As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers around the world were obliged to implement new ways of teaching and learning in distance and classroom settings. Accordingly, blended learning, the meaningful combination of learning at a distance and in school, through a careful choice of different tools and strategies, is becoming increasingly common in schools. The benefits of blended learning have been long recognised and go beyond the immediate needs created by the pandemic. Blended learning provides teachers more opportunities to personalise the learning process of their students and can thereby increase their autonomy, motivation and self-direction. Blended learning can therefore be an important step towards a competence-based education where the learner stands at the centre of an active learning process.
The Bridging Distance and In-School Learning – Blended Learning in Practice MOOC will demonstrate these benefits and help teachers to design and plan for blended learning as part of their usual practice. The MOOC will help teachers realise the pedagogical opportunities of adopting a blended learning model in their practice and get a better understanding of the way it can facilitate their efforts towards developing student-centred learning.
