Implementation of Blended Learning at the Course Level

Abstract

Curriculum is a vessel that provides directions for instruction. With the popularization and application of various Internet-based information technologies in instruction, blended learning has increasingly become popular.

Curriculum is a vessel that provides directions for instruction. With the popularization and application of various Internet-based information technologies in instruction, blended learning has increasingly become popular. This chapter first discusses core components of blended learning as well as relationships among the components (Sect. 2.1). The chapter then elaborates on the implementation process of blended learning process (as shown in Fig. 2.1). The first phase of the process is analysis (Sect. 2.2), which is the foundation for all other phases of implementing blended learning. This section analyzes the learning tasks, characteristics of learners, and the contexts of implementing blended learning.

Fig. 2.1

The implementation process of blended learning

The second phase is design (Sect. 2.3), development, and implementation (Sect. 2.4). Design involves using the outputs from the analysis phase to plan a strategy for developing the instruction. Design phase (Sect. 2.3) includes writing course learning objectives, determining learning units, writing unit learning objectives, and selecting learning content and delivery media. Development and implementation are to generate learning activities and assessment instruments. Development, implementation and evaluation phases (Sect. 2.4) include developing course activities, developing unit activities and evaluates whether students have acquired the knowledge, performed the skills, and exhibited changes in attitudes as required by the learning objectives of the course. Implementation strategies of blended learning and analyzes effectiveness of blended course design are provided to conclude this section.

Section 2.5 provides suggestions of implementing blended learning for different modes, such as different learning objectives, different time and space, and different teaching environment.

This chapter not only explains how to implement blended learning, but also highlights related supporting theories. Additionally, this chapter provides contemporary design examples that help teachers, instructional designers, educational technicians, and business personnel link current theoretical concepts to practical applications.

2.1 Core Components of Blended Learning and Related Relationships

The components of instruction include learning objectives, students, teachers, learning content, learning activities, evaluation and feedback, and learning environment (Li 1991). These components also apply to blended learning, but the definitions have been expanded in blended learning. Figure 2.2 shows the core components of blended learning and related relationships.

Fig. 2.2

The seven core components of blended learning and related relationships (Han et al. 2016)

2.1.1 Definitions of the Core Components

Learning Objectives. The learning objectives in blended learning emphasizes the overall cultivation of knowledge, skills, comprehensive abilities, and qualities required in the information age, as well as the development of attitudes, emotions, and values in the e-learning. The “Framework for 21st Century Learning” published by Battelle for Kids (2019)³ in the United States explains that besides the 3Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic), the core competencies that students in the information age need to master are (a) learning and innovation skills, (b) information, media, and technology skills, and (c) life and career skills. Among them, learning and innovation skills are the key to promoting creative work and lifelong learning. Learning and innovation skills include 4Cs: critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation. Information, media, and technology skills include information literacy, media literacy, and ICT (Information, Communication, and Technology) literacy. Life and career skills are essential for learning, working, and living in the twenty-first century. They include flexibility and adaptability, initiative, and self-direction, social and cross-cultural skills, productivity and accountability, and leadership and responsibility (Binkley et al. 2012). The goal of blended learning should point to the skills and abilities required in the information age. Blended learning should embody these goals in specific learning content and instructional activities to cultivate students who are adaptable to the twenty-first century.

Students. Students are indigenous learners in the information age. They have changed from being passive information receptors, receivers, and dominated learners, to active subjects who control their own behaviors, methods, and preferences that even participate in the construction of learning content. The transformation of the role requires blended learning to pay attention to students' learning behaviors, learning styles, learning outcomes, and social characteristics in the digital environment. Doing so can lead to a better understanding of the learning patterns and to help promote student engagement, thus enhancing the learning outcomes.

Teachers. In the information age, teachers have changed from individual operators to team collaborators, from individual lecturers to instructional teams including teaching assistants, and industry experts. In the meantime, artificial-intelligent (AI) teaching assistants and e-Experts can also enhance instruction. Therefore, teachers of blended learning should not only be equipped with information-based teaching ability, but demonstrate leadership skills in the teaching team. To adapt to the new characteristics of indigenous students in the information age, the role of teachers must change from the traditional knowledge holders and dispensers to the designers, instructors, and facilitators of learning activities.

Learning Content. In the information age, the sources of students' learning are more abundant and diverse than before. The presentation of knowledge reflects the integration of various media. The knowledge structure has also changed from a fixed, structured knowledge to a dynamically unstructured knowledge. These changes have provided both opportunities and challenges for the implementation of blended learning. On one hand, the explosive growth of knowledge not only creates opportunities for students' self-directed learning, but also provides rich instructional resources for teachers’ instructional design. On the other hand, the massive amount of information can easily force students into making choices and cause cognitive load (Clark et al. 2010). Thus, teachers need to be equipped with the capabilities of selecting, developing, and applying different forms of instruction when designing and implementing blended learning.

Learning Activities. In the context of blended learning, learning activities expand from the face-to-face instruction limited to the physical space to more diverse instruction that combine both physical and virtual spaces. Diversified electronic equipment and technological systems such as smartphones, tablets, e-schoolbags, learning management systems, and video conferencing systems enable teachers to direct students to various forms of learning activities. The format of class expands from fixed in-person sessions to hybrid sessions, which combine face-to-face and online session and consist of pre-class, in-class, and after-class activities. For example, students outside the classroom participate via the Internet. Large-scale online teaching is combined with small-scale offline discussions.

