Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

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to know each other a bit. We are people with faces and life stories now, not just online cyberspace companions. It makes it much easier to interact with people you have met face-to-face, even though it’s sometimes easier to be more anonymous, more distant. I have used (I think!) a Moodle before ... or something very similar, with the Open University so this wasn’t, or should I say isn’t, my first time. The face-to-face part of the course was particularly helpful in creating a good relationship between the course participants. ■■ As previously noted, participants with no online learning experience can find the idea of online training intimidating. Starting with the face-to-face component can help allay these fears, and provide a more gentle introduction to online training for more reluctant participants. In addition, participants may feel that a face-to-face approach simply suits them better: I feel I have learned and progressed satisfactorily in the course, but that given my learning style I preferred the face-to-face component more than the online one. Design decisions The blended version of the Cert ICT offers the first 50 of the 120 hours as a faceto-face option – either intensively over two weeks, or part-time over ten weeks (depending on the local market and the time of year of delivery). Once those 50 hours have been completed face-to-face, the remaining 70 hours of the course are taken online in a virtual learning environment (VLE) called Moodle (www.moodle.org). The face-to-face component uses a communicative training approach. Participants each bring a laptop to the face-to-face sessions, and they work on these throughout the course, learning how to use certain ICT tools and producing regular outputs. The face-to-face component is also paperless – all handouts/worksheets/resources are found on the course Moodle. Participants download these as needed during the faceto-face sessions, and save them on their own computers. Thus, the course Moodle functions as a course repository in the face-to-face component of the course, which is slowly built up over the 50 hours face-to-face. At the beginning of each face-toface session, handouts are made available in the Moodle, which are then used as necessary. In the next session, more materials are made available. It is important not to overload participants by providing all the course resources at once in Moodle – by slowly revealing them session-by-session, participants are far more able to digest and use the resources provided. This is something that participants often appreciate: Very clear layout, loved having only one week’s tasks and content at a time, not too much stuff at once. One of the design decisions we made is to introduce Moodle before the face-toface component starts (with a few very simple tasks for participants to complete – see above), and then to use it as a repository of materials, and also to share work produced in each face-to-face session. This means that by the time participants get to the online component of the course, they are already familiar with the basic functions of Moodle, and use it on a regular basis. Reversing the blend: From online to blended | 79
Lessons learned When deciding what part of a teacher training course to offer online, and what parts face-to-face, we find it makes sense to offer the most practical/hands-on elements of course content face-to-face. More theoretical discussions can easily take place online, for example via asynchronous forum discussions. In fact, it has been argued that online asynchronous forum discussions lead to more thoughtful contributions: …asynchronous discussions allow for a higher level of cognitive questions that encourage critical thinking. Learners have more time to process questions and develop responses, and the learner’s cognitive level of response often matches the cognitive level of the questions asked. Higher level cognitive and affective questions encourage learners to interpret, analyse, evaluate, infer, explain and self regulate. (Walker, 2005) We also learned that it makes sense to introduce the VLE either before or early in the face-to-face component, rather than springing it on participants just before they are going to start the online component. In other words, the introduction of the online platform is scaffolded. We learned that the use of a VLE in the face-to-face part works best as a repository, or for sharing outputs that are created. It doesn’t make much sense to have participants completing extra tasks at home in the VLE during our face-to-face component, when we have a clearly separate 70-hour online component to follow. One key question we have considered is whether the blended learning approach for the Cert ICT is more beneficial to the learners than the fully online approach. We have come to the conclusion that it is extremely difficult to make comparisons between these two modes, because they are so different. Of major importance are participants’ attitudes towards the blended versus online approach, as we have seen above. Although the blended course participants claim that they would have found the online component difficult or impossible without a previous faceto-face component, the reality is that participants on our fully online component have no such difficulty; indeed online participants have no face-to-face component experience with which to compare. Feedback on the fully online version of the same course is equally positive, and frequently includes surprise and praise for the very supportive online group dynamic that is developed: Interaction with colleagues was great overall. Initial fears about online interaction were quickly dispelled. Interaction with colleagues was excellent. Maybe ours was just a good group, but it worked very well. I found everyone very helpful and supportive. Certainly some ‘friendships’ arose between participants, where interests, help, advice, experience and support all played their parts. A virtual classroom also has an atmosphere. At the same time the fully online participants were aware of some of the challenges involved in online communication, for example when this involved pair work: 80 | Reversing the blend: From online to blended
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Blended Learning in English Languag
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ISBN 978-0-86355-706-4 © British C
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Part 3 - English for Specific Purpo
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Acknowledgements We would like to t
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To address this deficit I proposed
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Introduction This introductory chap
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an almost identical definition in h
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■■ Learners’ expectations - l
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To achieve a ‘principled approach
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its weakness in speaking.’ Contra
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References Adair-Hauck, B Willingha
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Page 31 and 32: Conclusion Students received course
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Page 35 and 36: All in the blend Reports on the app
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Page 47 and 48: Turgut, Y (2009) ‘EFL learners’
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Page 57 and 58: References Allan, M (1985) Teaching
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Page 83 and 84: where possible, to bring them toget
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Page 117 and 118: Comments on Part 2 Brian Tomlinson
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Making recommendations My friend An
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Sustainability Blended learning oft
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Kukulska-Hulme, A and Shield, A (20
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The face-to-face aspect of the cour
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The course covers listening, speaki
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latest, most secure and flexible pr
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not so much for language improvemen
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the reader/listener as customer) an
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2. ‘Technology is only important
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14 A longitudinal case study of the
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In the next version (v3) of the cou
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of a blend in Collis and Moonen’s
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of telecoms engineers, but it was w
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15 Using a wiki to enhance the lear
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The ‘history feature’ which can
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Figure 4: Student created listening
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Teaching methodology The blended de
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Figure 8: Student reaction to probl
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Lund, A (2008) Wikis: a collective
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hazard a guess that it was over con
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the management of the centres would
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There was a steady increase in the
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3. User experience - feedback on th
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Comments on Part 3 Brian Tomlinson
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17 A thinking-based blended learnin
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In each of the above parts, the lea
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Figure 1: Cycle of working with gra
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Model by JP, Form 10 Structure Mode
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Recommendation 2 Ensure that the on
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Sokol, A (2008) Development of Inve
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Moreover, as a result of increased
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In general, the students remarked t
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19 Students’ CALLing: Blended lan
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The students were taken to the comp
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When considering blended learning,
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Introducing Macmillan English Campu
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In both scenarios, the ratio of con
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attending scenario 1 courses. The o
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Comments on Part 4 Brian Tomlinson
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Conclusion Claire Whittaker
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Table 1: Neumeier’s (2005) framew
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Reasons given in the literature for
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Software Author and Chapter New Lea
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Keedwell’s (Chapter 13) blend on
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Table 7: Learning theories, languag
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What will the interactional pattern
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Whittaker (Chapter 16) believed tha
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Summary This chapter draws on the l
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Appendix 1 - Questions for blended
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Contributors Peter Aborisade lectur
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Jody Gilbert taught in post-seconda
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Juanita Pardo-González (BA Hons in
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The British Council is pleased to o
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Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

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