Blended education

The quality of education gets a big boost when the possibilities of online education are combined with face-to-face education on campus. Therefore, there is plenty of experimentation with new online teaching formats and techniques to improve education for students.

Studenten aan een tafel achter hun laptops

Keywords

There are many opportunities to get started with blended and online education. How do you approach this practically? Here are some suggestions on how to get started with teaching didactics.

Within the European Maturity Model for Blended Education (EMBED) apply Dijkstra and Goeman (2021) the following definitions:

Blended learning

Learning as a result of a consciously chosen and integrated combination of online and face-to-face learning activities.

Blended teaching

Designing and facilitating blended learning activities.

Blended education (blended teaching)

The formal context in which blended teaching and blended learning takes place, determined by the policies and circumstances of the educational institution and the support of Blended Learning and Blended Teaching.

Other terms that often come up in the context of blended education are:

Extended reality (XR)

An umbrella termn for virtual reality(VR), augmented reality (AR) and other forms of immersive technologies. These technologies create life-like digital experiences, blurring the boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds.

Immersive room

'Immersive' (literally: immersive) means having the experience of being physically present in a non-physical world. An immersive room combines the physical and digital worlds to create a lifelike, interactive experience. Fully enveloped in images and sound, users feel as if they are actually in that virtual environment.

Online bonding

Online bonding refers to the level of engagement and connectedness people experience during online interactions. In education, there are three main forms of interaction: student-teacher, student-student and student-learning content. Strong online bonding contributes to motivation and a more effective learning experience.

Online tutoring

Online tutoring is supporting and guiding students via the internet. This can help strengthen the contact between teacher and student and improve the quality of education. Well-organised online tutoring can contribute to a deeper learning experience and more interaction.

Peer feedback

Peer feedback is feedback that students give to each other. This is an educational practice that is becoming increasingly common (Filius, 2020). By giving feedback to fellow students, students develop a critical view of both their own work and that of others. This process encourages deeper learning, as students learn not only from receiving feedback, but also from giving it. When implemented properly, peer feedback can be a valuable addition to teaching.

For more key concepts, see the glossary at edusources.nl