A Serenity prayer for blended learning

Picture: edited in canva.com

Blended learning inevitably is the next step for Higher Ed teachers, regardless of whether this step is taken with confidence and curiosity or reluctantly and with hesitation. 

For me, when I think of blended learning as the inevitable direction of progression for my courses- or should I rather say natural future development? I feel hesitant and somewhat reluctant. Hesitant, because I am not convinced that blended learning neccessary leads to a better learning environment or even better quality of the education. And my reluctance stems from my hesitation, and the fact that I will have to invest a lot of time and effort to make the neccessary changes to my courses. 

For example:

  • Do I have to rethink the entire course designs? (probably I do... see for example Li`s thoughts on course design for online learning, Hughes et al's ideas on how to foster creativity and critical thinking online or Lauricella and Kay´s inspirational guidance on how to use formative assessment in online environments)
  • And for what purpose? Is it mainly about the fact that we can work online, and that students, post-covid, expect that education is at least partly online? Or is it to foster Global citizens, as is sometimes emphazised (for example by Cleveland-Innes and Wilton)? If so, is it my responsibility as a law professor, to foster and help my students develop online literacy? Should not my focus be on fostering students ability to develop critical thinking and the material content knowledge that is essential for practicing lawyers, judges and future academics? 
The question that I have asked myself lately, though, is whether my reasons for being reluctant, and my worries about the potential lack of benefits of this paradigm shift in teaching and learning that we are currently experiencing, is at all relevant? Change is a part of life, development is inevitable. Spending time and thought on whether blended learning should be used or not, somehow feels senseless. Blended learning is here and it is here to stay, and I have to accept the things that I cannot change. Thus, now is the time to change the things that I can! The first things that I can - and arguably also need to change - is my attitude. I need to move into a mode of curiosity and confidence. 

Having come all the way to the end of a very interesting learning experience, as participant in the ONL course, thankfully my key take away is that my abilities and already developed competencies as a teacher is the most important factor for ensuring a pedagogically sound and inspiring learning environment. Whether entirely online, blended or only face to face, it is the pedagogy and not the teaching tools that is important (Ruttenberg-Rozen and Eamer, 2022). Having said that, the tools that are there for us now, free to explore and use, are promising. 

Personally I am, at the moment, thinking of introducing asynchronous online discussions, AOD's 
(Dipasquale and Hunter, 2022) and online and face to face flipped classroom modules to one of my courses (Hughes and Morrisson, 2022). It will give the students "temporal freedom" to learn when they are most focused, create a sense of community outside the classroom and if provided with sound and clear instructions, the work that they produce will engage their creativity and enhance their critical thinking abilities.

And after that? I will continue to learn, and most certainly dig deeper into the many good and inspiring guides and handbooks on how to teach and assess students performance in online discussions, use e-portfolios and part online flipped classrooms (see for example Abney and Conatser, 2020). 

When and whether we will see a more profound change in the teaching and assessment methods of the Law programme at Stockholm University is however written in the stars. Lack of funds, institutional support, and very large student groups are examples of things that will impact the possibility to change and develop new teaching and assessement methods and practices. But, these are things that I cannot change. Hence, I need to accept these limitations and constraints and focus on changing the things that I can. For example changing some of my teaching methods, like starting to use AOD´s and online and face to face flipped classroom modules.    
 
References:

Li, J (2022) Course Outlines in Online Learning,  Ch 5 in Thriving Online: A Guide for Busy Educators (pressbooks.pub)

Hughes, L, Morrisson, L and Petrarca, L (2022) Fostering Creativity and Critical Thinking Online, Ch 13 in Thriving Online: A Guide for Busy Educators (pressbooks.pub) 

Lauricella, S and Kay, H. R (2022) Fair and Formative Feedback in Online Learning, Ch 23 in Thriving Online: A Guide for Busy Educators (pressbooks.pub)  

Ruttenberg- Rozen, R and Eamer, A (2022) Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Online, Ch 8 in Thriving Online: A Guide for Busy Educators (pressbooks.pub)  

Hughes, J and Morrisson, L (2022) Flipping Your Virtual Classrooms, Ch 18 in  Thriving Online: A Guide for Busy Educators (pressbooks.pub)  

Cleveland-Innes, M. and Wilton, D (2018). Guide to Blended Learning 

Comments

  1. EmelyMay 31, 2023 at 2:03 AM

    I really like this post, and the quote you used! I think it is really the key insight for a teacher to be successful in actually making progress towards blended learning. It is a daunting task to take on, and I don't think the answer as to how it should be done actually exists. I also really like the fact that you are reflecting on your own reluctance to change into the unknown, I think it is a very good sign that you are an excellent teacher! I think in general, we tend to only want to do in class/with students the things which we feel entirely comfortable with, because we assume that the students expects us to be the experts. I am going to challenge myself to this position, and really consider to try new things that I am not necessarily comfortable with. I do find that the idea of approaching something together with the students is really helpful, i.e. to discuss research questions with no clear answer. When I have done that with my students, I can tell that they feel much more free in expressing themselves because they know that I don't have THE answer. I like this way of closing the "authority gap" between student and teacher which I think is basically always negative, albeit inevitable to some extent. Thanks for making me reflect more on this and boosting my courage in trying new things!

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