Evaluation and Feedback. Emerging technologies such as mobile Internet, cloud computing, large databases, data mining, learning analytics, and artificial intelligence, provide innovative methods for learning evaluation and feedback. In blended learning, the learning analysis, evaluation, and dynamic feedback are conducted from multiple dimensions with the help of large amounts of data generated in learning. The data sources include not only information on learning behaviors, but also physiological signals, psychological awareness activities, facial expressions, and more. In addition to the regular academic performance, the generated data can also reveal students’ satisfaction and students' learning process. The data-driven approach makes evaluation and feedback more convenient so that teachers could provide feedback to students in a timely manner. The various presentation formats of the evaluation results (e.g., automatically generated visual presentation) can help teachers analyze students' learning behaviors and learning effects from both horizontal and vertical aspects, thereby promoting the timely improvement of teaching and learning.

Learning Environment. Information technology has had a profound impact on social and economic environments, forming a blended environment in which physical and virtual spaces coexist. The physical teaching environment has also changed accordingly. Extending from traditional classrooms, laboratories, training sites, and workplaces to the online learning space, virtual simulation laboratories, virtual practice/training base, and virtual space supported by IoT (Internet of Things) work scenarios learners can now fully control.

2.1.2 Relationships Among the Components

The seven components of blended learning interrelate, and at the same time constrain each other. Learning objectives guide the whole process of instruction. The other six components are designed to achieve the learning objectives. The other six components affect achievement of the learning objectives. An example is the impact of COVID-19 on learning. Teachers and students were forced to teach and learn at home due to COVID-19. For example, experiments, internships, and practical training courses were suspended or replaced with experimental videos. The change of the learning environment has tremendous impact on the achievement of learning objectives.

Students play a central role in blended learning as they directly influence the learning activities and learning environment. Students are members of the classroom community where they create a culture of learning.

Learning content aligns with the learning objectives. The quality of the learning content affects achievement of the learning objectives. Learning content is grouped within subject area under knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes that are expected to be learned. Learning content forms the basis of teaching and learning. Teachers’ beliefs, values, competency, and even learning environment affect the presentation of learning content.

Learning activities reflect the learning content as well as the venues of achieving the learning objectives. They are flexible in course design and depend on the teachers' preferences. Learning environment also impact the learning activities as some activities can only be performed in certain environments.

Evaluation is to measure the degree to which learners have acquired the knowledge, can perform the skills, and exhibit changes in attitudes as required by the learning objectives. Learning evaluations verify whether the learning content and activities support students to achieve the learning objectives. Feedback provides formative information to learners regarding how to improve learning performance. In blended learning, the learning environment impacts the implementation of evaluation and feedback environment, as it needs support from various technologies. The advancement of technologies in education provides more opportunities such as assisting teachers collect students' online and offline data. Yet, teachers' technical skills in how teachers use this data for conducting evaluation and providing feedback is impacted.

Schools construct the learning environment, especially the digital learning environment affected by the planning and construction of the entire digital campus. Teachers' digital literacy determines whether these learning environments can be fully utilized to maximize the potentials. This also affects the presentation of learning content (e.g., digital resources selection and production), the possibility and suitability of learning activities (e.g., design of VR simulation training activities), and ultimately affect the achievement of learning objectives.

Whether teachers can coordinate the above seven components into instruction reflects their competencies in designing and delivering blended learning. In digital age, the emerging of new technologies (e.g., virtual reality) brings unprecedented possibilities to blended learning. This also poses unprecedented challenges to teachers as they need to adapt to digital native students whose cognitive styles have changed from individual cognition to Internet-based group cognition and distributed cognition. At the same time, the learning environment is changing dynamically in blended learning such as temporary network disruption, failure of technology tools, and more. The dynamic learning environment requires teachers to coordinate the seven components (including teachers themselves) throughout the instruction process. The key of improving the quality of blended learning is the rational deployment of the seven components and their relationships in a specific situation. This is also essential for teachers to implement blended learning successfully.

2.2 Analysis

Analysis phase is the foundation for all other phases of blended learning design. Tasks completed in the analysis phase include task analysis, learner analysis, and contextual analysis.

2.2.1 Task Analysis

Task analysis is the most crucial part of designing blended learning. It defines the content required to solve the performance problem. It also identifies whether and how blended learning is the best way to solve problems. Task analysis in blended learning usually follows three types of questions:

Q1::

What are the problems with the current curriculum? It can be analyzed from seven dimensions: objectives, students, contents, activities, evaluation, environment, and teachers (as shown in Table 2.1). Worth noting is that the curriculum instruction needs to be consistent. The content (resources) and instructional activities should align with learning objectives measured in evaluation.

Table 2.1 List of problems in curriculum instruction

Q2::

What problems can be solved by blended learning? Blended learning cannot solve all teaching problems. Thus, necessary is determining whether the blended learning is suitable for the problems. Systematic consideration of the problems will help with the design of blended learning.

Q3::

How can blended learning address the problems? After identifying the problems addressed, further considerations to identify ways of addressing these problems using blended learning are needed. An example of task analysis is shown in Table 2.2.

