Designing Quality Blended Courses

Abstract

Over the last few years, a growing number of courses have been incorporating online elements into traditional face-to-face instruction. This movement has led to the emergence of a blended teaching and learning approach, which, in turn, has increased the need to discuss the educational benefits and underlying challenges of this type of instructional delivery. When developing a blended course, a number of important principles should be kept in mind to ensure the effectiveness of the course. Effective blended design takes into consideration the differences between face-to-face and online learning and incorporates different learning and teaching strategies. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss designing a quality blended course. This chapter discusses designing activities to encourage interaction, motivation, and engagement within a blended course that can be used in the online components. In addition, how to structure a blended course and benefits of working with a development team are discussed.