CORONA-19 experimentation with learning experiences witnessed the blunder of Online Teaching. Blended Learning is now becoming a popular and buzzword for the educational world. Blended learning is the mashing of face-to-face classroom teaching methods together with technology for the same learners learning in the same class. Garrison & Vaughan, 2008 stated that it is a thoughtful fusion of face-to-face and online learning experiences. It is a term applied to giving classroom instructions and learning experiences through a combination of face-to-face and technology-enabled learning. This is also called hybrid learning. We should remember always that blended learning is a combination of pedagogy and technology in the classroom. There are some guidelines from which we can prepare our own Blended Learning Design. Beams (2017) had reported that just integration of technology without its appropriate role is meaningless. She had suggested some basic specific procedures.
1. Emphasis on the Pedagogy: In blended learning, we must not forget that we have not slaved to the technology, but technology is to act as a slave. For this purpose, we must know about Pedagogy and its principles concerning Pedagogical Knowledge. It includes Classroom Management, Instructional objectives and strategies, learner engagement, assessment, and evaluation strategies.
2. Choose your technology carefully: After going through Pedagogical Knowledge, then choose appropriate digital tools and technologies to plan and implement your lesson.
3. Think of the Curriculum. Now design your lesson with the following steps.
- Design your lesson plan with learning outcomes
- Give Descriptions of technology devices that will map your desired titles and outcomes.
- Choose your instructional strategy mapping with digital tools.
- We must remember that there must be a variety of exercises in our lesson to engage the learner with inbuilt assignments and exercises. Here is the role of digital tools to design and develop all these assignments and exercises.
(Prof. Vandana Punia, Dean Faculty of Education, Human Resource Development Centre. Guru Jambheshwar University Of S&T, Hisar. She is also the Course Coordinator of National Resource Center, Pedagogical Innovations and Research Methodology. (MHRD, Govt. of India).