What Is the Purpose? Using Blended Learning Designs to Purposefully Focus on Student Engagement, Support and Learning

Abstract

“What is your purpose?” This is the key question that the Griffith Sciences’ learning and teaching team asks academics to continually reflect upon throughout the design and development of learning and teaching activities. The response to this question offers guidance for refining and rationalising the resources, tasks and sequences required to efficiently and effectively develop blended learning tasks. This chapter showcases a process undertaken within the Griffith Sciences Blended Learning Model to support blended learning design. The process included the creation of a range of visual learning designs developed through the use of a series of professional learning questions to focus on the purpose for student learning with the chapter including examples of the visual learning designs and the types of professional learning questions used. Each of the resulting learning designs provides a simple visual dataflow that outlines the sequence of teaching and learning activities while identifying the appropriate resources and personnel required to efficiently and effectively complete the appropriate tasks. Two case studies are included to elaborate on the process undertaken and demonstrate its operation.