Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation
Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation
Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation
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Figure 3: The homepage <strong>in</strong> a Module One Moodle room<br />
Access to Moodle is <strong>in</strong>def<strong>in</strong>ite despite the course duration. In fact many participants<br />
cont<strong>in</strong>ue to use it as a resource dur<strong>in</strong>g the subsequent two DELTA Modules.<br />
a. Input<br />
<strong>Course</strong> participants can (if they wish) attend one afternoon a week for four hours,<br />
broken <strong>in</strong>to three sessions. Each of these sessions (an outl<strong>in</strong>e of the tutor’s plan <strong>and</strong><br />
h<strong>and</strong>outs of which also can be accessed onl<strong>in</strong>e) <strong>in</strong>troduces or explores an aspect<br />
of the syllabus. Some sessions are an <strong>in</strong>troduction to an area such as features of<br />
connected speech, some cover a specific aspect of someth<strong>in</strong>g (there are grammar<br />
sessions on articles, aspects <strong>and</strong> modals). The aim is to capture <strong>in</strong>terest, po<strong>in</strong>t<br />
participants to areas that they can <strong>and</strong> should research <strong>and</strong> suggest ways they<br />
might do this. These face-to-face sessions are delivered <strong>in</strong> a mix of group work,<br />
jigsaw activities, guided discovery <strong>and</strong> m<strong>in</strong>i presentations by peers <strong>and</strong> other<br />
techniques. Onl<strong>in</strong>e course participants have access to notes that outl<strong>in</strong>e the areas<br />
the same day the sessions take place, have l<strong>in</strong>ks to read<strong>in</strong>g where it is accessible<br />
onl<strong>in</strong>e <strong>and</strong> suggestions for books where it is not. Notes <strong>in</strong>clude tasks features such<br />
as guided discovery activities that were used <strong>in</strong> sessions. Hav<strong>in</strong>g access to materials<br />
onl<strong>in</strong>e can be empower<strong>in</strong>g (Sharma <strong>and</strong> Barrett, 2007: 45), as participants can<br />
work through the material at their own speed. However, as where material is be<strong>in</strong>g<br />
presented <strong>in</strong> face-to-face sessions, the programme allows some materials to be<br />
hidden <strong>and</strong> then time released by the tutors.<br />
b. M<strong>in</strong>i quizzes<br />
These are quick ‘click through’ activities that course participants can use to check<br />
what they have understood so far <strong>and</strong> what they need to work on. At present there<br />
are one or two for most of the weeks <strong>and</strong> they are one of the most heavily used<br />
components, but they only cover a small number of areas. These components aim<br />
to act as a self assessment learn<strong>in</strong>g tool. We also encourage course participants to<br />
make their own quizzes <strong>and</strong> share l<strong>in</strong>ks us<strong>in</strong>g sites like Quizlet <strong>and</strong> to explore tasks <strong>in</strong><br />
wikis that have been set up for that purpose, for example Kubbu or Zondle.<br />
104 | Creat<strong>in</strong>g a blended DELTA Module One