Blended Learning across Disciplines: Models for Implementation

Citation

Lam, W. (2011), "Blended Learning across Disciplines: Models for Implementation", Online Information Review, Vol. 35 No. 6, pp. 973-974. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521111193247

Information Technology (IT) has become ubiquitous, and educators are increasingly seeking ways to leverage IT in the learning process. The combination of traditional classroom education with online education is often referred to as blended learning and is thought to be the way forward for many institutions. However, despite the interest in blended learning, there is little consensus on the extent and nature of blending that is most desirable or effective, so educators are left to experiment on their own, often with little institutional guidance. The arrival of this book on blended learning is therefore timely, with a title that suggests the book may provide educators with much‐needed guidance on how to implement blended learning particularly in the context of university education.

As is the style of IGI reference books, the book is a voluminous collection of chapters written by separate authors and spread over almost 300 pages. As a reference book, it is clearly not a volume one is likely to read cover‐to‐cover, but rather one that readers will browse through and dip into depending on their specific area of interest. It is therefore helpful that the book has a reasonably comprehensive index, which, together with a separate compilation of references taken from each chapter, makes the job of navigating through the book and finding information much easier.

The 13 chapters in the book are organised into three sections: Theorising about Blended Learning, Practising Blended Learning and Extending Blended Learning. The first section includes four chapters. Two of them discuss how blended learning can better support a university's mission, highlighting the obvious importance of faculty support. Senior academic administrators such as deans might find these two chapters useful. A third chapter in this section discusses the use of asynchronous video communication; it is better placed in the following section.

The second section, Practising Blended Learning, also contains four chapters. One particular chapter, “Blended learning examples in education and chemistry”, provides an insightful view of how blended learning was implemented in two separate cases. Interestingly, the chapter notes that concerns about the transition from a teacher‐centred to a student‐centred approach, and whether students would be able to adapt, were found to be misplaced. Instead, students seemed be benefit from the greater liberation in the learning process afforded by a student‐centred approach. The other chapters in this section discuss mobile learning and blended learning in medical education. However, these chapters are shorter on practical details and lack the insightful qualities of the previous chapter.

The remaining five chapters fall in the third and final section, Extending Blended Learning. There are several notable chapters in this section. Although written as a discussion paper rather than as an applied case study, the chapter titled “Fundamental design elements of pervasive games for blended learning” draws attention to the natural convergence of alternative reality games and blended learning. The authors argue that the design principles of alternative reality games lend themselves well to situated and experiential learning. Although this in itself is not an entirely new thesis, the growth in tablet and mobile computing makes this a more relevant discussion today than before. “A case study of a blended doctoral programme in educational technology” describes what would seem an ideally blended programme at the University of Calgary. In what seems to be an emerging feature with blended courses, the face‐to‐face component is used to kick‐off learning projects and assignments, which are subsequently completed in the online mode.

Although this book contains a diverse compilation of chapters on blended learning, it will disappoint readers who are looking for, as the title would suggest, models and frameworks for implementing blended learning. An educator would simply not be able to glean sufficient guidance from the materials in the chapters to prepare themselves to run a blended class. However, despite the shortcomings in practical guidance, a book of this nature is likely to provide doses of inspirational value, and there will surely be a handful of articles that a reader will find enlightening.