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Ghent University Goes Blended

What is Blend@UGent?

Definition

Blend@UGent is a well-considered and well-aligned mix of online and on-campus education. This means students actively work with learning contents, both individually and in interaction with each other and lecturers.  

Ghent University redesigns its learning environment into a blend of active, evidence-based teaching, learning opportunities and assessment methods, both online and on campus.

Opportunities and challenges

Ghent University redesigns its learning environment into a blend of active, evidence-based teaching, learning opportunities and assessment methods, both online and on campus. In doing so, Ghent University aims to: 

  • stimulate student involvement
  • offer optimal learning opportunities 
  • optimally develop the students’ competencies
  • obtain a higher success rate

Given that, in a blended learning environment, students are pushed more towards independence and self-management, additional focus and care should go to: 

  • supporting the students’ learning process
  • promoting interaction
  • creating a warm(er) learning environment

The crucial role of lecturers

Lecturers will not only take on the role of content experts, but also the role of developers/facilitators and supervisors/coaches. Lecturers orchestrate their students’ learning process by offering them content and structure, by monitoring and guiding their learning process and by aligning all learning activities. 

To this end, we introduce educational technology as a well-considered tool, but never as a replacement for the lecturer. On the contrary, we still firmly believe that “the best app is the lecturer”. The study programme (i.e. all actors involved in education such as (the chair of) the Study Programme Committee, all lecturers, members of the Quality Assurance Unit, schedulers, members of the Faculty Education Support Services, student representatives, etc.), in turn, makes sure that there is cohesion in the organisation of education and monitors the quality of the design process. 

Blended education, learning and assessment activities 

In a blended learning environment, both synchronous and asynchronous learning activities are possible:

  • synchronous learning refers to learning activities in which students participate at a fixed time. During these activities, students can engage in interaction simultaneously, with the lecturer and with each other.
  • asynchronous learning refers to learning activities in which students participate at their own time and pace. They do not interact simultaneously with each other or with lecturers. 

The ratio between online and on-campus activities is dynamic and always depends on content-specific, educational, socio-psychological, practical and technological factors such as the competencies that you are aiming to achieve, the composition of the student group, safety measures, classroom capacity or the available technology. 

Blended education offers lecturers the possibility to deploy a multitude of education, learning or assessment activities, always related to the intended competencies (cf. constructive alignment). 

This table offers a number of examples by way of illustration: 

 

Online

On campus
Synchronous

Livestream with possibilities for chat, virtual classrooms, online Q&A, workshops, etc.

Practicals, seminars, supervisions, discussions, etc.
Asynchronous Online texts, recordings of synchronous classes, knowledge clips, assignments (possibly with automated feedback), FAQ, online tests, online individual or group assignments, announcements, blogs, vlogs, e-mails, etc.

 

Blend@UGent: Eight Principles

Blended learning at Ghent University starts from eight basic quality principles:  

1. Realising a Reasoned Blend of Online and On-campus Teaching, Learning and Assessment Activities

Blended education requires a well-aligned blend of online and on-campus activities that reinforce each other. A Programme Committee and/or an individual lecturers should guarantee a well-considered mix of online and on-campus activities, both synchronous and asynchronous. 
 
The Programme Committee:  
  • determines the programme-specific competencies for which on-campus activities remain necessary (e.g. practicals, lab classes, research for Bachelor’s or Master’s dissertations) and  offer an added value to students (e.g. discussions, interaction, collaboration, community-forming);
  • ensures a balanced ratio between synchronous and asynchronous activities;
  • takes specific student groups into consideration (e.g. first-year students or vulnerable groups);
  • takes into account the workload for lecturers;
  • aligns the use of educational technologies at faculty level, as students use different devices (e.g. smartphones, laptops, tablets);
  • plans the academic calendar logically (e.g. choice of term or year-full course units, modular education, etc.);
  • ensures an alignment of ‘blends of course units’ within a standard-track year, both within the standard study track and and across study years;
For the lecturer, a well-considered blend comprises: 
  • an optimal mix of individual and group activities aligned with the learning outcomes students will have to acquire;
  • a good combination of synchronous and asynchronous teaching, learning and assessment activities within the course units; 
  • an integrated blending, which means, for example, that students prepare a theoretical chapter independently and send their questions to the lecturer in advance. The lecturer can then hold an online Q&A or response lecture to answer these questions and illustrate the more challenging parts of the chapter with specific examples; 
  • study materials that are aligned with the chosen teaching and learning activities, made available in a timely manner and made to last (and in other words sustainable). Consider knowledge clips: if they are of good quality and cover basic knowledge (e.g. anatomical structures) that is resistant to time, making them is worth the investment;

