2017 I offered a course on Digital history for students at one of the German universities. Because of the distance between my home town and the university town the course was designed in form of blended learning. We used both online and in-person learning experiences and the students liked every minute of it. For many of them this was the first time to experience such a course. During the course we reflected also on the application of online-tools and explored the questions how to teach history in its complexity with support of digital – tools and in for of blended learning? Moreover, what does digitization do with history? Are for teaching history online-tools more useful than textbook and traditional class room?

The course was successful and as mentioned before, helped the students not only to handle new techniques but also to reflect on more essential and existential questions regarding digitization. But what is this blended learning, which seems to be hyped at every platform? The term blended learning, also called hybrid learning and mixed-mode learning, is using both online and in-person learning experiences when teaching students. In a blended-learning course, students might attend a class taught by a teacher in a traditional setting, while also completing online components of the course outside of the classroom.(2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5txJfv2q0c

Blended learning offers many advantages and disadvantages that will largely depend on the quality of the design and execution of the given course. Many may argue that blended learning gives students the benefits of both online learning and in-person instruction. They can work independently and at their own place online, but still have direct contact to and exchange with the teacher and all the support and resources such the teacher provides. At the same time, teachers can structure courses more flexibly and creatively than in the traditional setting. However, blended learning requires a very precise structure and course-preparation for the educator. During the online sessions everything has to function otherwise the educator won´t reach the “teaching goals”. Therefore, learning design is essential in the framework of blended learning.(2015)

7 Cs of Learning Design (Conceptualise, capture, create, communicate, collaborate, consider and consolidate)

learning design

Source of Diagram:

http://www2.le.ac.uk/projects/oer/oers/beyond-distance-research-alliance/7Cs-toolkit - retrived 21.12.2018

References:

The Glossary of Educational reform; https://www.edglossary.org/blended-learning/, retrived 20.12.2018

Blended Leraning-e-teaching.org.; https://www.e-teaching.org/lehrszenarien/blended_learning, retrived 20.12.2018

Erpenbeck, J; Sauter.S; Sauter, W. (2015): E-learning und Blended Learning. Springer:Berlin