Table 2.2 Example of task analysis

2.2.2 Learner Analysis

Facilitating student learning effectively is the purpose of blended learning, so it is necessary to have a clear understanding of students’ characteristics. As the subjects of learning activities, students' cognitive, emotional, and social characteristics impact the learning process and outcomes (He et al. 2002). Studies have found that students’ age, gender differences, class size, prior knowledge, skills, and attitudes, learning styles, and technology access can lead to different learning outcomes in blended learning (Lim and Morris 2009; Woltering et al. 2009).

Age. Students in different ages vary in their psychological states and cognitive levels such as attitudes, perceptions, and commitment (Rodríguez-Ariza 2011). According to a survey of Chinese college students, college students’ learning experience, emotional perceptions, learning motivation, and time management vary in different age and grades. Freshmen have significantly better psychological perception than sophomores and juniors. But, it has increased among senior students (Shi 2015). Another survey in China for higher vocational students showed that the learning concentration of freshmen is higher than that of sophomores. It may be because freshmen have just entered the university, and their emotional states are high. When they come to junior level, their commitment to learning (e.g., vigor, dedication, and absorption) begin to recover (Xu and Xu 2012).

Accordingly, blended learning designed for sophomore needs more attention on the decline of students' learning interests and the rise of fatigue. In classroom, teachers need to provide more support, assign continuous tasks, and scaffold questions to enhance classroom learning. In students' online self-learning, teachers need to provide timely feedback and even provide one on one tutoring opportunities for students. Teachers also need to adjust the content of assignments, pay attention to difficulty levels of assignments, and make them as interesting as possible to engage students in blended learning.

Gender differences. Smaldino et al. (2005) found that gender differences may affect the students’ willingness to participate in some activities. Research found that female students’ perceptions of entertainment in blended learning significantly affect their attitudes toward using blended learning while male students’ attitudes toward using blended learning were impacted only when they perceived the usefulness of blended learning (Padilla-Meléndez et al. 2013). Therefore, teachers need to consider different gender groups when implementing blended learning and focus on assisting students adopt blended learning. According to Zhang and Jiao (2015), male students are more interested in electronic products and more likely to be influenced by games, social media, and social networking tools. They are more likely to adopt blended learning than female students. Some researchers have summarized nearly 1,500 studies on gender differences and found that there are significant differences between male and female students in intelligence, interests, and personality (Maccoby and Jacklin 1974). For example, female students are less likely to get frustrated and more likely to face failure. Thus, at the beginning of the class, teachers can decrease difficulty of using technology to attract female students’ interest and engage them in blended learning. In the teaching process, teachers also need to pay attention to students who are more vulnerable and less psychologically resilient, provide guidance, and be mindful of the impact of teachers’ behaviors on the students’ perception (Conroy 2001).

Class size. Teachers need to consider the class size and consider learning activities that are more flexible. For example, large class size (e.g., 70 students in one class) is more suitable for group activities. Students can collaborate in groups and teachers can provide personalized support for each group. Small class size (e.g., 15 students in one class) is more appropriate for teacher-student discussions and interaction. Providing students with sufficient and balanced learning opportunities for collaboration and interactions is suggested.

Prior knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Prior knowledge refers to students’ basic knowledge of a specific subject or task, including knowledge, skills, and attitudes. It is the starting point for the design of instructional content. Students’ prior knowledge skills and attitudes can affect their learning outcomes in blended learning (Ausburn 2004). Grover et al. (2015) investigated American computer science students’ learning in blended learning and found that prior knowledge was one of the most significant factors influencing their algorithmic thinking skills and promoting deep learning. Additionally, Wu’s (2010) study focused on physical education courses for Chinese college students and found that blended learning was more appropriate for college students who had intermediate or above-average motor skills. Thus, instructional design should first identify students’ prior knowledge (e.g., facts, concepts, propositions, theories) and take these as the starting point of the instructional design. Teachers also need to consider students’ differences in prior knowledge when making instructional decisions.

In summary, understanding students’ prior knowledge, skills, and attitudes via surveys can improve the effectiveness of blended learning by adjusting the instructional strategies that support students’ Zone of Proximal Development (Note: For a theoretical explanation of the Zone of Proximal Development, see Part 1, “Basic Theory”). In this regard, the following instructional strategies are proposed to assist the design of blended learning: (a) developing instruction that matches students’ abilities, (b) using the same elements in learning and application settings, and (c) selecting appropriate teaching methods to facilitate learning transfer (Lim and Morris 2009).

Learning styles. Differences in learning styles among students affect how students learn such as students’ behavior in group learning, performance in different learning activities inside and outside of the classroom, ways of interacting with others, and problem-solving styles (Lim and Morris 2009).

Active and Reflective. Active learners tend to have active discussions, and teachers should design group work, discussions, role-playing, and other activities that require students to work collaboratively. Reflective learners prefer to work on the assigned problems quietly. Thus, teachers can assign individual assignments accordingly.

Sensing and Intuitive. Sensing learners are good at memorizing facts and learning explicit knowledge. In the teaching process, teachers can relate to everyday phenomena and use case studies to help sense if learners understand. Intuitive learners like to work innovatively and understand abstract information. Pre-tests can give them sufficient time and space for independent exploration. However, if learning content requires memorization and formulation, intuitive learners need reminders to spend time reading the questions and check the results to avoid mistakes caused by repeated activities.

Visual and Verbal. Visual learners prefer visual information such as pictures, audio, video, and images. Teachers can use more multimedia resources, and especially for the abstract knowledge difficult to understand. This way the media can enhance students’ understanding of the content. Verbal learners prefer abstract information such as words, texts, and discourse. Thus, lectures, handouts, and text-based materials will be more appropriate for them.

