Two additional websites and a Moodle course about Blended Learning design

In addition to the book, the reader can obtain information via my website Blended Learning, where additional and up-to-date information, a serious game about the characteristics of MHE and an e-course on blended and online learning are provided.

The essential features of course design are presented in the website How to Design a Blended Learning Course in Modern Higher Education

This website is combined with the MOODLE course Workshop Blended Learning course

Introduction to the Book

Modern Higher Education

Policy documents of universities and the ministries of education in many countries clearly show the intention of continuing to develop and implement the features of modern higher education (MHE), including the introduction of blended and online learning. Therefore, university staff in different places and situations are already working hard on educational innovations. This book is designed to support teachers involved in implementing these innovations. It seeks to assist state and private university teachers in redesigning their existing education into effective, efficient, valued, well-liked and feasible blended and online learning.

Target groups

Instead of focusing on all teachers, I have chosen two groups: senior teachers with extensive teaching experience and interest in modernising university education and early-career teachers who have completed the University Teaching Qualification. The University Teaching Qualification (UTQ; in Dutch: BKO) is proof of pedagogic competence for teachers in academic education. I expect these teachers to be willing and able to redesign their education optimally. Some may even act as advisors to colleagues who may be less interested in modernising education but still have to adapt their education step by step. These teacher advisers can use the design tools, pedagogical advice and examples of blended and online learning courses from the book, making this approach more attractive to a broader group of university teachers.

Three ingredients of course design are central to the book

Much of the content of the book is based on my project work as an educational consultant and as a programme leader in IT implementation at six universities in the Netherlands. The immediate motivation to write this book was my experience as a senior expert for PUM Netherland senior experts in a dozen short training missions to universities in Indonesia, Haiti, Nepal (an online course) and Ghana.

The idea for the book arose because three ingredients of course design are usually worked out too superficially:

• Connecting concretely to the knowledge and experience of the teacher as a designer. I have applied various design tools in my course and curriculum development projects. These tools have been upgraded using the latest literature and are presented in the book.
• Making better use of the evidence from educational research. In my projects, there is a clear overlap between the design principles used. I have summarised these design principles and the available design options.
• Apply the literature on design when setting up a course design and development process.

In his time, Tony Earl (1987) was an expert who was always focused on the design of excellent education. His approach remains fundamental to my thinking. Fortunately, the main features of his approach are still valued. Beenham and Sharpe (2017) describe in their book, introduced by Prof. D. Laurillard, the principles and practices of designing in higher education and use them to rethink the pedagogy for a digital age. Agostinho (2011) describe the results of the Learning, Design Visual Sequence (LDVS) project. I have combined the course design approaches in both books with the following:

• The latest course design models;
• The typical features of technical design models described in the books of Van Boeijen, Daalhuizen, Zijlstra and Van der Schoor (2021), the Snake model from Roozenkrans (2020) and the Vision in Design approach from Hekkert and Van Dijk (2011);
• The relevant design features found in design thinking, creativity and complex problem-solving.

Organisation of the book

My book’s approach involves the consistent and integrated elaboration of the three mentioned ingredients. This makes it much easier to translate the results of educational research on applying IT in educational practice in higher education.

The book’s first part provides a general overview regarding the (re)designing of university courses. This overview explains basic definitions of course redesign and practical questions teacher designers should be aware of when performing course design. Such practical issues involve face-to-face interactions, online tools, course design elements and higher education pedagogics involving IT. In this portion of the book, definitions regarding the diamond diagram, blueprint, and route maps are provided to inform educational professionals in higher education about the techniques required to be employed during the online course (re)design.

In the second part of the book, the author’s practical examples of blended and online learning are explained and exemplified. This section describes in detail the learning activities and materials of the Introduction course (with the six-step Design and Development process) and the Redesign Your Education in a Blended Learning Course workshop (with the nine-step Design and Development process). This portion of the book focuses on hands-on experiences in redesigning online courses. Therefore, examples of route maps, blueprints and diamond diagrams developed by participants are shown.

The course design toolbox is presented to teacher designers in the third part of the book. The toolbox contains various pedagogical design tools, which the teacher designers give additional evidence-based support when (re) designing their courses.

Finally, in the fourth part of the book, I discuss accountability in the (re)design of online courses. Specifically, this part includes discussions of technical design, design thinking, course development and instructional design, complex problem solving and creativity.