Blended Learning survey

Thanks to Philip Kerr, fellow author and blogger on adaptive learning, for drawing my attention to another BL survey with this Facebook post:

100,000 US higher education students were surveyed to investigate whether they were more satisfied with fully F2F, fully online or blended course delivery. The results surprised me ...

The opening paragraph of the article will make you want to read more:

US students on blended learning courses are generally less engaged with the teaching at their institution than their counterparts taking purely online or purely face-to-face degrees according to a Times Higher Education survey that may question the notion that blended learning could result in a “great revolution in university teaching”.

Source: Ellie Bothwell November 10, 2016 in Times Higher Education

Philip’s post generated discussion on Facebook as to whether the findings were surprising or predictable.

Here’s a follow-up contribution from Andrew Wickham of Linguaid

I'm not very surprised either. For blended learning to work, it takes a lot of fine tuning, a lot of learner support and top teaching (notice that in this survey, the main complaint is lack of availability of teachers and teacher quality - reflecting more on the poor design and resources allocated to the project than to the model). Most courses called "blended" are actually "bundled", because the investment required is huge and the teachers need to be well trained and given extra time for follow up and supervision - pretty rare nowadays. In addition, technical problems can really mess things up. For me, the only workable model has to be teacher-led, learners centred [sic] and fully integrated with the classroom activities. And it has to be bite-sized, a lot of fun to do and as simple as possible at all levels.

Andrew goes on to say:

The most successful blended models I've seen are not classroom + online resources but distance + online resources. In the end, my golden rule would be: if you can afford the time and the skills to fine tune a blended system until it works, then go for it. In all other cases, don't bother.

[Note: a distance + online resources course is usually just termed ‘distance’.]

Useful links:

https://adaptivelearninginelt.wordpress.com/about/

http://www.linguaid.net/author/andrew-wickham

New books

Digital Language Learning and Teaching

TIRF (The International Research Foundation for English Language Education) will soon be releasing another volume in a co-published series with Routledge. The book, Digital Language Learning and Teaching: Research, Theory, and Practice, is due to be published to coincide with the TESOL Convention in Seattle, in March.

The volume starts off with an introduction to Digital Learning by TIRF Board member Michael Carrier.

Part I looks at the Research Perspective and includes a chapter entitled Technology as a Teaching and Learning Tool in the Flipped Classroom

Part II looks at The Pedagogical Perspective and includes a chapter Synchronous Online Teaching by Nik Peachey.

My own chapter is entitled Blended Learning Design and Practice. Here’s an appetite-whetting extract from the introduction:

Blended learning (BL) remains a ‘buzz’ term in language teaching. The term BL means different things to different people. Despite this variation in interpretation, a general understanding has emerged that BL courses combine face-to-face classroom teaching with an online component. This chapter explores the successful design of BL courses and describes a wide variety of such courses in language teaching.

Chapter 16 is of relevance to this Newsletter and is entitled Remote Teaching: A Case Study in Teaching English to Primary School Children in Uruguay via Videoconferencing by Graham Stanley.

I personally cannot wait to read Chapter 19: Imagining the Potential for Using Virtual Reality Technologies in Language Learning by Anna Lloyd, Sarah Rogerson, and Geoff Stead.

The volume concludes with Digital Learning in 2020 by Nicky Hockly and Gavin Dudeney.

Focus on Learning Technologies

I thoroughly enjoyed reviewing Focus on Learning Technologies by Nicky Hockly. It is the latest book in the innovative ‘Oxford Key Concepts for the Language Classroom’ series, which aims to link research and practice. It condenses research from an impressive range of perspectives. ‘Classroom snapshots’ show different teaching approaches, including the video-conferencing in Uruguay Case Study mentioned above.

The book addresses the critical question: do digital technologies support language learning? Nicky concludes ‘the jury is still out’, as the effectiveness (or lack of effectiveness) of a particular technology depends on a wide range of factors, such as how it used.

One section of the book looks at Blended Learning and includes an interesting ‘Classroom snapshot’ from Horn and Straker (2011).

In the Carpe Diem learning centre, if a student struggles for more than three minutes with the concept, the e2020 system (e2020 is the online content provider) alerts an assistant coach, who responds with immediate on-the-spot help. Rather than slapping a failing grade on a report card at the end of the course, Carpe Diem’s system helps students experience repeated, frequent successes.

Nicky goes on to describe the arguments of supporters and detractors of BL in North American K-12 education. Supporters cite:

A more personalised approach
The need for fewer specialized teachers
Classroom time spent on more productive activities

Detractors question the value of so-called personalised learning delivered by computers that essentially present students with the same pre-packed content.

This section on research findings is fascinating. A couple of interesting points to arise are the following:

To succeed in unsupported online learning students need a high capacity for self-regulation
High school students taking online foreign language courses had significantly less favourable opinions of their courses than students studying other subjects online

The section concludes with a call for more research into the effectiveness of BL in language learning.

The shape of course books to come?

I’m just reviewing the latest course book from Macmillan, Optimise by Malcolm Mann and Steve Taylore-Knowles. It incorporates a ‘flipped classroom’ strand, so students can watch a video in the online resource centre, answer questions and then come to their face-to-face class.

Flipping is undoubtedly a current hot topic. The current discussion seems to be about how much to flip, with a consensus that it’s not good to flip all the time. As with many aspects of ELT, there is divergence in what is meant by the term. We can distinguish two very different forms of BL here, from a directional point of view:

Type one: the teacher teaches in class, and the BL materials are there to consolidate and extend

Type two: the materials teach, and the teacher activates what has been learnt, and gives real communicative practice

These are diametrically opposite, I would argue, making ‘flipping’ very much an umbrella term which can have a number of interpretations / connotations.

With the Optimise videos, students can process input at their own speed and come to speaking classes prepared. With their scratch-off codes to access digital materials, course books today are far more than the printed books of last century, and this one integrates digital input in a flipped approach which makes the videos integral to the course, rather than an optional add-on.

Practical ideas using Blended Learning – call for contributions

Barney Barrett and I are currently compiling a bank of useful, practical ideas for using BL with a view to publication. We would love to include ideas from a wide range of contexts around the world. So – whether you are working in Barcelona Spain or Barcelona Venezuela, in Mexico, Morocco or Macau, Tunbridge Wells or Tunisia….wherever you teach, if you have a practical teaching idea for a Blended Learning activity which you can contribute, please just drop me a mail to: predipsharma@gmail.com

We’d love to hear from you!

Announcements

New courses

PSA has recently announced an exciting new range of courses, including Blended Learning in language teaching. Please visit our website for further details.

http://www.psa.eu.com/training/

Barney Barrett, one of Pete Sharma's long-time collaborators, is involved in an online teaching venture. Visit their website for more information.

https://stratfordteachers.com/