2. Activating and Motivating

Active teaching remains one of the basic principles of premium-quality education in the Blend@UGent framework. In other words, students should participate actively throughout the course units and interact with the learning contents, study materials, their peers and lecturers. Activation is possible using synchronous and asynchronous learning activities: 
  • synchronous learning activities are used to stimulate immediate interaction, collaboration and discussion e.g. via a voting system, the Think-Pair-Share-method, a one minute paper, etc;
  • asynchronous learning activities allow students to actively process learning contents, e.g. via specific assignments, application on a case, a self-test, interaction via a discussion forum, etc.
Active blended learning offers powerful learning opportunities which promote competency development and allows students to acquire the learning content in a more autonomous manner. The active blend thereby contributes to the involvement, the participation and the motivation of students. 

3. Structuring the Students’ Learning Process 

Blended learning requires a lot of independence and self-management from students. In order to support students, structuring their learning process is crucial, both within the separate course units as well as at the level of the study programme. 
A lecturer provides structure through: 
  • an adequate chronology and planning of online and on-campus teaching and learning activities;
  • clear, timely instructions;
  • clear expectations;
  • regular deadlines, intermediate assessment and feedback moments throughout the semester or the academic year.
Structuring a student's learning process means giving them regular incentives (e.g. intermediate assignments or (self)tests) to interact with the learning contents in time and to start, plan and organise their learning process. 
 
At the level of the study programme, teaching activities also benefit from a solid structure and adequate planning:
  • the Programme Committee shapes the programme as a whole and defines general agreements for lecturers with regard to the organisation of blended learning. The study programme (Committee) provides, amongst other things, a clear and feasible schedule that mentions online and on-campus teaching activities.
  • the Programme Committee also provides a timely, clear planning of online and on-campus (student) counselling and makes sure that this planning fits the online course units. A particular point to consider is a reasonable staggering of deadlines across course units so that students and lecturers have a workload that is feasible. 

4. Communicating Clearly and Transparently

Clear instructions and transparent communication are a must with regard to blended learning, on behalf of the lecturers as well as the study programme. 
Lecturers should:
  • inform their students about: 
    • the objectives of the course unit and what way it is blended;
    • the correlation between the different teaching and learning activities;
    • the form and the timing of the assessment (deadlines, moment of assessment) and the content-related expectations;
  • give clear instructions and use clear language in the descriptions of assignments;
  • make agreements on how students can get in touch with them, which is even more important for blended education than for ‘regular education’.
For the Programme Committee, too, clear communication about how the blend will be achieved is crucial. For example, make sure the timetable is available in a timely manner, offer counselling across course units (student and study track counselling, a transparent study guide, etc.), etc. 

5. Offering Sufficient Guidance

The lecturer has an important role in blended teaching in monitoring the students’ progress, involving them actively, detecting possible group misconceptions and maintaining a dynamic interaction with the group. This entails being present and approachable (digitally): record a video message when posting an announcement or giving (group) feedback, participate in group discussions, organise a digital office hour, etc.
 
Less face-to-face contact should never mean that students have to process the learning contents entirely on their own without the benefit of guidance. Apart from an increased investment of time, online learning requires additional support so that students are motivated to learn how to process the learning content. This support is important especially at the start of the process, so that they learn how to work with the materials (more) independently afterwards. The form and intensity of the support can change over time. 
 
This support/guidance can reveal itself in the choice of teaching and learning activities at individual or group level (e.g. by allocating student roles with different responsibilities), but also in the choice of the study materials and digital tools (e.g. automated feedback, self-tests, etc.).
 
Online education yields student data, which can be used to make the learning process and progress (more) visible to the students themselves as well as their lecturers. Using student data must be well-considered. If the gathered and aggregated data  (i.e. at group level) are used while respecting the students' privacy, they can become an additional source for student counselling. Lecturers can also use these data to monitor the quality of their teaching, and make adjustments if necessary. 

