Were you unable to attend the Blended learning design, all the gear, no idea? webinar moderated by Becky Hartnup, and hosted by Aurélie Soulier? The main points have been summarised here, and answers any questions you may have around the benefits and drawbacks of using a range of technology in blended and online education.

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#EdTechHumans is the main theme running through Aurelie Soulier’s Blended learning design: All the gear, no idea? webinar – EdTech is about the people, not just the tools – the technology isn’t useful without the individuals who drive the practice and pedagogy behind it.

A Changing Context

Across the world, contexts are changing, but where are higher education institutions heading? In an emergency situation, people simply manage and get on with it. Universities had to rapidly transition to a digital campus due to COVID-19, but now they have the summer and winter breaks to refine their online teaching practices. For example, inequalities and accessibility gaps that are addressed in face-to-face teaching may have not been considered during the digital transition. This time should be viewed as an opportunity to learn for practitioners and leadership – to experience change, and learn from it.

Aurelie works for Catalyst IT as a Product Specialist, helping clients optimise and utilise their learning platforms. With past experience as a Learning Technologist, she is currently aiding institutions with the move online of their exams and assessments. She is a true advocate for blended learning.

Blended Learning

Blended learning is the function of combining face-to-face teaching, be it in the lecture hall or via live video lectures, and online teaching to maximise the learning experience. It allows for different activities to scaffold a student’s learning –  to chunk the learning to deliver bigger outcomes. Doing activities online provides opportunities to engage, monitor, progress towards outcomes and provide feedback.

Marking and feedback are brought up a lot in the National Student Survey feedback in the UK, with questions such as “Feedback on my work has been timely” and “I have received helpful comments on my work”. Electronic tools allow learners to see their own progress, review grades, and obtain feedback easily, and at their own pace.

• Communicate to students when they should expect feedback.
• Equip them with the correct training for them to understand the feedback given.

Annotation tools within the learning platform or audio recordings can be used to provide feedback, or depending on the type of assessment, you may find open virtual office hours work best. Prompted by the audience, Aurelie also mentions peer-to-peer feedback, with the mention of tools such a Collaborate to help make this anonymous.

But using the tools in the wrong way isn’t going to help people learn.

 Pay attention to:
• How students receive the practice.
• How teachers curate the practice.
• The connections between them in their learning space.

The webinar itself encouraged engagement, and echoed a key lesson for those implementing blended learning – be present.

Activities Not Tools

Remember to focus on the activities you can use to help your students, as opposed to the tools that help facilitate them.

Aurelie discusses the concept of assessment first – designing all courses and modules whilst always thinking of the end assessment, then breaking down the activities to align with what you want students to learn. You can design activities so that students' formative assessments feed into their summative assessment, and use scaffolding to  break down activities so students get to point where they are capable of doing their summative assessment, but not just so that they pass, but so they learn the key skills and meet their learning outcomes.

There isn't a single way to design a learning activity – just your way. Whilst it is important to include variety in the activities you serve to your students, the relevance of these activities is key. Do not be afraid to repeat formats if they’ve been successful for you – relevance is more important than variety. Alongside this, if your students feedback that they do not like a specific tool, use this as a learning moment, and change the tool for the following year. 

Ensure you are suitably equipping your students! Present activities that allow them to practice what they will do for their final assessment and give them the opportunity to fail in a safe space – to get it wrong, get feedback, and learn from it.

• Set the correct expectations at the start of an activity to let students know what to expect!
• If failing is expected, and accepted, let your students know from the outset.

Experience Matters

The way an activity looks is important – it is recommended you use a template for consistency, and signposting on your learning platform to help students know how to use each resource and activity. You can also include widgets for completion tracking, to guide learners and make them aware of their progress.

Think about the flow and cadence of your activities. Sequenced activities, with estimated completion times for each, allows learners to plan their own time, which is even more important when learning online. Along with completion tracking, knowing how long a task may take will give not only a greater impetus to schedule in time to sit down and learn, but also a greater sense of achievement when something has been marked as completed.

Setting daily tasks can be useful for mixed ability groups that you plan to group work for later in the semester – there is less risk of pace setters steaming ahead, whilst others fall back and then cannot contribute as much in their group. Ensuring all students focus on the same topic at the same time adds a level of cohesiveness through the class.

The style and tone of your interactions is important, and so is understanding people’s circumstances, especially in a crisis. Don’t forget your human touch, humour, and encouragement – smile!

• Imagine you’re only teaching that one person you’re writing to.
• Make it personal, so learners feel the experience is more human.
• Let them know that you understand what they’re going through.

Tools such as AnswerGarden do not include a steep learning curve for either students or lecturers, and can be embedded in LMS / VLEs – there is also a low risk for if it doesn't work as well as expected, but is still engaging for learners and encourages contribution. 

Asking your students to write something that is relevant and personal to them also ensures authentic experience and reflection, and reduces the risk of plagiarism.

Learning Journey

By combining everything mentioned by Aurelie – completion tracking, feedback, reflections and more, you can create a real learning journey for your students, even if they never set foot in a physical classroom. 

Learning is a journey, but how do you assess what works? Focus on what’s simple and easily available – feedback, grades, and analytics. If you’re a learning designer, give your academics the confidence to try, and guide them to take some effort away from them. But also be sure to give them deadlines – academics are busy!

Please keep an eye on this blog, and #EdTechHumans on Twitter, which will both be updated with answers to questions we were unable to get to during the webinar. If you have any additional questions, please also feel free to add them to the comments section on this post!

About Aurelie:

Aurélie’s current role is within the UK open-source technology company, Catalyst IT. She is a product specialist, which consists of supporting clients with their learning technology, design and configurations to help them make the best possible use of our open-source educational tools. As a product specialist, she uses her 13 years of experience as a learning technologist and knowledge of learning tools to support and train her clients.

More from Aurelie:

About Becky:

Becky Hartnup is an independent ed-tech consultant working with universities, content creators and tech suppliers to research and implement technology in education, while never losing sight of the people involved. She was awarded an MBA with distinction from Imperial Business School, having studied on their Global Online programme. Research interests include student experience, human centred design and immersive learning.

More from Becky:

USEFUL LINKS

Taylor, S (2020) ‘Quick tips for ‘Emergency’ Online Learning with Moodle’, Catalyst EU, 26 March 2020. Available at: https://www.catalyst-eu.net/blog/quick-tips-%E2%80%98emergency%E2%80%99-online-learning-moodle (Accessed: 3 June 2020).

Weller, M (2020) ‘The COVID-19 online pivot’, The Ed Techie, 9 March 2020. Available at: http://blog.edtechie.net/higher-ed/the-covid-19-online-pivot (Accessed: 3 June 2020).

Davies, S. (2017) ‘Edtech: what works?’, Wonkhe. Available at: https://wonkhe.com/blogs/edtech-what-works (Accessed 3 June 2020).
Moodle Tile Plugin: https://moodle.org/plugins/format_tiles

Schipper, C (2020) ‘Creating 360˚ virtual tours’, Digital Transformation at RAU, 28 August 2019. Available at: https://digitalrau.wordpress.com/2019/08/28/creating-360%cb%9a-virtual-tours (Accessed: 3 June 2020).

Answer garden. 2020. Answer Garden Demonstration. Available at: https://answergarden.ch/demonstration (Accessed: 3 June 2020).
Whitton, N. 2020. Teaching in a socially-distanced world.. Available at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Bpm0_D0RD0NJGHag60sM-qI-SBgBUAtvtfG5dR1TH8/edit (Accessed: 9 June 2020).

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