5 - Workshop: Designing Blended Learning Courses

Dear Educator,

Welcome to our Distance Learning Course Plan Facilitation Guide, crafted to assist you in enhancing blended learning environments. This guide is your comprehensive roadmap for designing and implementing effective blended-learning strategies.

Purpose of the Distance Learning Course Plan

We aim to streamline the creation of student-centred blended learning experiences, combining online and in-person instruction. This guide provides a structured approach for teachers and teams, covering everything from initial design to implementing innovative instructional models seamlessly merging online and in-person learning.

Target Audience

This guide is intended for individual teachers looking to revitalize core subjects with blended learning. However, we advocate a collaborative approach at the teaching department level. Working together enhances support networks, ensures buy-in, and proactively includes more people in the change process.

Our Approach

We employ human-centred innovation and instructional design, influenced by our work with secondary school educators and expert partners in the Agile XR Project under the EU Erasmus+ programme. Our methodology focuses on student-centred learning, optimizing physical and digital spaces, leading to comprehensive instructional models and teaching strategies. ADD DOUBLE DIAMOND IMAGE

Guide Overview

This guide is structured to simplify the complex task of reimagining student-centred blended instructional practices. It breaks down the process into manageable workshop sessions, each focusing on different redesign aspects.

Session 1	Redesign Intentions Framing
Purpose	To create team-wide awareness and select initiatives for continuous blended teaching and learning improvement.
Method	Focus on student achievement challenges to identify design opportunities.
Outcome	Project Cards for each initiative outlining challenges, goals, scope, and context. These cards help assess each project's readiness and communicate ideas to others.
Participants	Individual teachers, teacher teams, educational leaders, etc.
Duration	3 hours

Don't want to start from a blank slate?

This guide is meant for complete course redesigns for blended learning. For those not seeking a total transformation, our 'Distance Learning Boost' offers a pathway to enhance existing courses gradually. Discover our 'Distance Learning Boost' facilitators guide

Using This Guide

Each session in this guide includes:

• Required participants.

• Step-by-step instructions.

• The rationale behind each step.

• Detailed exercise descriptions.

• Expected results.

• Recommended background information from other Agile XR project results.

Let’s embark on this journey to transform your teaching practices and create exceptional blended learning experiences!

Imprint

We suggest citing this report as follows: Van Cauwenberghe, J., Fraile, J., Orgaz-Rincón, D., Esteban-Manrique, P., Carrillo, L., Katrini, C., & Lassenius, P. (2023). Workshop: Designing Blended Learning Courses. Augmented Agile teamwork for hybrid learning at Schools (AgileXR). https://agilexr.eu/

Editors/Partners: RHIZO School (BE), Fundación Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (SP), CollectiveUP (BE), Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (FI).

Authors: Joos Van Cauwenberghe (RHIZO), Juan Fraile (UFV), Daniel Orgaz-Rincón (UFV), Paula Esteban-Manrique (UFV), Liliana Carrillo (CollectiveUP), Chrysanthi Katrini (CollectiveUP), Petra Lassenius (Metropolia University).

Translation: Dutch versions by Joos Van Cauwenberghe (RHIZO), Finnish version by Petra Lassenius (Metropolia University), and Spanish version by Juan Fraile (UFV), Daniel Orgaz-Rincón (UFV) & Paula Esteban-Manrique (UFV).

This publication (in English, Finnish, Dutch and Spanish) and other publications and tools produced by the project can be downloaded free of charge from: https://agilexr.eu/

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

The project "Augmented Agile teamwork for hybrid learning at Schools” (2021-1-BE02-KA220-SCH-000027889) is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The views expressed in the working papers, deliverables and reports are those of the project consortium partners. These views have not been adopted or approved by the Commission and should not be relied upon as a statement of the Commission’s or its services’ views. The European Commission does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in the working papers and reports, nor does it accept responsibility for any use made thereof.