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Online & 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

Online and blended education

Blended learning is a mixture of face-to-face and ICT-based teaching activities, learning materials and tools. Both types of learning activities are a substantial part of education; ideally, they reinforce each other.

The aim of blended education is to (re)develop education that uses ICT to enable effective, efficient and flexible learning, resulting in an increase in learning efficiency and student/teacher satisfaction.

In the context of the European Maturity Model for Blended Education (EMBED), Dijkstra and Goeman (2021) use the following definitions of blended:

  • Blended Learning refers to learning as a result of a deliberately chosen and integrated combination of online and face-to-face learning activities.
  • Blended Teaching refers to the design and facilitation of blended learning activities.
  • Blended Education refers to the formal context in which Blended Teaching and Blended Learning takes place, determined by the policies and circumstances of the educational institution and its support for Blended Learning and Blended Teaching.

Lessons learned for an ideal blend

Since the corona crisis, much research has been done on the experiences of online and blended education. The report The Future of Blended Education has Started, a survey of 1,500 students and staff of higher education institutions, shows how difficult it is to organise online education. There are concerns about the quality of (practical) education, the workload among teachers and the well-being of students. At the same time, there are also many positive aspects to online education such as time- and location-independent learning, innovative work formats and online channels for individual student guidance. The study concludes that both students and teachers prefer a mix of online and physical education.

In the report, the researchers make a number of suggestions to arrive at an ideal blend.

  • Back to the drawing board. An institution-level vision is important, but start from what lecturers experience in practice.
  • Involve students in the design. Of course, 100% customisation for all students is not feasible. But include students in directing their educational mix, ask them to co-design a subject.
  • Invest in online teaching quality. That means investing in professional development of teachers, and work on online teaching skills.
  • Make room in the design for online bonding. The lecturer is important here, but as an institution, you should also ensure community building and work on online bonding.
  • Use the campus as a place for co-creation. Make the campus more of a meeting place than a workplace or a place of instruction.

Collaboration

We also seek collaboration with various activities in the Acceleration Plan for Education Innovation with ICT within zones and working groups:

Educational knowledge

On onderwijskennis.nl, a page of the National Education Research Organisation (NRO), you will find knowledge from scientific research.

View the insights on blended learning