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Objectives:

Understand the purpose, process and benefits of blended learning

Discover how the different models of blended learning can support your learning objectives

Explore tools and strategies for implementing blended learning in your teaching and learning processes

Plan for the implementation of a blended learning scenario with your students

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As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers around the world were obliged to implement new ways of teaching and learning in distance and classroom settings. Accordingly, blended learning, the meaningful combination of learning at a distance and in school, through a careful choice of different tools and strategies, is becoming increasingly common in schools. The benefits of blended learning have been long recognised and go beyond the immediate needs created by the pandemic. Blended learning provides teachers more opportunities to personalise the learning process of their students and can thereby increase their autonomy, motivation and self-direction. Blended learning can therefore be an important step towards a competence-based education where the learner stands at the centre of an active learning process.

The Bridging Distance and In-School Learning - Blended Learning in Practice MOOC will demonstrate these benefits and help teachers to design and plan for blended learning as part of their usual practice. The MOOC will help teachers realise the pedagogical opportunities of adopting a blended learning model in their practice and get a better understanding of the way it can facilitate their efforts towards developing student-centred learning.
In this course, you will:

Understand the purpose, process and benefits of blended learning

Discover how the different models of blended learning can support your learning objectives

Explore tools and strategies for implementing blended learning in your teaching and learning processes

Plan for the implementation of a blended learning scenario with your students

You can follow the course at your own pace; we will open one module at the beginning of each week, but the only deadline you need to pay attention to is in the last module. The language of communication is English.
To get the most out of the course, you can join the Facebook group or share your thoughts on Twitter using the hashtag #blendedlearningMOOC.

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As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers around the world were obliged to implement new ways of teaching and learning in distance and classroom settings. Accordingly, blended learning, the meaningful combination of learning at a distance and in school, through a careful choice of different tools and strategies, is becoming increasingly common in schools.

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Reflect on your current distance teaching practices, or those you employed during the period of school closures, and consider how you can learn from them

Understand what blended learning is and why it is important as an instructional method

Reflect on the changing nature of teaching and learning and the need to create student-centred classrooms

Discover some key teacher competences required for a successful implementation of blended learning

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Bridging Distance and In-School Learning: Blended Learning in Practice - Module 1 Introduction

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I teach English as a Foreign Language in a Secondary School in Rome. I've been teaching English for 18 years. I'm specialized in developing ICT in the classroom. I like learning new things, I think life-long learning is the aim of a good teacher. I like trying new methods to make my lessons interactive and I believe this digital period forces us to keep up with technological progress and I want to be at the forefront. I am eTwinning Ambassador. I am Teacher Trainer for eTwinning Regione Lazio. I am Genially Ambassador and Adobe Creative Educator. I'm so proud. I love my subject, my job and my students. My web site: https://emilianarufo.wordpress.com/

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I usually use Blended-Learning for my Professional Development courses and I think it is a a good way of learning new things at your own pace. I would like to implement BL with my students so they can try to become responsible about their own learning...

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Common misconceptions about blended learning

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Common misconceptions about blended learning

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I think Blended learning is one of the best ways to start making your personal idea of Learning for the future. Students may become more responsible about what to study and how to study at their own pace. It is also a matter of responsibility and choice. The idea that your are doing something for your own learning.
https://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/2jIZx9jX27Z

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Reflecting on teaching in the time of COVID-19

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Reflecting on teaching in the time of COVID-19

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In the period of Quarantine I have tried to do my best for my students by using anything I know and I have studied about new methodologies and approaches, innovation technology, apps and softwares.

I haven't found any difficulties in creating lessons for my students because I am a Flipped Teacher and I have most of my lessons already organized in my personal website:
https://emilianarufo.wordpress.com/ and my respository of materials:
https://www.pearltrees.com/emilianarufo
It wasn't the same situation of being at school and having collaborative activities with students but I had the chance to develop my and my students' digital skills.

I met my students and colleagues on Google Meet and this was a way to keep in touch with reality.

I stayed in front of a computer screen most of the time, creating, writing, videorecording, HOPING that it would be good and sufficient for my students to learn at home.

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What competences are required by teachers for blended learning?

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What competences are required by teachers for blended learning?

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Teachers must change their way of seeing teaching and Learning. They have to use several different approaches in which the student is the real main character of his/her own learning. So teachers have to be creative, flexible, innovators and multi-tasking.
https://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/2neNuAlNRfR

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What competences are required by teachers for blended learning? - brainstorming and voting | tricider

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Let's do some brainstorming and vote for the best ideas. What do you think?

