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Keedwell’s (Chapter 13) blend on soft skills training, report-writing and givingpresentations, is a good example of isolated incorporation. In this design Keedwellacknowledges that ‘the real-life differences between oral briefings and writtenreports suggested a face-to-face briefings course and an online writing course’.The design of Peachey (Chapter 5) and Dudeney and Hockly’s (Chapter 6) blendsalso appear to reflect isolated incorporation. However, the majority of the blendsseem to adopt a parallel approach, typically with the face-to-face mode presentingmaterial and the online mode providing supplementary extension activities.How will the modes be arranged in the timetable?At its simplest the face-to-face sessions can be alternated with the computersessions in the timetable. The way the modes in the Bosnia and Herzegovina blendwere arranged is shown in Table 6. As the face-to-face element was the lead modeit started the cycle in the timetable that was then followed by the computer sessionand then the self-study session.Table 6: Timetable for intermediate and upper-intermediate courses inBosnia and HerzegovinaMonday – ThursdayFriday90 minutes Class Class45 minutes Computer Computer45 minutes Self-study Self-study60 minutes Class30 minutes Computer30 minutes Self-studyWhat is the optimal length of time for each session?When putting the timetable together we also considered the optimal length oftime for each session, based on our beliefs as to what the maximum amount ofproductive time that could be spent on the computer or during self-study was.This also varied according to the learners’ level and at elementary and preintermediatelevels the classroom sessions were limited to an hour and computerand self-study to 30 minutes.How many sessions will the timetable include?Consideration was also given during the redesign process that I was involved into the optimal number of sessions per mode per day on our intensive courses.As you can see in Table 6 at the higher levels there were six sessions per day, twoin each mode, and this was a reduction from eight that were in the original blend.My rationale for reducing the number of sessions was to reduce the amount ofmovement, both physical and mental, between the modes and to ‘streamline’the course design by reducing its complexity.How much choice will the learners be given in the blend?Neumeier (2005) suggests that the modes within a blend can either be ‘optional’or ‘obligatory’. More often than not the face-to-face mode is obligatory, as aresynchronous online sessions, but other sub-modes of CALL can be presented232 | Conclusion