Abstract
This chapter is a reflection on practice that resulted in the incorporation of an active blended learning approach in courses which the author facilitates for transnational students. These courses were popular, received very favorable student evaluations, and seemed successful in delivering their learning goals. However, there was a growing realization that the dynamics of these courses could be enhanced and made more effective in terms of student engagement. There was also a concern that the “blending” in the course designations might be more of an administrative classification than a thoughtful combination of the best features of distance online learning and face-to-face instruction. The chapter details the author's reflection on practice in course design and facilitation. It reviews the identification of areas of concerns and missed opportunities in these learning environments. Finally, the chapter considers the implementation and result of actions taken to revise and reposition these courses through an active blended learning paradigm.
TopIntroduction
Being mindful of self, either within or after experience, as if a mirror in which the practitioner can view and focus self within the context of a particular experience, in order to confront, understand, and become empowered to act towards resolving contradiction between one’s vision of desirable practice and one’s actual practice to gain insight within a reflexive spiral towards realising one’s vision of practice as a lived reality and developing professional identity. (Johns, 2017, p. 3)
The focus of this chapter is primarily on reflective practice. Reflective practice is a critical and essential process for those who design and facilitate distance teaching and learning environments. It involves an ongoing personal assessment of what we teach, of how we express our core philosophies of teaching and learning, and of the extent to which we realize our desired educational objectives.
Sometimes, reflection takes place within the active flow of teaching and learning, when we confront the unanticipated and use our inventory of accumulated knowledge and skills to reframe the problem, reconsider it from differing perspectives, and resolve the issue: reflection-in-practice (Schön, 1983, 1987). Sometimes, reflection takes place at the end of a course, when we think back on what has been and consider the success, limitations, or failings associated with that teaching and learning experience: reflection-on-practice (Schön, 1983, 1987). In either case, we consider moving along a different pathway to better actualize what we believe to be significant and valuable in the teaching and learning encounter.
During such reflection, I encountered active blended learning (ABL) serendipitously on the website of the University of Northampton, where it was promoted as an effective way of creating and sustaining student engagement (Palmer et al., 2017). I understood ABL as a move from passive blended learning in which the various affordances provided by the separate components of the course are actively blended by the facilitator to provide a richer and more engaging learning environment. Through purposeful integration and interconnection, the course facilitator unifies the separate elements of the course in order to provide a learning space that exploits the synergistic potential of these combined elements. The “active” in ABL applies both to the intent of the course designer and the response of the learner, who can be more actively engaged in the new and more expansive learning space. The concept of ABL, and the ways in which it was being used at the University of Northampton, resonated strongly with me and suggested a possible solution for my course concerns.
There was no distinct “problem” associated with these courses: they were well received by students. As a course designer and facilitator, I was familiar with the process and the dynamics of student-centered distance learning. I was also sensitive to communication, participation, and interaction in culturally diverse online learning environments (Starr-Glass, 2014, 2016, 2019). Nevertheless, I wanted to revisit prior experience and established practice to better understand what I had been doing and why I had been doing it to better appreciate not only what had been but what might be.
This chapter is structured as follows. The next section examines the consequences of distancing learners and considers the potentials and possibilities that blended learning provides. The following section examines the context of this present reflection on practice, identifying areas for improving blended learning environments. Solutions to these perceived problems are explored and an explanation given as to why ABL was adopted as a central dynamic in the restructured courses. This section also provides feedback, comments, and shared experiences from learners in the redesigned courses. The penultimate section considers future research that might be of importance and the chapter ends with a holistic review of the project and its outcomes.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Pedagogical Framework: The integrated set of philosophical considerations, teaching preferences, and learning values that informs and motivates the instructor in designing and facilitating a learning experience. These considerations, preferences, and values—which are usually not articulated directly to the learner—are then translated into specific teaching strategies, tactics, and approaches that allow the instructor’s broad philosophical considerations and specific educational objectives to be realized.
Teaching Engagement: Teaching engagement begins with the teacher’s recognition that the learner is an authentic party in the learning process. This leads to a flow of positive interest and active involvement in the learner’s creation of knowledge and intellectual progress. Although teaching engagement originates with the instructor, it cannot be fully developed unless there is a reciprocal relationship, in which both instructor and learner recognize the benefits of cooperation, advantages of sharing, and the potential for synergism in the learning endeavour.
Transnational Education: An educational experience in which learners in one national location work with an educational provider in a different country. Learning may be provided at a distance (through online distance learning); through traditional in-person instruction provided by either residential or visiting faculty of the non-domestic intuition; or through educational alliances with local institutions.
Engagement: Coates (2007, p. 122) understand engagement as “a broad construct intended to encompass salient academic as well as certain non-academic aspects of the student experience” including: (a) active and collaborative learning; (b) participation in challenging academic activities; (c) formative communication with academic staff; (d) involvement in enriching educational experiences; and (e) feeling legitimated and supported by university learning communities.
Modality: The set of unique content structures (media and learning objects) and relational dynamics (learner-content, learner-learner, learner-instructor, and learning-interface) that serves to differentiate one learning delivery system from another. For example, face-to-face/ in-person teaching and online distance teaching represent two different and distinct modalities.
Variation: The provision of sufficient difference between two examples to allow learners to compare, contrast, and generalize. Variation provides learners with the opportunity to identify distinctiveness and to retain this in situations of complexity. Variation theory suggests that learning is linked to the ability of progressively accommodating difference through a process of discernment.
Educational Setting: The functional and administrative environment that confronts the learner in a learning experience. It includes a set of anticipated academic outcomes and a program of learning tasks, activities, and requirements that need to be fulfilled in order to successfully to meet those outcomes.
Affordance: A design feature that is purposefully embedded in an object, or environment, in order to clarify its use, to suggest other possible uses, or to make use easier. The extent to which an affordance is utilized depends on the recognition, ability, and inclination of the user.
Teaching/Instructing: There are two different ways of understanding teaching. The first sees teaching as an instructor-centred activity in which knowledge is transmitted from someone who has acquired that knowledge to novice learners: teaching as knowledge transmission. The second sees teaching as a learner-centred activity in which the instructor ensures that learning is made possible for novice learners and supports, guides, and encourages them in their active and independent creation of new knowledge: teaching as assisted knowledge creation . The second sense is used throughout this chapter.