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Teacher competences for blended learning

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Teacher competences for blended learning

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I think I am a person who can adapt to everything. I haven't problems with technical or digital skills but I think I have to improve communications and relationships in a digital space.

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I think the rubric is a very useful tool to assess a task or an activity by using several criteria which are clear to learners before, during and at the end of the learning process.

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I think the period of quarantine caused by the pandemic was a period of skills enhancing and developing.

Teachers and students faced challenges they will remember in the future but at the same time they missed what before was given for granted: School!

School as a place of Learning, School as a place of relationships, School as a place of growing, School as a place of sharing and collaboration.

I think we can talk about a kind of revolution: the ones who never worried about new technology and innovative methodologies had to approach them.

The ones who thought e-learning was the new frontier have to admit we could not stay without meeting each other face-to-face.

We had the chance to revise our habits and reflect on what kind of Teaching/Learning we want to create in the future...

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Module 2: Designing and Planning for Blended Learning

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Module 2: Designing and Planning for Blended Learning

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In this module, you will:

Acquire knowledge of the different models of blended learning

Discover which model best fits your learners’ or educational institution’s needs

Experiment with creating your own blended learning model

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Bridging Distance and In-School Learning: Blended Learning in Practice - Module 2 Introduction

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Strengths & weaknesses of in-school and online distance learning environments (LE)

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Strengths & weaknesses of in-school and online distance learning environments (LE)

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1. Face-to-face activities and collaborative learning practice are essential in  in-schools LE
2. Lack of technological tools can be a weakness at school.
3. You can use a lot of educational tools to create lessons and students can study at their own pace the materials provided by the teacher in Blended learning.
4. The lack of efficient digital devices and students are not all the same, interaction for some of them is essential. Conversations, intonations are important too. Sometimes students can feel not supported by the teachers and alone with an amount of things to learn.

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Important:
understand your audience. You must consider students’ learning maturity, their technological skills, their readiness for blended learning with its demands for independent learning, as well as their home environments, which will impact any learning at a distance.

My students and blended learning

It was really hard at the beginning of the quarantine, I had to provide them guides, tutorials, videos just to understand how to approach distance learning. BUT I have to say that today my students are used to study with technological supports and tools, they need one of my online interactive presentations or videos to deepen the topics and they ask me to create something engaging. That's why I have started to use Gamification and escape rooms to provide them something more to use outside the classroom. I still think that Covid Pandemic helped us to make a step forward in the future for better or worse.
Here is one of my Escape Rooms:
https://view.genial.ly/601d5cefa0f2bc0d0ac1f7d0

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Barriers to implementing blended learning

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Barriers to implementing blended learning

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I have no problems in implementing Blended Learning in my classrooms, but it will be very difficult in my school because teachers are still tied to traditional teaching approach, they do not want to use technology if not forced and they do not want to improve their professional development, so they do not search for in presence or online new courses....

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Benefits and challenges of the flipped classroom model

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Benefits and challenges of the flipped classroom model

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I used this approach only in the past for a certain period of time and I have to say students started to be more responsible about learning and motivated, engaged in the learning process.
Using only the flipped classroom approach can be really difficult because you cannot FLIP all your lessons.... one of the most important reasons is that some of the students do not watch videos at home... So I decided to assign videos at home and to watch them at school too before doing collaborative tasks and activities!

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I think this approach is really useful but as it was said at the beginning of the module "you must understand your audience".
Using only the flipped classroom approach can be really difficult because you cannot FLIP all your lessons.... one of the most important reasons is that some of the students do not watch videos at home... So I decided to assign videos at home and to watch them at school too before doing collaborative tasks and activities but this won't save much time!
The learning environment is important too.

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In this model, students rotate between different stations and learning opportunities in a personalised way. Students do not necessarily rotate to every station, but only those most relevant to them. Each student has an individualised playlist of skills to develop and activities to complete. The teacher (or even an algorithm) sets the individual students’ schedules.
Image source: www.all-languages.org.uk

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Benefits and challenges of the individual rotation model

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Benefits and challenges of the individual rotation model

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This approach can be useful for older students I think.
A lot of work for teachers to prepare activities and materials...

