planning and implementing blended learning, ask for each (online) activity within your course:
- What do you want to achieve by implementing this activity / tool?
- How does it relate to the learning objective of your course?
2. Iterate with colleagues
When planning and implementing blended learning in your course, there is no need to reinvent the wheel: within your faculty and/or university there are often teachers that are dealing with similar challenges. If you have limited access to resources, it is worth it to make time to talk to colleagues, listen to their experiences and learn about tools that are already available. By talking to his colleagues of Information Management, Pieter for example learned about Grasple and its potential to help attain the objective he formulated. Tugce, on the other hand, has connections with teachers at a wide range of universities with whom she often discusses current projects she is working on. These exchanges with different ‘ways of working’ provide her with new insights that help her define her approach.
If you do not have access to these experiences within your own university or department, you can also use the expertise and network of others. At Grasple, for example, our Customer Success Managers and members of the content team are happy to help provide you with best practices and examples of implementations that may hold a solution to your challenge. At the same time, we can also connect you to other users around the world that have come to us with similar objectives.
“That line of communication [red. with employees of Grasple] is very helpful in exploring and playing with Grasple for me as a teacher” - Pieter Roos
3. Involve your students
What was interesting about the exchange of stories from the participants, was that most of them wanted to shift their focus more towards designing their course based on the needs of the students. It was, however, often questioned how to best go about this.
Pieter integrated the voice of students in multiple phases within his approach. During the investigative phase he involved his students to confirm and understand their needs. He hosted a panel session with a small group of students in order to formulate the different expectations from an additional tool to help them reach their learning objectives. This in-depth exchange was an eye-opener for him to the way students study and it highlighted the different needs from the students. Later, he included the students in the evaluation of his implementation to learn about their experience using Grasple as an additional learning tool. This helped validate whether the objective was reached, identify side-effects and define what further adaptations are needed.
“I had a meeting with 4 or 5 students and that gave me a kind of eye-opener as to the differences in the ways in which students study” - Pieter Roos
Tugce also emphasized the importance of listening to the experiences of your students. After the implementation of streaming lectures, she noticed that the amount of students within her classes decreased. As a response, she chose to review the set up of her lectures: students could review the content of the lectures at home and in-class she created time for group discussions, incorporated games and had the students vote for what issues should be zoomed in on. By implementing these changes, the students saw extra value to be in class and the turnout increased.
“The teachers can have more freedom, because if students have more responsibility with their own learning we can arrange our lecture activities in a different way” - Tugce Akkaya
There are different ways to involve your students, depending on the objective. Pieter valued the in-depth exchange with the students during the panel as it provided a solid base for his multi-phase approach. To the question of how to reach a larger audience, he suggested using an additional questionnaire. Tugce, on the other hand, wants to keep the flexibility per course and approaches the students by asking them in the first lecture what they expect from her and what she can expect from them. This creates a sense of belonging and responsibility and allows for the adaptations within the lecture setup.
4. Keep it simple - one tool cannot replace all!
In the landscape of growing possibilities it is important to keep the objective in mind and the structure of your course simple. One tool (presumably) cannot solve all your challenges, so it is important for both you and your students to understand in what way the addition of the learning activity contributes to the learning objective.
Pieter shared that he provides a disclaimer of Grasple being an additional learning opportunity and that the tool on itself is not enough to pass the material. By highlighting the importance of all activities students are incentivized to focus on understanding the material and the learning objective, instead of mastering a singular activity within the programme.
Tugce also mentioned the value of creating a clear workspace in a coherent course structure. By gathering all learning activities in one place, it will be easier to communicate the role of each individual activity within the overall learning process. You can for example do this by e.g. including theory and lectures within the tool you use for practicing or for example by integrating all your activities within your Learning Management System (LMS).
“From the outcome that we observed, they [red. The students] really enjoyed to have everything in one platform” - Tugce Akkaya
Questions that may help evaluate the coherence of your setup:
- Is the tool the best fit for the activity it is used for?
- How many different programs do my students need?
- Is there one tool that can host all my other activities?
Want to learn more about the presentations of Pieter and Tugce and the discussions during the session? Please reach out to us!
