The combination of in-person and online instruction has become a key trend in higher education, altering how both students and teachers learn.
The conventional distinctions between actual classrooms and virtual learning settings are becoming more hazy as technological developments continue to change the face of education. Blended learning is a cutting-edge method that blends the flexibility and accessibility of online platforms with in-person interactions to deliver the best of both worlds.
In this blog post, we will discuss how blended and open learning will begin to see the values and merit of this.
The Correlation?
The term ” open learning ” is used to describe learning situations in which learners have the flexibility to choose from a variety of options in relation to the time, place, instructional methods, modes of access, and other factors related to their learning processes.
(Caliskan, Open learning 2012)
Blended Learning takes place through synchronous and asynchronous learning, which essentially is learning done in face-to-face sessions’ which falls under synchronous and assignment’s, research and activities that require the learner to be done independently which is asynchronous.
Open-learning is dependent on such a methodology as many students such as the one that prompted this blog, Open Networked Learning 231, as all of the students involved are educators and full-time employees – due to that our schedules and time zones differ meaning we have to rely on Asynchronous more so then traditional Synchronous.
Célestin Freinet in France and Maria Montessori in Italy – were believed to have created this concept in the 1970’s, and much like our group it is supposed to allow pupils self-determined, independent and interest-guided learning. (Gualtieri, 2013)
Promoting Cooperation and Sharing: The Potential of Blended Learning for Open Educational Resources
This concept pushes the of sharing of educational materials while integrating in-person and online learning, blended learning transcends the bounds of the traditional classroom through global partnerships and linkages. By facilitating group projects, discussions, and peer-to-peer learning activities, it promotes a cooperative community, through the availability of resources and promotes knowledge exchange though this is what I have discenred from (Amemado, Transformative teaching around the world. stories of cultural impact, technology integration, and innovative pedagogy 2023)
Thusly allowing students from all walks of and various geographical backgrounds to work cooperatively through unique tools.
The Open LMS
In my research one of the crucial resource I find to be seldom used is Open Source Learning Management Systems – Tools like this are utililzed by IBM & Microsoft, but they facilitate a structured way to Open-Learning by using its capacity to setup all the necessary scaffolding to facilitate open learning and at little to, no cost.
Projects like Open edX are big contributors towards Open Learning and manage provide this software through adding specific features that bigger organizations may want but still having free options for someone like ONL231 to utilize.
I do hope use of this tool and many like it slowly become common practice giving rise to more courses like ONL231 in the future headed up by top university’s with the concept of growth in education amongst the masses,
References://
About the open edx project (2022) Open edX. Available at: https://openedx.org/about-open-edx/ (Accessed: 17 May 2023).
Amemado, D. (2023) ‘Transformative teaching around the world. stories of cultural impact, technology integration, and innovative pedagogy’, Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 38(2), pp. 187–190. doi:10.1080/02680513.2023.2174421.
Caliskan, H. (2012) ‘Open learning’, Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning, pp. 2516–2518. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_52.
Gualtieri, C. (2013) Open learning, Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_learning (Accessed: 14 May 2023).