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In the flex model, content and instruction are delivered mainly online, as in the flipped classroom model, with a teacher providing support on site on an “as-needed basis through activities such as small-group instruction, group projects, and individual tutoring” (Watson et. al., 2014, p.12)
Image source: www.blog.commlabindia.com

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Benefits and challenges of the flex model

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Benefits and challenges of the flex model

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This approach can be useful for older students I think. I don't think I could use it for my 10-13 students.
I don't think the headmaster and parents can see well the idea that teacher is only a facilitator and most of the work is done at home, online and in a collaborative way... students will get lost in all these collaborative activities...

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In the self-blend model, students supplement their typical school classes with an additional online course chosen by themselves or recommended by the teacher according to the students’ interests or needs. In the self-blend model, the teacher needs to consider how to integrate the online course that the student took into their own teaching processes at school.
Image source: www.blog.commlabindia.com

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Benefits and challenges of the self-blend model

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Benefits and challenges of the self-blend model

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I don't know...
My students study at school different subjects (at least 10) with different teachers... they have homework everyday for at least 5 subjects... then they have to attend in addiction an online course...
Who creates the course? the teachers?
It is better for University students...

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I will for sure use Flipped classroom adapted to my audience, students in lower secondary school, aged 10-13.

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Find out more about individual and collaborative activities

Explore synchronous and asynchronous activities

Become familiar with new technologies that can be used for effective implementation of blended learning

Acquire knowledge on how to assess learners in blended learning environments

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Bridging Distance and In-School Learning: Blended Learning in Practice - Module 3 Introduction

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Blended learning requires that students develop their self-directed learning skills and, if implemented correctly, it also offers them opportunities to do so: once the direction is indicated by the teacher with the help of an external structure like a learning management system (LMS), the learners may organise the resources in the system autonomously, take on new learning roles different from those in a traditional face-to-face classroom, and eventually develop autonomous perceptions and behaviours as an outcome of their engagement in this blended learning environment.

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Student Motivation: Why Autonomy Matters

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Developing the independent learning skills of the students

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Developing the independent learning skills of the students

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I think Collaborative activities help students to become autonomous in his learning because at the first he/she can count on his/her peers help, this let his self-confidence  grow to become motivated in giving his/her best.

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When blending learning between distance and on-site settings, we carefully need to consider if students are working by themselves, in groups, or with the whole rest of the class. Depending on the setting, individual and collaborative activities will have quite different dynamics and call for different considerations and tools.

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Example of a blended learning activity sequence

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Example of a blended learning activity sequence

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Name

How do we feel? A journey through emotions.

Topic

English as a Foreign Language
Age 12

Description

Make students talking about their emotions. To collaborate they will use Google Drive, Padlet and online apps.

First Activity:
Recognizing emotions
At home: Reflection on their emotional experiences and behaviors to become aware of emotions. Students will observe and record in a scheme experiences and emotions (time, place, triggering cause, the physical changes, the reaction) for three days before the lesson.

Second Activity:
Watching videos and talking about emotions

At school or online: The teacher proposes to students some parts of the film "Inside Out" by Pete Docter. Students have to pay attention to the emotions felt during the movie and choose the character among: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger.
Students will report main actors' behaviour who affected them and give reasons.
As Framework: teacher and students will create a conceptual map with the characters of the film (consisting of an emotion) by using the app Mindomo.

Third Activity:
Finding poems, articles, songs about emotions

The students will be divided in groups by choosing an emotion which represent them. Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear, Disgust. Teacher will support, advise students. They will search on the internet materials to explain the emotion.
They will discuss how do they feel and why they have chosen that emotion. Then they decide what digital artifact they want to create to show the emotion. Teacher will go around the class and listen to discussion and take notes of behaviour, organization and collaboration.

Fourth activity:
Presentation, Self-Assessment and Assessment

Groups will present their digital products to the class. Students will give opinions to the products by using SWOT Analysis. Teacher will assess their presentation and collaboration through a Rubric.

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Synchronous and asynchronous activities 

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Synchronous and asynchronous activities 

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Synchronous learning takes place in real time. It can happen both in person and at a distance. Learners can meet in person at the same place, like at school, or use an online communication tool to engage with their instructor, content and peers. Most commonly this would be done via a video conferencing tool like Zoom or Teams, but it can also happen in an online chat space, where everyone agrees to meet at a specific time and on a specific date.

