Blended learning is a topic being hotly discussed right now, with the Singapore government firmly committed to it. The COVID situation we are in right now has more or less mandated it.
Personally, I have done some form of blended learning and use of various IT tools and resources to enable learning outside and beyond the classroom. Hence, I was better placed than many other educators when the Covid situation stuck. I was already using recording to teach certain topics – especially in my elective modules where there could be differences in the background of students (for example, I have students from both electrical engineering and computer engineering, some second year students, some masters students in the same course). Blended learning allowed me to avoid the need to cover certain topics in the lecture which a significant fraction of the class has the knowledge of, while ensuring that those who do not have the background are still given sufficient support. This was done through additional materials, videos etc. I was also familiar with tools such as Zoom, wikis etc. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the webinar as well as our PBL discussions on the topic, which motivated me to think deeper about some of the issues associated with blended learning.
The first and foremost issue is that of social justice in online/blended learning- the assumption that students have access to the required tools and infrastructure is not always true. This is especially in developing countries where a laptop or computer and internet connection are beyond the reach of many families. The reliability and cost of internet connection and electricity are factors which are of concern too – for example, in India, only 1 in 4 homes have internet connection that is good enough for online learning. Even in developed countries, there are difficulties, with 1 in 4 in the UK facing challenges.
We also tried designing courses following the Community of Inquiry in online courses, as illustrated in (Fiock, 2020). We tried it for different course sizes, as well as for a lab course. It was heartening to see that the wiki-based approach which I had adopted for many lab-based courses was well in line with the practices described in this work.
A major concern related to blended learning is sustaining student motivation. How do we ensure that students have done their homework so that synchronous sessions can be made optimal use of? This is a million dollar question, with no definite answer. This is a topic which I discuss frequently with my colleagues. I am also reviewing more literature on this topic to incorporate the best practices, while keeping in mind the limitations in adapting techniques across courses of varying natures.
