Blending Technology into an Academic Practice Qualification for University Teachers

An accredited course in Academic Practice aligns with university and national strategic goals related to teaching and learning enhancement within a research-intensive institution. The course was originally designed to be taught in face to face mode with an elearning dimension to provide the flexibility required by students in full time employment. Participation in a national implementation initiative for E-Learning Guidelines created an opportunity to reconceptualize the course for blended learning. A range of contextual factors influenced both the pace and the scale of technology enhancement. The design-based research process adopted for review and redevelopment of one of the core subjects for a Post Graduate Certificate course is described in this chapter.

Case Studies of ICT-Enhanced Blended Learning and Implications for Professional Development

This chapter draws on a collective case study of six faculty members working in ICT-enhanced blended learning environments at a large regional university in Australia. The chapter identifies seven dimensions of the blended learning environments created by each teacher, with a particular focus on four of these dimensions – the teacher, the online, the resource-based learning and the institutional support dimension. The research showed how individual faculty members worked to blend their courses through their overall approaches to course planning, their focus on combining the strengths of both the face-toface and the online learning environments, and their eagerness to shift their pedagogical approaches to accommodate the best features of both the face-to-face and the online environments. The chapter makes recommendations for professional development for teachers that is effective in preparing them for creating and working in blended learning environments and suggests areas for future research in the area of blended learning.

Blended Learning and Professional Development in the K-12 Sector

This chapter examines the use of blended learning in an online community which supported teacher professional development in the province of Ontario, Canada for ten years. The online network which was called The Education Network of Ontario/ Le Réseau éducatif de l’Ontario (ENO/REO) used a blend of tools and some face-to-face opportunities to support teacher professional development across the province. Teachers were encouraged to use the ENO/REO environment to join in discussions, create and maintain online projects and share research and curriculum resources. The chapter will focus on a study which examined the effect of long term participation in such a community in order to provide insight into the use of blended learning in online communities for professional development.

Teacher and Student Responses to Blended Environments

This chapter provides a further two European perspectives on blended learning. The first section is an overview of the ways in which the concept of blended solutions is interpreted in the Italian networkbased education context. Results of research carried out at some Italian Universities about various approaches to technology enhanced learning (TEL) are described which account for an increasing tendency of teachers to choose blended solutions. On the basis of interviews with 250 teachers some important blended solutions sustainability factors are analyzed pertaining to the pedagogical, professional, socio- cultural, informal dimensions as well as the content, organizational, economic and technological. In the second section of the chapter, an overview of blended and personalised learning in the United Kingdom is presented, with a critical review of some of the recent British research into the efficacy of learning management system (LMS) based blended learning approaches. Central to the chapter section is a discussion regarding the future of the LMS and how the network generation is migrating toward social networking sites and mobile technology to connect with their peers. The chapter finishes with the suggestion that personalised learning environments (PLEs) will be their preferred blended learning and communication approach.

Introduction to Blended Learning Practices

Blended learning is now part of the learning landscape in higher education, not just for campus-based courses but for courses designed for students studying at a distance as well as for communities of professional learning and practice. The impact of this concept in university teaching and learning can be seen in the appearance of practice focused texts for example, Littlejohn and Pegler (2007) and, more recently, Garrison and Vaughan (2008). Blended learning is now constantly positioned as one of the emerging trends in higher education (e. g. Allen, Seaman and Garrett, 2007; Graham, 2006; Garrison and Kanuka, 2004) and therefore is of particular strategic importance in the future of universities, their students and teachers as well as in the widening community of professional education and training. As an introduction to this book, this chapter will review the growing literature about blended learning and will discuss some of its key issues. The authors begin by introducing the concept of blended learning and its many meanings and attempt to clarify the definitional discussion. Issues in teaching and learning in both campus based and distance settings are then described followed by a discussion of the way blended learning provides a process for establishing communities of learning and practice, particularly for professional learning. Much of the literature about professional learning and learning communities has only just begun to identify aspects of blended learning practices as significant in their field, a gap this book is helping to fill.

Conclusion

The conclusion draws together the main themes identified under the sections of the book with a synthesis of the recommendations presented by the chapter authors which connect the outcomes of these research studies with practical suggestions in all aspects of blended learning practice. It identifies and discusses future trends and implications for learning as well as areas of further research.

Blended Learning and the New Pressures on the Academy

This chapter focuses on the factors relating to adopting blended learning by teaching academics and the associated social world around technology adoption in a large Australian university. Set up as an institutional case study, the findings are interpreted through two theoretical frameworks: diffusion of innovation theory and actor-network theory to reveal the complexities of innovation adoption. The chapter examines teaching academics’ individual motivations including the institution’s political and policy drivers, and shows how technology is shaped to fit a context, and how the context in turn shapes the use of technology. The closing discussion considers new work systems and processes that facilitate and accommodate change precipitated by technology adoption, and suggests how the transformation process might be supported.

Establishing Communities of Practice for Effective and Sustainable Professional Development for Blended Learning

The growing need for professional development to help university instructors with the adoption of online teaching is being propelled from several directions. But innovative professional development initiatives, intended to help university instructors better leverage technology, particularly through blended approaches, are not without tensions. The objective of this research study was to delve into these tensions. Directors in several North American professional development centres were interviewed in order to explore how their programs supported the integration of technology into teaching. Findings suggest that there is a tension between what professional development centres are doing and what they would like to do regarding: (1) deeper integration of technology into their own teaching practices as a centre, including blended approaches; and (2) how to nurture communities of practice, comprised of university instructors focused on teaching-related issues in higher education, such as adoption of blended learning strategies. Four themes emerged: uncertainty about how best to leverage technology and blended learning, questions regarding a professional development centre’s role in cultivating communities, the importance of being strategic, and desire for scalability. The chapter concludes with policy implications and recommendations for future development of effective and sustainable professional development practices.

Blending Collaborative Online Learning with Workplace and Community Contexts

The majority of research and literature in collaborative learning online has been focussed on groups of students organised into units of study by an educational institution. There are, however, large numbers of adult students for whom participation in institutionally controlled online collaborative learning occurs side by side with participation in situated learning contexts such as their work or their community. This chapter draws on research conducted by the authors with adult learners who participate in communities of practice and communities of learning in their own work or life contexts, and provides insights into how these outside-institution learning environments can be used in a more deliberate blending to enhance student learning experience.

Virtual Learning and Real Communities

Blended learning is examined via the experiences of teachers participating in qualification-bearing online professional development courses while simultaneously engaging in everyday professional practice in the classroom. A “communities of practice” framework guides the interpretation of teachers’ perspectives of their membership, identity, activities and experiences in the online and school communities. While online courses tend to emphasise participation as a vital component of socially constructed learning in the virtual environment, the evidence from this study suggests that online courses can also promote the contextual learning opportunities which exist in the everyday experiences of teachers in their local communities of practice.