Blended Learning: What are the Rules?
Submitted By Robin Fast, Derek Murray, & Emily Schudel
Do you or have you been considering offering a course in a blended-learning mode? Have you heard conflicting messages about what blended learning is, how the course needs to be configured, and who determines the format?
Here are some key pieces that we hope will help you make your own teaching decisions and navigate your Department or School’s delivery expectations.
What is Blended Learning?
There seem to be as many definitions of blended learning as there are articles on blended learning. Some definitions focus on the details and suggest specifics like the percentage split between online and face-to-face delivery. Others emphasize key components and principles.
In Flexible Learning Options: Teaching and Learning in the Wake of Covid-19, written by CETL’s Derek Murray as a guiding document for Camosun College, blended learning is described as a delivery mode “where all students generally follow the same mix of online and in-person activities. In some cases, particularly when traditionally in-person courses are moved to a blended model, online activities may replace some in person activities. This practice is variously referred to as blended, hybrid, or mixed mode, and has important consequences for scheduling and registration procedures.”
Key components from most definitions of blended learning include:
- Using a combination of online and face-to-face delivery.
- Integrating the online and face-to-face components so that they complement each other.
- Choosing delivery methods intentionally, based on established learning outcomes.
In other words, the exact configuration of a blended course is flexible, defined by the integration of online and in-person teaching and learning practices, and grounded in the needs of students and the specific learning outcomes of the course.
Is Blended Learning Supported by the College and College Leadership?
The College’s new Strategic Plan’s priority areas and related goals are certainly supported by offering courses in a blended-learning mode. Relevant areas and goals include:
Strengthening the Camosun Advantage: At Camosun College, we prepare students to thrive in a rapidly changing world.
- Empower students to stand out by providing educational experiences that will equip them for their future.
- Deliver outstanding flexible learning opportunities to support students’ evolving educational needs. (This goal includes specific measurements related to blended delivery: Measuring the percentage of courses with flexible delivery options.)
Responding to Community Needs: Camosun College is dedicated to serving students and partners within the local and global community.
- Break down systemic barriers to improve access to post-secondary education.
In addition, Camosun’s Leading Practices in Curriculum, a guiding document developed in 2012 (currently being updated) in collaboration with a broad representation of College stakeholders, including College leadership, offers several principles for leading practice in curriculum design. The described principles most relevant to decisions about delivery mode are Learning-Centered; Forward Looking and Thinking; and Accessible and Flexible:
We believe that accessibility and flexibility in all aspects of curricular processes and activities is instrumental to learner success. A positive, strength based perspective requires that teachers, staff and administrators be knowledgeable of, and responsive to, the diversity of learners’ needs, preferences and priorities, and that this knowledge and awareness be demonstrated through the creation of accessible and flexible curricular activities and processes.
So, What are the Rules?
On the College’s website, the definition of blended learning is, simply, courses “delivered in a blend of on-campus and online.” The College, thankfully, has no policy in place that stipulates a particular percentage of online vs. in-person content.
How blended learning is configured is flexible, determined by the needs of students and the learning outcomes of the course.
Currently, faculty across the College use a wide range of approaches. Many of us use online tools to support our in-person classes, ensuring that the online portion is no more than would traditionally be required for assigned homework. The use of these tools, of course, exploded the instant Covid-19 shoved us off the campus and, since then, the benefits of online learning and the resources that make it possible have expanded our capacity to continue meeting learners where they’re at. The benefits of online learning and changing student expectations have also encouraged many of us to rethink why and when we ask students to come to campus.
As a result, some courses that have traditionally been delivered completely on campus now have a portion of that on-campus time moved online, perhaps meeting face-to-face less often over the semester or meeting for a shorter period of time each week. Some courses have shifted class time to asynchronous learning while students come in to apply content during lab sessions. Other courses have moved completely off campus with a portion of the delivery being done asynchronously and the face-to-face portion delivered synchronously over Zoom.
In other words, rather than a rigid and prescriptive structure, blended learning is a continuum stretching from the edge of fully online to the edge of fully on campus.
Delivery mode is no longer part of the approved curriculum documents for Camosun courses and, as a result, any course could be offered in a variety of modes without EdCo approval. There doesn’t seem to be consistent practice across the College, but decisions about choice of delivery mode are often made at the department level with faculty working in collaboration with their colleagues and the department chair. While a department or school may have goals regarding the mix of delivery options available to students, and scheduling considerations and the need to communicate with prospective students early often dictate that delivery decisions are made well ahead of time – sometimes before specific faculty are assigned – it is important that faculty lead the conversation about course design.
Where Can I Get Support?
As a College community, it seems as though we are still getting our post-Covid feet back on the ground. We’re still learning, with the rest of the educational world and within an atmosphere of continuing change, how to deliver the most effective and responsive post-secondary education. Time and energy to even consider reaching out for support can be hard to find. Release time from your teaching duties to dig in and make significant changes can be even harder to come by.
If you teach or are developing a course with both online and in-person elements and would like support to ensure you are utilizing the elements of both environments to maximize student learning, CETL can help! We work with faculty one-on-one or in small groups to support moving from fully in-person teaching to blended, to help decide which parts of the course will work best online and in-person to enhance students’ learning experiences, and to examine assessment practices that will provide flexibility but also align with course outcomes. Contact ac.nusomac@ltec to arrange for a consultation with one of our educational developers or instructional designers!
The Flexible Learning Conversation Group meets the fourth Wednesday of each month to explore definitions, options, and technologies and share our goals for how we can create more flexible learning opportunities for students at Camosun. Join in-person or online. Attend regularly or whenever it fits your schedule. Visit CETL’s Event Calendar to join this session.
This spring, CETL will offer Blended Learning: Harnessing the Best of Both Worlds, an online session for faculty teaching or considering developing a course in a blended mode. The session will explore the challenges and benefits of blended learning and offer strategies to create a flow between modes to ensure faculty are able to utilize the elements of both environments to maximize student learning. Visit CETL’s Event Calendar to register for this session.
Additional Resources
Camosun’s LibGuide: Online & Blended Learning
Blended Learning (University of Waterloo)
Blended and Online Learning (Vanderbilt University)
Solutions to the Top 10 Challenges of Blended Learning (InSync Training)
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