Sequential and Global. Sequential learners like to follow logical steps. When designing instructional activities, teachers need to provide more specific “scaffolding” to assist sequential learners establish logical orders. Global learners are more inclined to use a more divergent approach to solve problems. When designing instructional activities, teachers can moderately increase the distance between each “scaffold” and encourage self-exploration of the problems guided by the questions provided by teachers. In other words, critical is to provide students with sufficient space for thinking and understanding, independent exploration, and divergent thinking.

Assimilator and Diverger. Assimilator learners pay more attention to the logic and rationality of the theory than to the practical value. Thus, more attention is needed for teaching courses for engineers, technicians, and other positions. Diverger learners are better at observation and divergent thinking. More attention is needed for teaching courses for artists and service personnel such as conducting “brainstorming,” group discussions, and other activities that need interaction, ideas, and creativity. In blended learning, divergent learners have significantly higher scores in terms of ease of web environment usage, perception of the face-to-face teaching environment, online environment, and evaluation (Akkoyu & Soylu, 2008). Therefore, teachers may need to provide more assistance for assimilated learners.

Extended Reading 2.1

Some researchers have created different divisions and introductions from learners’ sensory preferences, personality types, desired degree of generality, and biological differences. Teachers interested in this can further read the article, Language Learning Styles and Strategies: An Overview (Oxford 2003) or can access the online resource space on different learning styles at: https://www.engr.ncsu.edu/stem-resources/legacy-site/. Special scales can also be used to measure learners’ learning preferences. Reid’s (1984) Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire is used to measure the participants’ preferences in six learning style preferences: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, individual learning, and group learning (Chen 2009).

Extended Reading 2.2

Gardner (1999) believed that there were eight kinds of intelligence that exist relatively independently and related to specific cognitive fields or knowledge categories.

Table Eight Intelligences and Descriptions.

Intelligences	Description
Linguistic	∙ An ability to analyze information and create products involving oral and written language such as speeches, books, and memos
Logical-mathematical	∙ An ability to develop equations and proofs, make calculations, and solve abstract problems
Spatial	∙ An ability to recognize and manipulate large-scale and fine-grained spatial images
Musical	∙ An ability to produce, remember, and make meaning of different patterns of sound
Naturalist	∙ An ability to identify and distinguish among different types of plants, animals, and weather formations that are found in the natural world
Bodily-Kinesthetic	∙ An ability to use one’s own body to create products or solve problems
Interpersonal	∙ An ability to recognize and understand other people’s moods, desires, motivations, and intentions
Intrapersonal	∙ An ability to recognize and understand his or her own moods, desires, motivations, and intentions

Different people have different combinations of intelligence. For example, architects and sculptors have a stronger sense of space (spatial intelligence), athletes and ballet dancers have a stronger physical strength (physical/kinetic intelligence), publicists have a stronger sense of interpersonal intelligence, and writers have a stronger sense of self-reflection intelligence. Based on this theory, teachers need to recognize the characteristics of different learners, accept their different learning styles, and provide corresponding instructional designs and activity arrangements suitable for their tailored blended learning.

Technology access. Before implementing blended learning, teachers need to know the technology tool available to students including hardware equipment such as notebooks, mobile phones, and tablets, and software such as WIFI, live broadcasting software, learning platforms, and professional software. Teachers need to adjust instructional activities according to students’ technology access. For example, if students only have mobile phones, the instructional materials should be opened via mobile phones. Certain formats such as compressed packages or files do need specific software that may not be available on mobile phones. Additionally, if after class activities require specific software, teachers need to ensure students can access software after class such as providing lab hours after class.

2.2.3 Contextual Analysis

The teaching environment is a necessary condition for the development of instructional activities. The teaching environment in the information age has extended from physical environments such as classrooms and laboratories to online learning spaces equipped with affluent digital teaching resources and diverse technological tools. At the same time, the physical teaching environment is also equipped with a variety of technical equipment, emphasizing the connection with the online learning space to support the effective integration between online and offline instructional activities (Ferreira-Meyers 2019).

Selection of physical space. When designing blended learning, teachers need to obtain sufficient information of the physical space where learning occurs to make instructional decisions. The types of physical learning spaces and learning objectives and content that fit into these spaces are shown in Table 2.3. For detailed characteristics of these physical learning spaces, please refer to the section “blended learning environment and resources support” in Chap. 5.

Table 2.3 Types of physical learning spaces and fitting learning objectives and content

Selection of online learning platform. When designing blended learning, teachers also need to choose appropriate online learning platforms. There are three types of online learning platforms: (1) learning management systems, (2) video conferencing systems, and (3) special online teaching tools.

Learning management systems aim to provide asynchronous instructional activities, deliver course materials, and support the whole learning process. There are hundreds of learning management systems that mainly fall into three categories: general platforms, specific platforms, and MOOC platforms. General platforms include commercial platforms (Blackboard, Canvas, THEOL) and open-source platforms (Moodle, Sakai, Drupal). Specific platforms are usually developed for institutions or certain types of courses such as WISE (web-based inquiry science environment). Examples of MOOC platforms are Coursera, Udacity, and edX (US), FutureLearn (UK), OpenupEd (Europe), OpenCourseWorld and Iversity (Germany), Miriada X (Spain), Alison (Ireland), Open2Study (Australia), XuetangX (China), and more. The Edutools has developed an online learning platform from users’ perspectives that consist of learning management tools, system support tools, and system technical features (see Table 2.4).

