Abstract
This paper explores the practices of higher education tutors in blended learning contexts. Significantly, the influence of their perceptions on practice was considered by investigating previous teaching and learning experiences, and their views of the affordances blended learning offers adult learners. The analysis was undertaken in relation to these learners’ perceptions of their tutors whilst studying part-time, vocationally relevant degrees, at a distance. A mixed methods approach was adopted to conduct a detailed exploration of eight tutors’ practice. Data analysis suggested that all tutors had negative experiences of online learning as students with these perceptions appearing to influence their practice. They generally avoided online pedagogies and adopted alternative approaches to their practice, namely a focus on face-to-face delivery with enhanced learner support, which was found to align with their described pedagogical beliefs. These tutors considered online teaching and learning as a deficit in this context.
Highlights
This paper reports findings of a piece of research that explored effective tutors and tutoring within blended learning environments
Flexibility was required in template development and subsequent analysis, as themes were developing around tutor perceptions and beliefs appearing to align with learner feedback
The Research Context section highlighted the autonomy tutors had on modules, allowing them to develop their own practices within blended learning contexts
Summary
The following sections were discerned from the qualitative analysis and represent a selective approach to identify the themes that were most relevant due to their influence on learners [24]. A significant finding from this research was the lack of tutor-peer and peer-to-peer interaction within the online elements of all modules. This meant that there was a lack of text to analyse within the VLE, this finding did provide great insight into the influence of tutors’ perceptions and beliefs on their practice
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