Abstract:

This study reports on the results of a teacher training course on Blended Learning in Higher Education (BLIHE). The course is carried out by the department of Communication and Learning in Science (CLS) at Chalmers and aims at encouraging teachers to incorporate blended learning in their own teaching, in particular flipped classroom. During the period 2021 to 2025, BLIHE has attracted 109 participants in total.

BLIHE runs once a year for a period of eight consecutive weeks and is credit-bearing 2.5 HEC. Naturally, the pedagogic approach is a flipped classroom. The course also includes a mini project in which course participants pick an individual course topic of their own choice, to serve as a design and development experiment.

The course consists of seven modules. Each module represents a key step in designing and developing a flipped classroom course:
1. Writing learning outcomes and learning activity planning
2. Designing asynchronous learning activities
3. Recording and editing instructional videos
4. Designing active learning sessions
5. Conducting active learning sessions
6. Designing quizzes and assessments
7. Summing up, reflections and next steps

Each week the participants prepare by watching instructional videos before attending the corresponding active learning session. During these weekly sessions, the course participants try introductory case studies and exercises. In this way the course participants warm up for the weekly assignments, which coincide with work on their individual mini projects. The Learning Management System (LMS), Canvas, holds all course content and assignment instructions, for access at any time and for self-paced learning. The course instructors grade all assignment submissions manually and give personalized feedback.

In 2021, CLS decided to run the active learning sessions using a hybrid classroom setup (Zoom video conferencing) because of restrictions during the pandemic. The participants appreciated this format, and it had a positive effect on attendance rates. Therefore, CLS decided to keep the hybrid classroom format after the pandemic passed.

The course completion rates for BLIHE are high, 80-100%, with few dropouts. Overall, the course participants give the course high expectation- and satisfaction score ratings. Each year the course instructors invite the participants to share comments and points of criticism. These are all analyzed to serve as input to course improvements.

CLS have found four main positive outcomes of the BLIHE course. The participants get to design and develop a complete course snippet of their own. More generally, the participants get a solid introduction to the process and best practice of blended learning design, which they can apply right away in their own teaching. They get a better understanding of the effort and the resources needed. Also, because of the focus on practical knowledge and skills, the participants are well prepared to work with ICT personnel and blended learning experts.

Keywords:

Teacher training, blended learning, flipped classroom, hybrid classroom, project-based learning.