Anchoring in the meso-level: Departmental preparation for the adoption of blended learning in tertiary education

Abstract

The adoption of blended learning has rapidly grown in tertiary education, however, the literature has not extensively addressed how academic departments can implement such pedagogical innovation. The role of academic departments that serve as a link between institutions and teaching staff has long been downplayed. Employed a layered approach and based on the four considerations in blended language learning set out by Gruba and Hinkelman, this research focuses on the meso/departmental level adoption of the blended approach in foreign language education. Analysis of data derived from documents, interviews and photos shows that the meso-level stakeholders need to consider policy alignment, human capital configuration, learning materials digitization and professional development when preparing to adopt the blended approach. More importantly, this study reveals that the meso-level stakeholders are the actual drivers that cause the diffusion of the blended learning mode in an institution.