Here - EnglishAgenda - British Council

the reader/listener as customer) and the ‘politeness’ of being concise/avoidingredundancy. Both courses emphasised the importance of language as an organisingand highlighting tool, and developed language awareness of ways to describe howfindings were obtained, classifying and integrating visuals into text or presentation.Technicalities and timetablingBoth courses began with an introduction to the blended learning approach and itwas possible to run the face-to-face course over the two months that the participantswere in country. Timelines were more fluid for the online element of the course. Witha flexible approach to timetabling, the majority of trainees were able to attend seventhree-hour face-to-face sessions on presentation skills. Sessions were occasionallyrepeated to accommodate everybody. As trainees were engaged in giving real-lifebriefings outside the classroom, it was possible to maintain pace despite the sessionsbeing widely spaced.Had I been developing the online report writing course today, I would have mademore use of virtual learning environment technology, Moodle in particular. At thetime, not all of today’s technology was accessible and my own technical knowledgewas quite limited. The solution was therefore simple. Thirty hours of materials (partlyadapted from previous face-to-face courses, much of it innovated) were developedand issued to trainees in hard/soft copy form, with keys for self-access tasks andcommentaries on possible answers to more open-ended tasks (see Tomlinson, 1998:322). Trainees undertook self-access tasks throughout each unit and completed anassignment at the end of each module (generally a report sub-section of 150 –200words) which they emailed to me. I guaranteed to provide feedback by email withinthree days. Trainees were also asked to complete a final assignment of around 400words, working to guidelines but on a topic of their own choice, which I also receivedby email and which contributed to final assessment.By today’s standards, the system was rudimentary and there are of course a multitudeof ways in which the course could be developed further. If we accept though thattechnical platforms are only a means to an end, I would argue that the relativesimplicity of this no-frills approach is effective in situations where (for whatever reason:time, cost, or lack of technical skills) a full range of IT resources cannot be exploited.Lessons learned‘Did it work?’ is the fundamental question. Certainly, within limited parameters,it seemed to be effective in meeting trainees’ needs:a. All 40 trainees completed final assignments for the course which were assessedaccording to a simple but usable set of criteria as ranging from excellent tosatisfactory.b. Trainee post-course evaluations were very positive (90 per cent rating thecourse as high quality) and contrasted with an element of initial scepticism.Trainees consistently stated in end-of-course questionnaires that they hadenjoyed the flexibility and asynchronicity of the course and could fit it aroundtheir busy lives and foreign service.150 | Blended learning for English for occupational purposes