https://sparkjournal.arts.ac.uk/index.php/spark/article/view/158

This article grabbed my attention because I started teaching at CSM in 2020 when blended and online teaching was very prominent on the back of Covid.

Blended learning was a new concept to me, so I was interested to read that blended learning is one that has been practiced successfully at many institutions for many years pre Covid. However in the field of Art And Design blended learning is much less researched.

‘Blended learning is the combination of different training ‘media’ (technologies, activities, and types of events) to create an optimum training program for specific audience. The ‘blended’ means that traditional instructor-led training is being supplemented with other electronic formats.’ (Bersin, 2004. pp. xv)

I had recorded a series of practical videos which were a great researce that allowed students to learn craft based skills at home. However I found teaching online very difficult as I found there was an unwillingness to be present on camera, to get involved and join in with discussion. Which I was surprised about given how present people of this age like to be on social media platforms.

‘It seems that gaining trust is essential for students to feel safe online, which will lead them to be able to  engage in open communication together’ (Juutilainen, 2022, P. 1)

I always kept my camera on to make the sessions more personal and to try and build up some trust between myself and student, but for the most part in group tutorials no one else put their camera on. On a one to one basis students were more receptive.

‘With blended learning, we should focus most of all on the design of useful learning activities, and then look for most appropriate teaching tools and environments to facilitate that learning, be that in the classroom or online.’ (Juutilainen, 2022, P. 14)

Moving forwards establishing presence, belonging and trust are key to make blended learning successful.

I would use break out rooms more to allow for students to speak without a teacher presence, where individual relationships could start to be formed. Along with using features such as Padlet for sharing and feeding back to each other informally. And I would focus on the language used to sign post sessions as friendly and informal, whilst being structured so as to not feel like a waste of time.