Table 2.4 EDUTOOLS course management system features and criteria

A video conferencing system mainly provides live broadcasting services. It incorporates interactive whiteboard, screen sharing, instant messaging, live recording, in-class evaluation, and educational administration management. It can support a variety of synchronous teaching modes such as large class, small class, one on one, and in-class test. In video conferencing systems, learners can interact with teachers or peers through messages, bullet screens, and comments. Examples include Zoom, Tencent Meeting, Skype, and DingTalk.

Special online teaching tools include, but not limited to, computing tools (e.g., MATLAB), cognitive-enhancement tools (e.g., Xmind and CoSpaces), presentation enhancing tools (e.g., Buncee), translation tools (e.g., Google Translator and IFLYTEK), subject teaching tools (e.g., FCS Biology and NOBOOK), simulation software (e.g., CNC simulation system Machining), simulation training software, and simulation practice software (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China 2020).

2.3 Design

Design phase involves using the outputs from the Analysis phase to plan a strategy for developing the instruction. In this phase, designers need to outline how to reach the instructional goals determined during the Analysis phase. Tasks completed in design phase include writing learning goal and objectives, determining learning units, writing unit objectives, and selecting learning content and delivery media.

2.3.1 Learning Goals

Learning goals are broad ideas about where you want to go. Learning objectives are concrete steps toward achieving goals. Goals are the higher-order ambitions set for students, whereas objectives are the specific, measurable competencies used to assess whether goals were met. (https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/learning-goals-and-learning-objectives).

Learning goals provide a means to select and organize instructional activities and resources that facilitate effective learning (Cui, 2004). The overall course goal is determined first, and then broken down into smaller learning objectives for each unit of learning. Learning goals in blended learning are typically grouped into three categories: cognition, skills, and attitudes. Blended learning also emphasizes technology literacy in digital age. Thus, learning goals in blended learning also include proficiency in using technology in learning and profession. Learning goals in blended learning can be established through three questions: (1) What is the core/critical content of the course? (2) What are students’ expectations? and (3) What are key points for learning?

Case 2.1

“IT Project Management” course (Associate Professor Zhengzhou Zhu, School of Software and Microelectronics, Peking University).

The core content of this course is software development and practice. Students will acquire software development and software project management methods and skills related to the field, that are also the key point for learning. Therefore, the goal of this course is to equip students with the methodological skills in software development and software project management.

The goals are decomposed and transformed into three learning objectives of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Teachers need to consider students’ learning outcomes related to the objectives. Learning objectives should be student-centered and specific, precise, and measurable. They should also clearly describe what students should know or be able to do at the end of the course.

Case 2.2

“IT Project Management” course (Associate Professor Zhengzhou Zhu, School of Software and Microelectronics, Peking University).

The goal of the “IT Project Management course” is further broken down into learning objectives at two different levels of competency. For outstanding students, they must meet high-level requirements. For those students with relatively limited abilities and learn at a slower pace, they need help to meet the basic requirements at this time because of their different learning styles.

	Basic requirements	Advanced requirements
Knowledge	∙ The basic idea of software engineering ∙ Engineering methods and techniques for developing and maintaining software projects	∙ Be able to understand the cutting-edge theories of software engineering disciplines
Skills	∙ Software development ability ∙ Software project management skills	∙ Literature search, analysis, and writing skills
Attitudes	∙ Abide by constitution, laws, and engineering ethics ∙ Be kind to others, and have empathy and a team spirit	∙ Independent thinking and innovative spirit ∙ Global perspectives

2.3.2 Learning Units

The learning unit of the course refers to a highly focused unit of instruction that contains a series of interrelated learning activities. Generally, a course contains multiple learning units, each of which is different from the learning content. Learning unit is grouped into different chapters, tasks, modules, projects, topics, or class schedule. The development of learning units needs to consider the logical relationship in the content first. Content in each learning unit needs to be independent, but also connected to each other. For cognition-focused content such as English, mathematics, physics, and pedagogy, by chapters/sections is the best way to organize the learning unit. For skills-focused content such as painting, carving, and equipment operation, projects, modules, or tasks is recommended for organizing the learning unit. For attitudes-focused content such as ideological, moral, and mental health, and other attributes, themes as a form of organization is suggested. Second, it needs follow students’ cognitive development process. Third, it needs to consider feedback from previous teachers and students.

2.3.3 Unit Objectives

Same as learning objectives, unit objectives in blended learning is grouped into cognitive, skill, and attitude objectives. Table 2.5 provides an example of writing cognitive objectives. First, knowledge needs to be classified into four categories: factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and metacognitive knowledge (Anderson et al. 2001). Then, the expected learning level will be determined such as remembering, understanding, application, analysis, evaluation, and creation.

Table 2.5 Reference table for writing cognitive objectives of learning units

Table 2.6 provides an example of writing skills objectives. First, skills need to be classified into four categories: sensory and perceptual skills, physical or practical skills, expression skills, and intellectual skill. Then, the expected stage of skills development will be determined.