Asynchronous learning, on the other hand, is about learning that does not happen in real time. Students interact with their instructor, content and peers at their own pace and in their own time, from anywhere in the world. Most asynchronous learning environments provide teaching materials at a distance; learners read/view the materials and then participate in non-immediate online interactions.

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An example of Synchronous activity  could be a shared padlet, jamboard or any collaborative tool, a wordcloud, in which students can add simultaneously their opinions, ideas, knowledge about a certain topic. This could happen in class by using devices or online during a videolesson.
An example of Asynchronous activity  could be a forum in an eTwinning project in which students can add their opinions, ideas, knowledge about a certain topic and read other opinions at school or at home when they want.

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In the absence of sharing a physical space with our students in the classroom, faculty have explored various ways to replicate or reimagine the learning environment, including holding synchronous Zoom sessions during the time class is scheduled to meet and creating self-paced activities that students complete within a flexible time frame. How do you balance asynchronous or synchronous activities to support student learning? Below are the advantages of synchronous and asynchronous learning followed by some considerations we encourage you to reflect on to find a balance that makes sense for your course and your students.

Synchronous learning experiences (i.e., those that happen in real-time through some sort of video and/or chat tool) offer direct social engagement and feedback and resemble most face-to-face interactions.

Some advantages of synchronous learning activities include:

creates a space for social support among peers and the instructor;

allows students to provide context to their responses and to receive immediate responses from their peers and instructor; and

offers the instructor a chance to clarify misconceptions on material in real-time (Giesbers et al., 2013).

Asynchronous learning experiences (i.e., those that happen in delayed time and doesn't require concurrent participation) provide flexible opportunities for interaction and communication.

Some advantages of asynchronous learning activities include:

benefits temporally-diverse students by accommodating when they can access the course;

offers more time and space for students to reflect on their learning, practice, and refine their contributions to class activities; and

generates an archive of information (e.g., discussion posts, instructor recaps, recorded videos) that students can return to throughout the semester (Johnson, 2006).

Research has found that students positively perceive synchronous learning because they receive immediate feedback and feel like they are part of a community ( Watts, 2016). However, students also appreciate that they can incorporate asynchronous learning into their existing schedules and are able to engage with the content on a deeper level. Finding a balance between both formats would help in supporting students' cognitive and social needs.

The considerations below aim to guide you in your course design decisions on achieving a balance between synchronous and asynchronous learning.

What are the essential components of your course?
Before deciding on the types of learning activities you want to include in your course, you should first examine your course content, learner needs, and your course goals. Certain synchronous or asynchronous activities work better for particular purposes. For example, creating time to connect and develop a classroom culture, providing informal feedback and guidance, and celebrating learning may lend itself better to synchronous activities, while teaching new skills or concepts, reflection, or comprehensive group projects may be better suited for asynchronous activities where students have time to reflect and refine their thinking.

The image below is one example of a course structure that incorporates synchronous and asynchronous learning activities.

Where are your students located?
When trying to find a balance, it's helpful to consider where your students are physically located (and their time zones) and think through how and when students could access content and interact their peers.

What technology do your students have?
Having a sense of what technology students have access to could also inform your decisions around asynchronous or synchronous activities. For example, suppose you are thinking of having students work in breakout rooms during a synchronous session on a collaborative document while also drawing from the readings or external research. If a student is using a tablet, cell phone, or a small computer monitor, it may be difficult to access multiple documents and platforms at once.

Surveying your students in first week, if not earlier, on access needs and concerns about synchronous and/or asynchronous activities could help inform your decisions. Click here to see Do your students have ideas or opinions?
a sample student survey developed by UMass faculty member Lynn Phillips.

How can you build in flexibility?
Keeping students engaged throughout the semester means they have multiple opportunities to interact with the instructor, the content, and with each other. Students need to feel seen and heard if you want them to be engaged. If one of your primary ways of creating these interactions is through synchronous class meetings, think about how students who cannot attend the session "experience" those interactions. If you decide that synchronous engagement is your primary mode for collaboration and discussion, consider how you can build in asynchronous engagement opportunities that are equally appealing to your students who might experience issues with access.

What aspects of the course should contribute to a grade?
It's always effective to connect your assessments back to your learning outcomes. Consider whether every engagement activity should count towards a student's final grade, or if some activities could be optional (particularly the attendance of those synchronous sessions if students have trouble with access). If you decide to provide students with a choice on how they would like to engage (e.g., attending a synchronous zoom review session or posting in a discussion forum), consider how (or if) you would like to track their participation in Moodle or Blackboard.

