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Thursday, August 21, 2008

Establishing a preliminary framework for effective blended learning practices in the undergraduate classroom - E Nel

At the University of the Free State (UFS) blended learning (a combination of face-to-face and online modes of delivery) is regarded as a relatively new practice with possibilities of addressing many of the context-specific teaching and learning problems at the institution. During the planning phase for the third cycle of an action inquiry project the researcher decided to subject some of the multitude of findings, gathered over the first two cycles, to scrutiny by fellow online/blended learning facilitators/designers/researchers at other higher education institutions in South Africa. She hoped that sharing experiences would not only broaden her own insights, but would also lead to 'informed' agreeement on at least one practice in which blended learning in either her own or the broader higher education environment could be enhanced. In this article the findings of the inter-institutional opinion survey are presented and analysed. The researcher as (the first author) also makes use of various 'agreed upon' learning principles to develop a preliminary framework for effective/meaningful blended learning which could extend understanding in a complex higher education environment and serve as stimulation for debate and further investigation.
From: SAJHE 22 (1) 2008

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