Table 2.6 Reference table for writing skills objectives of learning units

When writing the attitude objectives, three aspects should be considered: (1) students' cognition (e.g., group awareness, responsibility, endurance, self-management), (2) emotional state (e.g., self-confidence, enthusiasm, loyalty, honesty, integrity), and (3) behavioral tendency (e.g., initiative and enterprising spirit, cooperation with others, self-improvement of learning and performance).

The ABCD method can generate unit objectives. A (Audience) refers to the target audience. Because the audience are students, unit objectives will use “students” in the objectives’ statement. B represents behavior and usually uses action verbs that explain what the work or task accomplished by the learners at the end of the unit. Students' behaviors can be directly observed by teachers and usually reflect whether the unit objectives have been achieved or not. Table 2.7 provides examples of writing behavior objective. C refers to conditions and describes the conditions or constraints that the learners expect to perform the learning tasks. It usually includes environmental factors (e.g., space, light, temperature, indoor and outdoor environment, noise), human factors (e.g., individual completion, collaborative group completion, teacher guided completion), equipment factors (e.g., tools and calculators), informational factors (e.g., data, textbooks, notes, pictures, dictionaries), time factors (e.g., speed and time constraints), and motivating factors (e.g., what stimulus is provided to induce behavior? How much stimulation is it?). D (Degree) refers to the degree of mastery and how well the learning activities are complete (e.g., speed, accuracy, quality).

Table 2.7 Verbs to be used at different levels of learning objectives (Anderson et al. 2001; Mayer 2002)^,

Unit objectives are the refinement of the course learning objectives. It is necessary to check whether the course learning objectives are properly distributed across several levels rather than clumped together. Unit objectives provide a framework for devising ways to select instructional strategies and delivery media as well as evaluate student learning.

Case 2.3

“Application of Logistics Information Technology”

Unit 1: Task 1 Barcode Technology of Automatic Identification Technology.

• Objective 1: Students can explain the basic concepts and reading principles of barcode technology after reading the relevant materials of Project 2 and Task 1, with an accuracy rate of 90%.

• Objective 2: Complete the cognitive tasks of commodity barcodes and 2D barcodes by learning from the PPT courseware and teaching materials of project 2, task 1. Students can explain the types and structures of both commodity barcodes and 2D barcodes with an accuracy rate of 80%.

• Objective 3: By watching the video [Logistics Barcode Application], students can recite the types and structures of logistics barcodes, and students can explain the application process of barcode technology in storage and distribution management with an accuracy rate of 80%.

Case 2.4

Example of writing learning unit’s objectives “Basic Principles of Nucleic Acid Detection”

Learning unit	Learning objectives (ABCD method)	Learning content analysis
Learning unit 1–1: The Composition and Structure of DNA and The Basic Principles of DNA Replication	Students (A) can recall the composition of DNA strands, the structure of their connection, and the principles of replication (B) after watching the pre-class preview video and answering classroom questions (C), with an accuracy rate of more than 95% (D)	Knowledge points: Deoxyribonucleic acid and DNA double-stranded anti-parallel double helix structure, DNA base pairing, DNA replication
Learning units 1–2: Structure and Function of DNA Polymerases	Students (A) can match and describe the structure and corresponding functions of each part of DNA polymerase (B) after listening to the teacher's explanation (C), and the accuracy rate of answering relevant classroom questions is over 80% (D)	Knowledge point: How DNA polymerase works
Learning units 1–3: Principles and Processes of PCR Reaction	1: Students (A) can explain the role of primers, templates, DNA polymerase and DNTPs in PCR reaction (B) after watching an animated demonstration and listening to the teacher's lecture (C), with an accuracy rate of more than 80% (D)	Knowledge point: Principle and process of PCR reaction (key point) Skill point: Methods of applying PCR systems
	2: Students (A) can draw a schematic diagram of the principle of PCR utilizing group cooperation (B) after listening to the teacher's lecture (C) with an accuracy rate of more than 90% (D)
	3: Students (A) can describe their own vocabulary and identify whether the vocabulary described by others is consistent with their own (B) after learning subunits 1–1, 1–2 and 1–3 and completing the group game (Similar to the rules of the game about who is an undercover agent, the description words need to conform to objective facts, undercover agents need to find commonalities, and civilians need to describe characteristics), without additional reading materials (C), and the success rate of the game is more than 50% (D)
	4: Students (A) can distinguish the difference between PCR and DNA replication in vivo and consider the clinical application of the PCR system (B) after drawing a schematic diagram of PCR and listening to the contents of subunits 1–1 and 1–2 (C). The answer to each question considers at least two aspects, which are meaningful and consistent with the basic principle and logic (D)
Learning unit 2–1: Principles of Fluorescence Resonance	Students (A) are able to describe the basic concepts of fluorescence resonance (B), after watching the animated demonstration and listening to the teacher's lecture (C), with an accuracy rate of over 80% (D)	Knowledge point: The principle of fluorescence resonance
Learning unit 2–2: Principle and Process of Fluorescence Resonance PCR	Students (A) can draw the diagram of fluorescence resonance PCR process and compare its similarities and differences with ordinary PCR (B), after listening to the teacher's instruction and reading the class notes and PPT (C), with an accuracy rate of more than 80% (D)	Knowledge points: principle of fluorescence resonance PCR (difficult point)
Learning unit 3–1: Basic Process of Nucleic Acid Detection	Students (A) can describe the basic process of nucleic acid detection (B), after watching the animated demonstration and listening to the teacher's lecture (C), with an accuracy rate of over 80% (D)	Knowledge point: the basic process of nucleic acid detection
Learning unit 4–1: PCR Operations in the Laboratory	Students (A) can prepare a PCR system, use PCR machines, and adjust parameters. At the same time, they can detect whether PCR products are obtained (B), after on-site viewing the experimental staff PCR operation under the guidance of teachers (C), and get target PCR products (D)	Skill point 1: Methods of using experimental instruments (such as pipettes, ice boxes, PCR machines) Skill point 2: Method of preparing PCR system Skill Point 3: Methods for detecting PCR Products

