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Sunday, November 24, 2024

Blended Learning: An Approach to Re-open the School

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Bijaya Kumar Shrestha

Amid COVID-19, closure of the schools around the globe forced billions of students out of the regular classroom.

Considering this, researchers in Education Technology forwarded Information Communication Technology (ICT) as an important tool to process the classes virtually. In this realization, the majority of the schools switched to ‘Online Learning’.

This has encouraged most of the teachers to rethink their own teaching-learning practice and to teach in a way they have never taught before and probably never experienced as a student. The hard effort of the teachers in making the learning possible is highly appreciable.

But, given the education system of Nepal, this is very true that one day schools should turn to ‘Face-to-Face Learning’ as before. Current ‘Online Learning’ is one of the best alternative method to continue the teaching-learning process. However, the major question is, “How to gradually shift to ‘Face to Face Learning’ from ‘Online Learning’?” Will the schools be ready to welcome all the students to the class physically by the day the government announces re-opening of the schools? Not only this, will the parents be ready to send their children to the physically run classes?

During this pandemic while most of the schools are teaching students online, the gradual shift to face-face could be challenging. So, both schools and the parents may need to think of an approach which may help the students make the transition easier. In doing so, with a motive to improve students’ adaptation, accommodating the ‘Blended Learning’ can be one approach.

In short, ‘Blended Learning’ is a method of learning that combines both ‘Online Learning’ and ‘Face-to-Face Learning’. It is a method of adopting a strategic and systematic approach to the use of technology combined with the face to face interaction.

Although few higher-level educational institutions in Nepal have implement the concept of ‘Blended Learning’, the direct use of this terminology is rare and less promoted. With the start of distance learning, the use of TV-based technology to support live training, succeeded by CD-ROM training, and rise of the Learning Management System, 1998 is regarded as the year of the first generation of web-based instruction. However, towards the late 1990s, ‘Blended Learning’ terminology was framed, and from 2000 until today, ‘Blended Learning’ has been successfully implemented and appreciated. Therefore, the ‘Blended Learning’ model is not a new concept.

Over the last decade, the demand and popularity of ‘Blended Learning’ is growing in education and has become a widely spread teaching phenomenon as it can be one of the best approaches to overcome various limitations related to ‘Online Learning’ and ‘Face-to-Face Learning’. Around the globe, Blended Learning approaches have been appreciated by both the learners and the teachers.

There are different processes of designing ‘Blended Learning’ course of which the three distinct design approaches are: low-blend approach, in which extra online activities are added in order to blend the face to face teaching-learning model; medium-blend approach, in which some course activities are replaced by their online version considering that they would be more effective as online activities; high-blend activities, in which there is a full redesign, total redesign, radical change in the course activities to blend it.

‘Blended Learning’ environment allows teachers to design classes to mix and match the two teaching modalities, online, and face to face. Also, ‘Blended Learning’ holds the promise of combining the best of online and face-to-face learning. Studies have shown that students enjoy the ‘Blended Learning’ experience and that students do not want to continue their education only in the face-to-face environments nor do they want a purely online environment. So, while adapting ‘Blended Learning’ it is very important to establish some level of balance between face-to-face and online environment, keeping in mind of the advantages and drawbacks of both methods.

The ‘Blended Learning’ curriculum may be divided into passive and active applications. A typical example of a passive application is the use of a Learning Management System (LMS) in face-to-face classes. However, a ‘Flipped Classroom’ is an example of an active ‘Blended Learning’. In ‘Flipped Classroom’, students listen to the lecture in advance via online videos. Then the typical classroom setting is replaced with the assignments. ‘Flipped Classroom’ basically implies a method of distributing pre-class materials to students, using available technology, such that students have an insight of what the following day’s class will be about.

The success of effective use of ‘Blended Learning’ depends on factors like support from school management; strong focused and knowledgeable leadership with an effective organizational structure; well thought-out design and robust processes to manage the diffusion, adoption, and support of new learning paradigms. Though the rate of adoption of technology towards learning is increasing rapidly, the implementation of the ‘Blended Learning’ approach should also justify students’ perception. With this justification, the students will develop interest and will be motivated in their learning activities.

Despite any approach to continue the teaching-learning process during the current pandemic, the question today, when it comes to the use of technology in education is, “What is the goal? Is the goal to increase the score or to increase the learning ability of children familiar with technology in this difficult time?” and many more. Here, misunderstanding the goal might be the real problem when it comes to the use of technology in education. All the stakeholders: schools, parents, and students should understand that technology is the only tool to enhance the teaching-learning process in this pandemic. No score machine, not at all.

[Bijaya Kumar Shrestha (bijaya.kumar.shrestha1@gmail.com) is an Information Technology graduate of Kathmandu University working in an educational institution.]

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