For More Ideas on Synchronous and Asynchronous Activities
External Sites
Please contact the CTL with any questions or for more details about the examples shared at ctl@umass.edu.
Return to Keep Teaching main page
References

Giesbers, B., Rienties, B., Tempelaar, D., & Gijselaers, W. (2013). A dynamic analysis of the interplay between asynchronous and synchronous communication in online learning: The impact of motivation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30(1), 30-50. doi:10.1111/jcal.12020

Johnson, G. M. (2006). Synchronous and asynchronous text‐based CMC in educational contexts: A review of recent research. TechTrends, 50(4), 46-53. doi:10.1007/s11528‐006‐0046‐9

Watts, L. (2016). Synchronous and asynchronous communication in distance learning: A review of the literature. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 17(1), 23-32.

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How Do I Balance Synchronous and Asynchronous Learning?

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In the absence of sharing a physical space with our students in the classroom, faculty have explored various ways to replicate or reimagine the learning environment, including holding synchronous Zoom sessions during the time class is scheduled to meet and creating self-paced activities that students complete within a flexible time frame.

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In my activity there will be both Synchronous and asynchronous activities, but Synchronous activities are important for collaborative learning.

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I use a lot of online tools for teaching and Learning. Here is a Map I have created with the tools I have used, I use and I will use in the future activities...
https://www.mindomo.com/it/mindmap/apps-and-sites-for-education-86afe2fc5c5b481e8151adca83e36a84

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Self-, peer- and teacher-led assessments in blended learning environments

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Self-, peer- and teacher-led assessments in blended learning environments

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Self-assessment s important to reflect on one's own skills and competences and try to improve next time...
Peer assessment can be useful but sometimes teenagers have some problems in expressing their own opinions...
I think it is important to let students know which are the objectives of the activities so they can work better and they know what competences are developing. Rubrics must be shared at the beginning of the activities, for example.

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Develop a blended learning scenario

Share experiences and inspiring ideas with your colleagues

Learn from peers

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Bridging Distance and In-School Learning: Blended Learning in Practice - Module 4 Introduction

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Developing a blended learning scenario and peer assessment

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Developing a blended learning scenario and peer assessment

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Main points of my Learning Scenario:
Age of students
Aims of the learning scenario
Outcomes of the activities
21st Century Skills
Tools to use to present topics
Materials to create for the lessons
Tools students have to use to create digital products
Devices and technology gadgets
Assessment/Self-Assessment Rubrics
Peer assessment strategies

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1. activities planned for before in-school learning

2. activities planned for in-school learning

3. activities planned for after in-school learning

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Students will reflect on their emotions before doing the activities at school by keeping notes of their feelings on a paper for a week...
Then they will have a video to watch to take notes about main characters' feelings and reactions...
Students will have a presentation of the activities and will revise some vocabulary to write and talk about their emotions, then they will work in groups to create a digital product to show their teachers and mates. They will assess the digital products by discussing and by using a Self-assessment rubric.
They will reflect on the discussion about emotions and can discuss the topic with other teachers during other lessons.

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Self-assess your blended learning scenario

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Self-assess your blended learning scenario

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Getting ready for peer assessment

Peer assessment is a good practice to develop because you can understand some missing points of your projects or have an affirmation of the activities you meant to create and enhance for your students  are well thought and are good examples of teaching and learning practice. It could be an encouragement to do better next time.

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Hello! I am Emiliana, I teach English as a Foreign language in a Lower Secondary School in the centre of Italy, in a village near Rome.

The Learning Design I have created is a lesson about Emotions.

The aim is making students talking about their emotions, to collaborate and create digital products by using online apps.
The activity is meant to be completed at school - in presence - or during home schooling, online in video lessons, in this case there will be blended lessons.

Here is the link to my Learning Design:

https://v.gd/WGu8OF

You can find it at the end of my learning Diary of the course at this link:

https://padlet.com/emiliana_rufo/distancelearning2021

Here is the link to the presentation I will share with my students to complete the Learning Activities:

https://view.genial.ly/601af15a2c49930d3852d228

A Journey Through Emotions

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https://api.eu.badgr.io/public/assertions/C2rtOIxVQlWTfFniR3SFFA?identity__email=emiliana.rufo%40gmail.com

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School Education Gateway, Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission - Bridging Distance and In-School Learning – Blended Learning in Practice - 2021-05-18