2.3.4 Learning Content and Media

The learning content is the sum of knowledge and experience and is purposefully selected and aligned with learning objectives and unit objectives. Learning content should be organized and arranged in a logical sequence. Learning resources represent learning content such as textbooks that are the most widely used learning resources. Textbook has two forms: print books and electronic books. In blended learning, most teachers use textbooks as the main resource as well as some supplemented materials from the Internet. Commonly used learning contents are cognitive (knowledge) and skill-based content (skills).

Selection of learning content. Learning content selection for learning units usually considers three aspects: scope, key points, and sequence. Scope refers to the breadth and depth of learning content. When determining the scope of the unit, we should start from the continuity of the course and the characteristics of society and students, and then determine the relative importance of various facts and concepts. Selecting the core content with an appropriate level of difficulty is next. Key points are the key to the learning content and usually grouped around specific themes. A theme may contain several sub themes that form the knowledge framework. Sequence is the progression of content expansion. Generally, when determining the sequence of materials, attention should be paid to the relationship between prior and new knowledge to ensure that new learning is connected to prior knowledge.

Selection of delivery media. After the content of the learning unit is determined, next step is to choose appropriate media to present the learning content and build the digital learning resources center in blended learning. Digital learning resources refer to network-based learning materials and multimedia materials digitally processed and run on computers or in a network environment. The selection of delivery media needs to match the content. For example, electronic lectures and electronic documents presents conceptual knowledge, while video presentations help with abstract knowledge. Animations demonstrate procedural knowledge.. Lecture-based teaching generally uses electronic lecture notes and electronic documents; inquiry-based teaching requires simulation programs and interactive animations; and collaborative teaching requires the support of collaborative electronic documents. When presenting learning resources, learners’ characteristics, the learning environment, and technical equipment must be considered. For example, learning videos should be kept to 10 min to ensure the duration of the learners’ highest level of attention. When students use mobile phones, designers need to consider whether the layout and style of learning materials are suitable for mobile screens. In blended learning, it is also necessary to consider the decomposition and logical arrangement of online and offline learning contents (as shown in Table 2.8).

Table 2.8 Suggestions for the arrangement of online and offline learning content for blended courses

Case 2.5

Learning unit objectives and learning content of “basic Principles of Nucleic Acid Detection”

Learning unit	Objectives (ABCD method)	Learning content
Unit 1–1: Composition and Structure of DNA and Basic Principles of DNA Replication	Students (A) can recall the composition of the DNA strand, the structure of its connection, and the principle of replication (B), after watching the pre-class preview video and answering the class question (C), with an accuracy of more than 95% (D)	Knowledge points: Deoxyribonucleic acid and DNA double-stranded anti-parallel double helix structure, DNA base pairing, DNA replication
Learning units 1–2: Structure and Function of DNA Polymerases	Students (A) can match and describe the structure and corresponding functions of each part of DNA polymerase (B), after listening to the teacher's explanation (C), and the accuracy rate of answering relevant classroom questions is over 80% (D)	Knowledge points: How DNA polymerase works
Learning units 1–3: Principles and Processes of PCR Reaction	Objective 1: Students (A) can explain the roles of primers, templates, DNA polymerases, DNTPs, etc. in the PCR reaction (C), after watching the animated demonstration and listening to the teacher's lecture (B), with an accuracy rate of more than 80% (D)	Knowledge points: Principle and process of PCR reaction (emphasis) Skilled: Methods of applying PCR systems
	Objective 2: Students (A) can draw a schematic diagram of the principle of PCR (B) after listening to the teacher's teaching and utilizing group cooperation (C), with an accuracy rate of more than 90% (D)
	Objective 3: After the students (A) have studied sub-units 1–1, 1–2, and 1–3, without additionally reading the other materials (C), they can complete the group game (similar to the game rules of who is an undercover officer: describing words needed to conform to objective facts, undercover people need to find commonalities, civilians need to describe characteristics), when describing their own words and distinguishing whether the words described by others are consistent with their own (B), and the game success rate is more than 50% (D)
	Objective 4: After drawing the schematic diagram of PCR and listening to the contents of subunits 1–1 and 1–2 (C), students (A) can distinguish between the difference between PCR and DNA replication In Vivo and consider the application of the PCR system in clinical practice (B). The answer to each question considers at least two aspects, which are meaningful and consistent with the basic principle and logic (D)
Learning unit 4–1: PCR Operations in the Laboratory	Students (A) can prepare the PCR system, use the PCR machine, and adjust parameters. At the same time, they can detect whether PCR products are obtained (B) and get the target PCR products (D) under the guidance of teachers (C)	Skill point 1: Methods of using experimental instruments (such as pipettes, ice boxes, PCR machines) Skill point 2: Method of preparing PCR system Skill Point 3: Methods for Detecting PCR Products

Selection of open educational resources. Digital learning resources can be open resources, imported resources, and self-developed resources. Open Educational Resources (OER) usually refer to digital resources based on non-commercial use, follow resource copyright requirements, and freely used and modified with the help of network information technology. Examples are open online courses (including MOOCs), open courseware (including micro-courses), open teaching materials, and open software (UNESCO 2002). Digital learning resources in blended learning should prioritize OER. The OER can be obtained through the Internet (as shown in Table 2.9). When the OER cannot meet teaching needs, schools can be advised to purchase or encourage donations externally. If the above two choices are not available, schools may choose to develop their own resources.

