Assistive Technologies and Environmental Design Concepts for Blended Learning and Teaching for Disabilities within 3D Virtual Worlds and Learning Environments

3D Virtual Learning Environments (3D VLEs) are increasingly becoming prominent supporters of blended learning for all kinds of students including adult learners with or without disabilities. Due to the evidenced effect of architectural design of physical learning spaces on students’ learning and current lack of design codes for creating 3D virtual buildings, this case study aims at evaluating the suitability of the architectural design elements of existing educational facilities and learning spaces within 3D VLEs specifically for delivering blended e-learning for adult students with disabilities. This comprises capturing student contentment and satisfaction levels from different design elements of the 3D virtual spaces in an attempt to issue recommendations for the development of 3D educational facilities and hence initiate a framework for architectural design of 3D virtual spaces to augment accessibility, appeal and engagement for enhancing the e-learning experience of under-graduate, post-graduate and independent-study adult learners with disabilities within these virtual worlds.

Internet-Based Remote Laboratories as a Part of a Blended Learning Environment

Blended learning is a mixture of online learning and face-to-face activities. Online learning suffers from a lack of practical and laboratory work which is mandatory for learning in many specific fields. Adult training is also mainly focused on knowledge related to specific useful competencies and practical skills so practical training is an inseparable part of adult learning and training. Web laboratories with remotely controlled laboratory experiments should provide a necessary practical component in the concept of online learning. There are many different classifications, implementations and usages of web laboratories. This chapter deals with web laboratories, trying to define a framework for the development of web laboratories, to define pre-requests, architecture and software realization of web based laboratories and to find the right blend. This chapter also presents the contribution of web laboratories in blended learning and other possible benefits for the concept of blended learning for adults.

The ‘Pleasure Principle’ in Blended Learning Approaches

Online technologies were met with initial enthusiasm in the UK following the publication of the Dearing Report (1997). However, this excitement soon became subdued due to disappointing outcomes and unfulfilled expectations regarding the online programmes. Considering the importance that the online component has on a blended learning programme, this chapter argues that the challenge in higher education is to get learners to want to engage as opposed to have to engage and therefore a sense of enjoyment should be added to the blend along with a sound pedagogy and an efficient technology. This chapter endeavours to discern some underlying grounded theory based on classic psychology that might underpin the efficient design of a blended learning programme and offers pragmatic considerations that might help to achieve it.

Developing a Collaborative ELearning Construction Framework for Blended Learning

This paper identifies and discusses some benefits, challenges, and barriers that face instructors in adopting a collaborative elearning construction environment for blended learning. It also proposes several suggestions for what can be done to promote knowledge sharing. The author goes through a full-life cycle of designing and developing SCORM-conformant elearning that allows instructors to harness the power and affordance of emerging technologies to develop a blended learning environment. The author discusses the evaluation of such a collaborative blended learning framework and outlines its future directions.

Academic Development Perspectives of Blended Learning

Technological advances in every aspect of today’s higher education environment create a forum for academic developers to re-examine existing delivery methods for professional development. Within the context of this case study, the term ‘academic developer’ is taken to encompass the role of learning technologist. In order to be responsive and accommodate the changes, traditional instruction methods are being extended to encompass the range of Web 2.0 tools available. Debate is ongoing in the area of blended learning as to the ultimate effectiveness of technology integration. Through exploration of the experiences of two academic developers involved in the design and delivery of accredited professional development programmes for academic staff in Ireland, the case is made for an effective balance in pedagogical and technological intervention. Both were experienced in delivery of face-to-face instruction, had different levels of experience in online teaching and worked collaboratively with academic staff. Experience from the two case studies suggests that a prerequisite for embedding blended learning strategies in learning and teaching is that the instructors recognise the need for appropriate holistic academic development to provide them with not only an understanding of how best to use the technologies, but fundamentally for enhancing their understanding of how to develop effective blended learning environments.

A Program-Based Approach to Developing and Implementing Blended Instruction

A program-based approach to converting a site-based post-baccalaureate teacher education program to a blended format is described. While the face-to-face version of the program was able to serve a very limited number of prospective students in a predominantly rural area, the blended approach has attracted so many participants that double classes are regularly required to meet demand. Major issues covered include designing curriculum with regard to adult learning theories, balancing synchronous and asynchronous instruction methods, and developing adjunct faculty competencies. Results of a program evaluation based on survey data from students and faculty are included, indicating a high level of satisfaction with learning experiences overall, balanced by requests for improvements in course design and strong faculty involvement in both online and videoconferencing formats.

The Definition of Blended Learning in Higher Education

Through the beginning of the millennium, the education environments have witnessed the introduction of information technologies and new pedagogies. Especially, the extensive use of Internet technologies as well as the networked learning made it possible to design and utilize new generation learning environments that are realistic, authentic, and engaging. By means of educational developments, alternative content delivery techniques or technologies have been implemented into the teaching environments throughout the years. In an effort to capitalize on the advantages of instructional delivery modalities and minimize the disadvantages, scholars started to combine the most functional elements of the instruction in these learning environments and that is universally called as ‘Blended Learning’. Although the blended learning as an instruction model has an increasing interest in the field of higher education, it is still in its infancy. The definitions of blended learning in the literature needs to be clarified or collocated for the readers, who would like to deal with blended learning in any level of instruction. Therefore, this chapter reviews the recent literature on blended and online learning and juxtaposes the definitions of the blended learning as well as the types of blended learning instruction that took place in the higher education environments.

Theoretical Rationale for Designing a Blended Learning Teachers’ Professional Development Program

This chapter explores the underlying theoretical principles that provided the basis for the design and implementation of a professional development program for informatics teachers in Greece. A blended learning model was adopted combining live workshop meetings, face-to-face in-lab training sessions and online videoconferencing sessions. The framework of constructivism and experiential learning was used as a theoretical rationale for the combination of face-to-face activities with online learning experiences. It is shown that a blended learning design based on the principles of constructivism and experiential learning pedagogy can provide vital tools for the creation of an active environment for informatics teachers’ professional development. Also, it appears that a promising direction for further investigation, in terms of improving the learning outcome based on the same theoretical principles, is the more detailed design of the sequence of learning activities and a closer look at the development of communities of practice among teachers.

Enabling Creative Blended Learning for Adults through Learning Design

This chapter discusses the emerging need and opportunity for the development the conceptualisation of representation and forms for learning design which are utilised in the activities a teacher plans to engage adult learners in lifelong learning setting. The chapter argues that effective teaching and facilitating practice involving ICT should be described and represented in ways that facilitate creative learning, self-directed learning, critical reflection and experiential learning scenarios. The sharing and reuse of quality ICT-based collaborative learning activities for adults could be a solution to enable creative and effective blended learning for adults. In this chapter Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) is presented as an innovative approach to blended learning paradigm. Inspired by the concept of “Learning Design,” it provides a visual authoring environment for the development of activity sequences, together with a learner run-time environment and a teacher-monitoring environment.

Design of a Blended Learning Environment for the Training of Greek Teachers

During the period 2010 – 2013 the Ministry of Education and Lifelong Learning of Greece has been designing and implementing a complete project for the transformation of Greek school, so that it can meet the contemporary educational needs and social challenges of the 21st century. The training of all teachers according to the principles and philosophy of the “New school” is a high priority to achieve the goals of the new educational policy. In this context, the “National Program of Teachers’ Training” has been designed to address 150.000 teachers of all levels nationwide. This chapter presents the basic characteristics of the Blended Learning Environment for the Training of teachers and focus, at the same time, on the analysis of the results of the survey on the training needs of the Education personnel, on which the design of the training program was based.