“The threat of COVID-19 has presented some unique challenges for institutions of higher education. All parties involved—students, faculty, and staff—are being asked to do extraordinary things regarding course delivery and learning that have not been seen on this scale in the lifetimes of anyone currently involved.”
Charles Hodges, et al.
(Engin_Akyurt from PIxabay)
Before we jump into this blogpost, I’d like to firstly define what is meant by blended learning.
C.R. Graham defines blended learning as follows: “Blended learning systems combine face-to-face instruction with computer-mediated instruction”. Garrison and Kanuka define blended learning as “the thoughtful integration of classroom face-to-face learning experiences with online learning experiences”. Thus, we can conclude that there is general agreement that the key ingredients of blended learning are face-to-face and online instruction or learning.
I’d like to use this opportunity to reflect on my own personal experience as an educator in a new blended learning ecosystem. Due to the pandemic, my institution rapidly moved from face-to-face learning to online learning. For the first few months following our initial lockdown in March 2020, we solely relied on online teaching. True to the article called The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning, “nobody making the transition to online teaching under these circumstances will truly be designing to take full advantage of the affordances and possibilities of the online format.” Our first wave of online content made available to the students was rough and inconsistent at best.
After a few rocky months we migrated to a blended learning model for the first time. Typical planning, preparation, and development time for a fully online university course is six to nine months before the course is delivered (Hodges, et al. 2020). We had three weeks to populate the LMS with content, mentally prepare for the shift to online teaching and then it was full steam ahead. Charles Hodges and associates state that the design process and the careful consideration of different design decisions have an impact on the quality of the instruction (Hodges, et al. 2020). But this careful design process was absent in most cases in our emergency shift. It became a bit messy as some instructors, understandably, adapted more comfortably to the concept and challenges of online teaching than others. Thus, we weren’t presenting our institution as a united front.
An essential part of a major pedagogical shift such as this was our Teaching and Learning Training team who dedicated countless hours to train and equip staff for the challenges ahead. Our faculty had varying levels of digital fluency as many were barely visitors of the platforms needed for our shift to blended learning. Research shows that faculty are usually more comfortable teaching online by the second or third iteration of their online courses. It will be impossible for every faculty member to suddenly become an expert in online teaching and learning (Hodges, et al. 2020). So our training team had quite the challenge to get everyone on the same level, and the struggle still persists.
Another prevailing issue in South Africa, where I am situated, is data costs. As all our essential training sessions were online, many faculty who particularly needed the training couldn’t attend due to being unable to afford adequate amounts of data. This is an issue among our students too. Even though our institution offered faculty the option to claim back data costs from our institution, this wasn’t extended to students, who still suffer from this issue today. In our institution, as mentioned in my previous blogpost, theory is taught online in our blended model, and practical aspects are taught on campus. This means that, if students can’t afford to go online, they miss out on critically important content which affects their motivation, interest, performance and ultimately their presence in the course. I have personally seen many students drop out of my course due to the inability to adapt to a blended model – financially, mentally and socially.
An important part of working as an institution-wide team to migrate to blended learning is quality assessment. Even though structures are in place to assure QA happens, not many faculty follow these procedures. Then there’s the lack of accountability for those who do not keep up with the required standards. This has led to our overall blended presentation being a bit messy and inconsistent. This leads to many internal frustrations which has caused many faculty members to seek jobs elsewhere, leaving the remaining faculty with larger workloads, more anxiety and, more often than not, burn-out.
Adopting a new educational ecosystem requires a lot of restructuring, understanding, meticulous pedagogical development and teamwork. Even though I have managed to find my place in this new ecosystem, many are still finding their feet. Many are struggling to do so. Many simply, and sadly, don’t care enough to adapt properly. Online teaching is not just about moving what we do in face-to-face lessons to an online platform. Whole mindset shifts need to happen. There are new digital tools to learn and implement, new technique to encourage engagement that need to be practiced, new ways of interaction and student support that need to be fleshed out, new types of exposure to content that need to be personally developed. I find that there are faculty that pay no mind to make these changes and, unfortunately, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. I am not saying that I have perfectly adapted. There are still many online tools to learn, and I have yet to crack the code to increasing student confidence to engage more online. I am also not suggesting that blended learning is a bad way forward. I see its potential and its place in the future of education. I just think there are many parts to this puzzle that still need to be solved in order for it to be a model that can comfortably and successfully be implemented world-wide.
References
Charles Hodges, S. M. B. L. T. T. A. B., 2020. The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning. [Online]
Available at: https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teaching-and-online-learning
[Accessed December 2021].
Graham, C. R. (2006). Blended learning systems: Definition, current trends and future directions. In Graham, C.R., 2006. Blended learning systems. The handbook of blended learning: Global perspectives, local designs, 1, pp.3-21.
Garrison, D.R. and Kanuka, H., 2004. Blended learning: Uncovering its transformative potential in higher education. The internet and higher education, 7(2), pp.95-105.
