The future look (s)blended: Engaging Pedagogy in Blended Learning

The successful LL.B. (Hons) programme via Blended delivery (Bachelor of Arts Law QQI level 8) at Griffith College has been running since 2014. Our Digital Learning Department (DLD) followed up that first Blended programme with a Business Studies under graduate offering – the BABS (Hons) via Blended programme, which commenced Sept 2016. The DLD staff were instrumental in proposing, designing and rolling out this blended programme as an extension of our Part-time (P/T) and Full-time (F/T) BA Honours Business Faculty offering (BABSH). Currently students are completing the final year of their degree and we have a staggered intake in September and again in February.
The model we employ for these programme consists of a blend of synchronous and asynchronous elements and activities delivered via the Moodle (3.4) platform, recently redesigned in-house, for better user experience (UX) in 2018. Weekly 20 min e-lectures are created by subject specialists, in bespoke, e-Learning labs, using Camtasia software; then quality reviewed and posted to the VLE in the high quality Ubicast format. Use of this highend technology makes flexibility of delivery and engagement possible and a variety of student pathways are facilitated on the Blended programme as a result. The Ubicast system provides value added functionality, which is appreciated by our learners in their student survey comments. Resources (including e-Lectures) and Moodle activities are revealed to students weekly, including blogs, discussion forums, YouTube clips, academic papers, online quizzes etc. This delivery mode is supplemented by monthly online classroom (Zoom Pro) etutorials, where break-out rooms, screen-sharing and use of white board graphics make for dynamic interactive Q&A sessions. Lecturers also make themselves available for 1:2:1 office hours using their own Zoom online classrooms via their Moodle module pages.
One of the corner stones of this blended delivery continues to be live face-to-face days scheduled monthly, where learners join their peers on Saturdays, on campus, for 3 hour “flipped” classroom workshops. Continuous formative assessment is facilitated via Moodle submission points, using Turn-it-in anti-plagiarism software, where a variety of online feedback options, are made easily available to the learners. This presentation will showcase our delivery methods, use of learning analytics and strong results.