Blending Your Education

Design and develop blended education through expert-guided templates that combine online and offline learning activities in your course. 

Blended learning combines traditional face-to-face classroom instruction with online or digital learning. In this course, you will learn how to effectively integrate online and offline instructional methods to deliver your content and optimally engage with your learners. 

This course provides unique support in creating your own blended education. Our expert instructor will offer ongoing support and focus on helping you to design a  curriculum customized to your needs and with your content in mind. The course consists of 7 modules and combines various learning activities such as videos, articles, quizzes, synchronous discussion sessions, and other on-demand interactions such as live feedback sessions or webinars with our expert.

The course is very practical. It draws upon our experience of designing high-quality online education (such as teaching during COVID and participation in the EMBED Project - European Maturity Model for Blended Education 2017-2020). Under the guidance of the course instructor, you will apply unique and modern concepts to adapt your course to a more inclusive and engaging blended learning experience, through guidelines and pedagogies leading to more mature and high-quality education.

TU Delft is a leader in the field of online education. Our TU Delft course design method is based on the extensive expertise of education professionals who have been developing large numbers of online courses (over 200) followed by more than 3.5 million Learners. Our courses have received various awards. Amongst many nominations, TU Delft Online won 3 times The edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions to Online Teaching and Learning.

• Design, develop, and offer a blended course, incorporating best practices, experiences, and learning theories.
• Redesign courses to be more inclusive and engaging based on what we learned from COVID experiences in teaching.
• Implement blended learning solutions for your own situation using the EMBED model.
• Evaluate your course and create a course improvement plan.

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Course Syllabus

0. Course Welcome In the Getting Started section you’ll get to know the course structure, get familiarized with the virtual learning environment, complete your profile, meet your fellow students and the instructor. These introductory tasks should be completed in the beginning of the course, after your first login.

1. Get started with Blended Learning In the first module of this course, you will learn the definition of Blended Teaching and learning, when Blended Learning is an added value, how Blended Learning fits in a course design and what the differences are between a traditional face-to-face (F2F) setting and Blended Learning. You will learn how to utilize a Blended Learning Wave to plan your learning activities.  Webinar 1 Agenda: 

• Does everyone have access to this course?
• Introductions with Icebreaker
• Why we use Icebreakers
• Breakout rooms - Come up with an icebreaker
• What's in the module - Get Started?
• Scavenger Hunt
• What is Blended Education and the Blended Learning Wave
• This Module's Assignments and when they are due
• Any immediate questions / concerns regarding Blending Your Education

2. Is your course ready to be blended? After getting adjusted to the course and having met your peers, you will analyse barriers and possibilities for blended education in your own institution. The EMBED model will be introduced with its four different dimensions. You will start with a course improvement plan based on the EMBED model, analyzing the needs of students, knowing and setting expectations, exploring the environment (Multi campus Education, International Collaboration) and exploring the facilities available to you. Webinar Agenda:

• What you've learned so far
• What tools you've explored so far
• Your Blended Learning Wave so far
• Discussing if your course is ready to blend
• Course Scan
• Constructive Alignment
• Immediate questions/concerns regarding Blended Learning

3. Plan your course design Based on your course improvement plan, you will learn how to determine Learning Objectives (LOs) using constructive alignment, plan media based on learning objectives, determine assessments connected to the learning objectives and you will be able to decide between synchronous and asynchronous delivery in your learning activities. The Course Design Process dimension in the EMBED model will be used as a basis for creating your course improvement plan.  Webinar Agenda: 

• Discuss in groups what you discovered with your course scan and constructive alignment
• Storyboarding
• Designing your synchronous sessions
• Creating a Media Plan
• Planning your assessment
• Immediate questions/concerns regarding Blended Learning

4. Prepare to teach your course In this module, you will learn how to engage and motivate students. You will explore options such as game-based learning and storytelling. Additionally, you will be guided into making deliberate choices in designing inclusive learning activities and learning experiences. You will also focus on student readiness, student learning, study load, student engagement, motivation and supporting students in overcoming failure. The Course experience flexibility in the EMBED model will be highlighted in this module.  Webinar Agenda:

• Student Readiness
• Student Engagement
• Importance of storytelling
• Discuss your storyboard in small groups and give a story
• Gameplay
• Immediate questions/concerns regarding Blended Learning

5. Build your blended course After you complete your course design, you will then begin to build your course inside a course shell within your own Learning Management System (LMS). During this stage, you will find and create and/or reuse (openly licensed) content, consider how to make your content interactive, and decide which tools to utilize according to situations that arise (See Selection of tools in EMBED Model. The Course Interaction dimension in the EMBED model will be highlighted in this module.  Webinar Agenda: 

• Discuss your student engagement plan
• Media plan
• Finding Open Educational Resources (OER)
• Creating media and materials
• Organizing your content in the course
• Immediate questions/concerns regarding Blended Learning

6. Teach your blended course By now you are feeling prepared to teach your course. This module focuses on how to deliver the content, specifically how you will communicate with learners and encourage them to participate and complete your course. Common challenges that you can be faced with when offering a new course in new ways will be explored. You will learn what you can do if you need to adjust your course on the fly based on learner input. The Course Experience dimension in the EMBED model will be highlighted in this module.  Webinar Agenda: 

• Discuss your course design
• Communication Plan
• Planning e-moderation and online presence
• Tips on adjusting a live course
• Immediate questions/concerns regarding Blended Learning

7. Evaluate and improve your course In this final module you will focus on how to evaluate and improve your course. You will make a plan of what you need to change or edit for future course runs. This module wraps up the course by relooking at what you’ve learned thus far and considering what and how you will implement what you’ve learned in your own settings. Beyond your course, you can begin to consider how to encourage Blended Learning at your own institute.  Webinar Agenda: 

• Discuss your communication plan
• Evaluating your course
• Planning for Improvement in Stages
• Implementing changes
• Immediate questions/concerns regarding Blended Learning

The two-level mutual trust-based quality assurance scheme has been adopted:

• at the university level: Technische Universiteit Delft has applied its internal quality assurance procedures and structures to the proposal of Blending Your Education it submitted to ENHANCE and to its implementation - the related learning activities,
• at the Alliance level: the body composed of Education Officers has made decisions regarding the inclusion of Blending Your Education proposed by Technische Universiteit Delft to the Innovative Learning Campus part of the joint ENHANCE educational offer, based on the compliance with the formal requirements and ENHANCE goals.

Will be shared at the start of the course.

If you have any questions about this course or the TU Delft online learning environment, please visit our Help & Support page.