6. Blending Learning and Assessment

Blended learning requires appropriate online and on-campus assessments. Assessments and teaching activities can alternate more frequently or even coincide completely. As a result, the difference between the two types of activities becomes less clear and there are more opportunities for intermediate assessment. Instead of a traditional exam at the end of term, assessments can be organised throughout: think of assignments, online tests, peer assessment, etc. If the competencies are assessed sufficiently throughout term, lecturers might consider a final assessment that does not cover all the competencies, or even cancel the final assessment altogether. 
 
Assessments yield proof of the students’ achieved competencies. They make the students’ learning process visible to the students themselves and to the lecturers. If necessary, students can adjust their learning strategies while lecturers can adjust their instructions. A strong case is to be made for intermediate assessments (graded or not) and intermediate feedback: they are powerful catalysts in the learning process of students. Consider the following examples: 
  • a short assignment after an online class can yield information on what students have taken away from the class. The assignment may reveal specific sticking points, to which the lecturer can come back in a following class, or students can revisit a specific topic in the lecture recordings.
  • feedback from the lecturer is very valuable, but so are self-feedback and peer feedback. Students can play an active role by focusing on their own learning process and that of their peers. They can then use the information from the intermediate assessment and feedback to adjust their learning process. 
In terms of content, intermediate and final assessments should always focus on the intended learning outcomes (course- and programme-specific competencies) (validity). Students should be made aware of these competencies and expectations prior to the assessment, e.g. though rubrics, sample questions or mock exams (transparency). The assessment will yield an accurate image of what the students master (reliability), if it contains e.g. a sufficient number of, and clearly formulated  exam questions, and when it comes with an answer key. 
 
At the level of the study programme, the Programme Committee should ensure that there is a coherent and premium-quality blend of assessment methods. It is important, therefore, to align the assessments in terms of type, content, coherence and location. To deliver and monitor assessments that are up to standards in terms of level and content, a benchmark exercise involving third parties can be considered. 

7. Creating a Warm, Accessible Learning Environment Focusing on a Sense of Belonging

More than in the case of on-campus teaching activities, students need accessible study materials and a warm learning environment where they feel safe and which stimulates a sense of belonging. This is especially important if the blended teaching activities take place largely online. This is a shared responsibility of lecturers, study programme management, student counsellors and all other education support staff who come into contact with students.   
  • (digitally) accessible study materials, meaningful and authentic assignments that are aligned with the students' prior knowledge and background, and contain  examples, audiovisual materials, case studies, applications or research with which a diverse student group can identify are important;
  • the online learning environment must feel safe for students. It is important for lecturers to invest in a welcoming learning environment, especially at the start. We recommend interventions such as a warm welcome and an online meet-and-greet with the team of lecturers and peers; 
  • online interaction also comes with potential obstacles. Make sure to stress that it is all right to make mistakes and that doing so even offers learning opportunities of its own. In addition, show that you are open to all ideas and viewpoints (as long as they are expressed with mutual respect). This will reassure students and invite them to share their thoughts; 
  • a feeling of connection among the students will increase their involvement and stimulate their learning process. Important aspects, therefore, are to promote interaction interaction among them, and give them opportunities for gradual and focused collaboration. 

8. Instilling a Feeling of Shared Responsibility 

Blend@UGent is a collaborative effort involving various actors, each with their own responsibility to make blended learning a success. The development and implementation of premium-quality blended learning is an iterative process with a shared responsibility at the level of study programmes, lecturers and students. The participation of all stakeholders is crucial (think of term meetings, the Study Programme Committee or a student survey). Ghent University’s Quality Conduct 2.0 ensures that actions are planned, executed, evaluated and adjusted. In this respect, constructive feedback from students and external stakeholders are indispensible. 
 
Blended education (its development, its implementation) poses a major challenge. That is why at Ghent University we stimulate collaboration between lecturers, students, faculty or university education support staff based on inspiration, exchange and co-creation take centre stage. The ownership of each ‘blend’, however, ultimately lies with the lecturers and the study programmes, as they are best-placed to assess the form their education should take to achieve to the intended competencies/learning outcomes.  

Want to Know more?

Consult the sources on which this Education Tip was based: 

UGent Practices

Last modified Nov. 6, 2024, 11:55 a.m.