Transitions to Blended Learning: Dreams and Nightmares, a presentation to the M25 Learning Technology Group, 11th November 2015.

1. Transitions into
blended learning
Josephine Adekola, Vicki Dale
& Kerr Gardiner
M25LTG, 11 November 2015

2. • QAA-funded Quality Enhancement
project, 2014-2017
• Student, staff & institutional
perspectives on transitions to
blended learning
• 5 aspects:
• Motivations
• Benefits
• Challenges
• Barriers
• Support
Overview

3. Methods
Literature review into blended learning
& change management
Semi-structured interviews with 20 staff
(learning technologists, teachers, management)
Thematic analysis (Löfgren 2013 based on Alan
Bryman’s (2008) approach)
• Reading & annotating transcripts
• Generating individual codes
• Codes grouped into categories/themes
Half of interviews coded by a second researcher

4. Sector-wide
• Open education movement
• Changing digital landscape
• Employability agenda
• Internationalisation
Institution
• High costs of face-to-face delivery
• Reusable nature of online learning
(value for money)
Teachers
• Opportunity to learn about online learning
Students
• More flexible learning experience
• Pedagogically more effective learning
Motivations

5. Changing digital landscape
“Technology in general is embedded into our lives, and
therefore it’s now become part of the way that we learn,
as well.” (Management)
Innovating pedagogy
“… changing the pedagogy, encouraging teaching staff to
think about different ways of delivering learning that’s
going to match their student needs.” (Management)
Internationalisation
“We will have the opportunity in the future to look at connecting
cohorts of students who are studying for the same degrees but in
different parts of the world … we can have that cultural
engagement in that learning space” (Senior management)

6. Institution
• Saving on physical learning spaces
Teachers
• Enhanced teaching experience
• Saves teaching time in long run
• Can reuse materials
• Developed new skills for future teaching
Students
• More self-directed learners
• Development of information literacies
• Collaborative learning opportunities
• Better prepared students (e.g. with flipped
classroom)
Benefits (‘Dreams’)
Image by normanack, CC BY 2.0
https://www.flickr.com/photos/29278394

7. Students’ lifelong learning literacies
“It’s a set of skills we’re giving [the students] that allows
them to become a professional learner.”(University
teacher)
New teaching skills
“I feel I have a skill that I didn’t before , which may allow
me to do other interesting things in the future.” (Lecturer)
Efficiencies / enhanced student experience
“There are scopes for efficiencies but that’s a very dangerous thing,
because the move from an analogue to a more digital delivery … is a
change process and you need additional resources to enable that … But I
think what it’ll do is it’ll improve the student experience.” (Management)

8. Institution
• Research-teaching tension
• Inadequate IT infrastructure
• Risk-averse culture
Teachers
• Time-consuming to develop
• Copyright
• Western pedagogies & international learner
mismatch
• Anxiety about new technologies
Students
• Variable digital literacy levels, can’t translate
into learning literacies
• Still equate F2F with value for money
Challenges & barriers
(‘Nightmares’)
Image by Cathy Cole, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mmewuji/2804301013

9. Research-teaching conflict
“The university does have other priorities, and the other research
priorities are very research-oriented and there’s always going to be a
tension between encouraging people to devote more time to develop
their learning and teaching and being more innovative in those ways
and devoting more time to research.” (Senior management)
Workload model
“Our workload … allows for about 30, 35 hours to develop
an online course. I know from experience it takes me at
least double that. So that’s 30 odd hours that haven’t been
recognised on my workload.”(University teacher)
Technical infrastructure
“Staff want to use the technologies, and whilst things are
getting better … they’ve not necessarily been reliable, or
been available when they’ve needed them.”(Management)

10. Institution
• Integration of TEL into L&T strategy
• Stakeholders represented on committees
• Helpful learning technology support
• Learning from other institutions
• Support from senior management
Teachers
• Academic colleagues who see benefits of BL
and are committed to L&T
• ‘Friendly colleagues you can trust’
• Having locally available kit
• Early adopters
Students
• All have mobile devices
Enablers

11. Support from senior management
“Senior management has been encouraging it and if they want this
kind of thing to happen, they need to keep encouraging
it.”(Lecturer)
“We have a key responsibility around making sure that all staff at
the university are properly supported.” (Senior management)
Support from colleagues
“We’re lucky because we have a good colleague
community in [our school] and we talk nicely to each other
and support each other.”(Lecturer)
Early adopters / showcasing good practice
“I produce a TEL newsletter for the college and it’s all about
showcasing good work that people are doing. Even if it’s small
they’re changing something.”(Learning technologist)

12. Institution
• Review staff workload & promotion criteria
• Recognised appointments in digital learning
• Employ more instructional designers/
learning technologists across the colleges
• A Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning
Teachers
• Multiple methods of sharing good practice
• Peer-mentoring
• Local academic champions
• More signposting to available help
Support required

13. Recognised appointments / local champions
“We need to have local champions that are recognised by
senior management. So perhaps … a chair in digital
learning or … emerging technologies.”
(University teacher)
More learning technologists across the disciplines
“[Colleges] where they have the learning technologist they tend to do
more online learning … the colleges … need to buy into this idea that
it’s a specialist job, and they should be paying for somebody to do it.”
(Learning technologist)
Review promotion/reward criteria
“What we need to do as an institution is create the enabling
framework … it’s putting in the correct supporting frameworks,
the correct incentive systems to make it all happen.”
(Senior management)

14. Work has resulted in an
integrated, holistic
framework of key
considerations, derived
from literature &
research:
• Key external drivers
• Six reinterpreted
domains of Khan’s
(2005) framework
• Elements of Chern’s
(1976) organisational
preparedness
framework
• Core stakeholders

15. Holistic, integrated framework to be
shared with staff in context of e-learning
strategy implementation activities
Identify & implement ‘anchor points’ to
ensure institution does not regress
This year’s research: focusing on blended
learner experiences
Next steps…

16. QAA Scotland for project funding
All interview participants from the
University of Glasgow
Acknowledgements