Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

Recommendation 2
Ensure that the online tasks are challenging enough to provide enough room
for thinking even to stronger learners. Use the classroom time to provide for an
appropriate level of scaffolding for each learner if the technology fails to do it.
Contradiction 3
Scaffolding sessions should be organised at different periods of time for each learner
to ensure that he/she has done all the assignments beforehand, and they should be
organised at the same time for all learners given the constraints of the syllabus.
Solution 3
Timely submission of assignments online positively affects the total assessment.
A few days before the deadline, the teacher takes part in a synchronous meeting with
learners where they can ask questions. This worked as a motivating factor for many
learners to plan work with the online module before the meeting to have a chance
to ask questions. Skype chat sessions with the group were used for this purpose.
Recommendation 3
Ensure that everything you want the learners to do is integrated in the system of
assessment.
Get learners to want to do things by the deadline. The best way of achieving this is
to give them something they feel they need when doing the task. The teacher’s help
may often be enough for motivating learners.
Contradiction 4
Tasks given to learners have to be different to ensure that they do not cheat when
doing them and they have to be the same to make the implementation easier, both
in terms of technological solutions and the teacher’s labour.
Solution 4
This problem was resolved at the design stage by:
■■ Making the tasks open enough to ensure a variety of correct answers (thus, the
same answer by several learners always signalled cheating. As the time of dealing
with the task was recorded for each learner, only the answer of the first person
was accepted by the teacher).
■■ Giving learners a choice of tasks in each part, thus reducing the possibility of the
same tasks being performed by various learners.
Recommendation 4
Make sure that the tasks are open (allow for a variety of correct answers) and
learners are able to choose tasks for themselves.
In addition to the above problems, one should be aware of the so-called ‘mindset
issues’. In our particular case these dealt with learners’ preconceptions about
learning (‘I want answers’, ‘I don’t like to get stuck’, etc.) and attitude to technology
(‘I don’t like to talk to the computer’). These are very important challenges for the
teacher, as they may negatively affect the atmosphere of the learning process.
A thinking-based blended learning course | 197