How to Create Blended Learning Instructional Design: 5 Tips To Get You Started

Blended learning is the marriage of online and offline learning. Students can use their own devices to access courses and content and help them retain information more effectively. Blended learning supports self-directed, independent study that allows learners to flexibly access material whenever they have the time or inclination. With so much emphasis on assessment in the current educational climate, blended learning also offers a great way to incorporate assessments into your lessons and reinforce what students learn. With that being said, creating an effective blended learning instructional design doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Here are some practical tips you can follow to get your program up and running as smoothly as possible:

 

Create a clear learner journey map

A learner journey map is a visual representation of your course’s path to knowledge and skills for your students. The journey map will help you determine the sequence of topics you want to cover, organize your content, and identify opportunities for assessments and feedback. The journey map should be created from the student’s perspective and include information such as the student’s skills, knowledge, learning styles, personality, and interests. You can use the journey map to identify gaps in students’ knowledge and skills, and then use assessments to help resolve those issues. While the journey map is a helpful guide, you need to continually assess it to make sure that it’s still relevant and useful. This means that you can adjust the path of the journey map as necessary, and add new content as your students learn more.

 

Include formative and summative assessments

In addition to assessments that help your students learn, you can also use assessments to help your instructors learn. This can be especially helpful when creating blended learning content, since instructors may need to take a different approach to teaching from traditional methods. Formative assessments are used to assess the state of learning for individual learners. These assessments can be conducted repeatedly to help instructors identify specific issues and determine how much time to devote to each student. SUMMATIVE assessments are used to gauge whether your students have learned the material or not. These assessments can either be comprehensive or brief, depending on how you use them. With formative assessments, instructors can use them to identify specific issues and determine how much time to devote to each student. This can help instructors provide more personalized feedback and act as a helpful guide. With summative assessments, instructors need to determine whether students have truly mastered the material or not. This can be a complex task, and so you might choose to use a brief assessment.

 

Make sure your content is easily accessible

When creating blended learning content, it’s important to think about how your students will access the program. This includes the type of device they’ll use, the location they’ll access the content from, and their internet connection. Many blended learning programs include course content that can be accessed on a variety of devices. It may make sense for you to create a specific website for your program so that users can easily access the content from any device. If you plan to use an online course platform, make sure that it allows support for blended learning. This includes the ability to create and manage a virtual classroom, collaborate with other instructors, track student progress, and review student assessments. When it comes to hardware, you don’t have to choose between a laptop for mobility and a desktop for portability. Both types of devices offer a variety of capabilities, and blended learning content can take advantage of both types.

 

Don’t forget about support services and collaboration

If you want to truly transform the way that students learn, you need to innovate within your own programs as well. This means ensuring that your content is accessible and that your instructors have access to the best training and support resources. You also need to make sure that your content is easily accessible to your students. This can include making sure that your course content is accessible to a wide range of devices, and that your program is easily accessible from varied locations. Your instructors also need to be able to collaborate with students and provide meaningful feedback. This can include creating online assignments and courses, and making collaboration between instructors and students seamless. It’s important to remember that learning is a Collaborative Effort. You can’t expect students to engage with your content on their own. You can’t expect them to understand the material and apply it to real-world scenarios. And you can’t expect them to do this alone.

 

Keep in mind the future of learning

Blended learning is already transforming how students access and use content. This includes using mobile devices, accessing content on their own schedule, and accessing content 24/7. We’re also seeing a shift in how students learn. Students are more likely to be active learners and are increasingly using their own devices. This can include using a variety of digital platforms, including social media and online courses. As digital technology continues to evolve and become more accessible, it’s likely that we’ll see blended learning programs take on an even larger role. This can include using artificial intelligence to help students learn, virtual reality to create immersive learning experiences, and more.

 

Conclusion

Blended learning can transform the way that students learn and help them reach their academic potential. This can include using a variety of hardware and software, accessing content on their own schedule, and collaborating with instructors. Blended learning can also help you save money and free up resources for other important aspects of your program. This includes providing a variety of hardware and software options, including tablets and laptops, available for your students to use. These tips will help you create effective blended learning content. If you want to take your programs one step further, you can also use technology to transform the future of learning.