Table 2.9 List of some open educational resources

Development of digital learning resources. Six forms of media include text, graphics/image, audio, video, animation, and 3D model. The text-based materials should be as simple and clear as possible to avoid difficulty in reading. The text-based materials should not be too long or too short and avoid jargons. When presenting text-based materials, structures can be marked by numbering, and important words or sentences can be emphasized using bolding and highlighting to avoid a large amount of textual information on the screen.

Graphics/image materials are used for different purposes, and the presentations should also be designed accordingly. For example, embellished pictures used to attract learners' attention are usually placed at the beginning of paragraphs. Representational pictures present characteristics of the content and help learners quickly get to the key points. Procedural pictures can explain the context of information more concisely than text and used to show the steps of a series of operations. Explanatory pictures combined with text information help learners understand complex or abstract text information and used to support visual presentation of complex abstract information. When mixing pictures and texts, it is necessary to ensure that the content of picture information is accurate, and it relates to the text. Important is to avoid presenting irrelevant graphics and images to the transmitted information as it results in cognitive load (Jin 2017).

When designing video materials, the topic should be clear. Generally, one video reflects one topic. The video presentation should consider learners’ characteristics and the attributes of the course content and determine whether to present portraits and subtitles. When combining video and audio, the content needs to follow the same topic. The sound should be as clear as possible and the speed should be moderate. The volume of the background music should not interfere with the voice of the explanation. The length of video materials should generally not exceed 10 min. If the video is too long, it can be appropriately divided into multiple pieces.

Extended Reading 2.3

Several common video learning resources

• Lecturer on camera: The image of the lecturer appears in the video explanation. The lecturer can directly stand in front of the blackboard, electronic whiteboard, rear projection color TV, or the green curtain of the studio for later processing. Features: (a) it is easy to catch the students’ attention, and (b) it is easy to form the feeling of one-on-one teaching.

• Handwritten explanation: You can save the handwritten explanation process in the form of camera shooting or screen recording on paper, blackboard, a tablet computer with an electronic pen, or a tablet with an LCD screen. Features: (a) absorbs all the advantages of blackboard writing in traditional courses, and (b) through post-editing, unnecessary procrastination can be cut, thus greatly improving the efficiency of derivation and explanation, and improving the learning efficiency of learners. This form is more suitable for courses that involve the explanation of the derivation process such as science and engineering, economics, and finance.

• Real situation teaching: Real-time recording of the traditional teaching process can give full maximization of the advantages of online teaching. Applicable to: (a) explaining relevant experiments while actually doing the experiments in the laboratory,; (b) explaining unearthed cultural relics and famous paintings such as going to the museum to give lectures; and (c) if visiting a factory workshop or financial trading market is necessary, going directly go to the scene to feel the atmosphere and explain the relevant course content at the same time can be done.

• Animation demonstration: The animation demonstration is helpful for explaining abstract knowledge more vividly, thus making it easier to understand. Using it appropriately can arouse the learners’ interest in learning and improve the efficiency of knowledge explanation.

• Interview-style teaching video: Shoot in the form of an interview or the process of discussion and dialogue between more than three teachers or students on specified topics. Features: (a) puts the knowledge in the dialogue step by step so that the learning content is full of stories and can attract the learners’ attention, and (b) it is convenient for learners to be exposed to more people's views that broadens their ideas and horizons.

When developing multimedia materials, digitizing hard copy text, images, audio, video, and other materials occurs. For example, using Photoshop software to edit and make pictures, using audio and video recording software such as Premiere, Audition, and Camtasia Studio to create sound files or video files, and employing 3D Studio MAX, Animator Studio, Flash, and other software to make animations or 3D models can be accomplished. When uploading multimedia materials to the online learning platforms, teachers need to pay attention to the structure, file format, size (whether the image needs to be compressed), production difficulty and cost, and release time. Teachers are recommended to convert PowerPoint (PPT) formats into PDF formats, store image data in JPG or GIF formats, use MP3 formats much as possible for sound files, and convert video formats into streaming media video formats (e.g., WMV, ASF, MP4), to save space occupied by multimedia materials and facilitate transmission on the network.

Development of courseware, cases, and reference materials can use multimedia resources. Courseware is multimedia material or software that presents one or several knowledge pieces. Courseware can be divided into lecture-centered courseware (such as PPT lectures used by teachers) and learning-centered courseware (such as micro-videos for students' learning) according to different purposes. Learning-centered courseware can be categorized as presentation demonstrations, interactive learning, operation training, simulation experiments, and learning games. Learning-centered courseware provides learners with guidance, evaluation, and feedback, to promote autonomous learning while presenting learning content.

Cases are scenarios that resemble real-world examples that aim to achieve specific learning goals. Cases are important learning resources in learning as the problems presented in cases can stimulate students' critical thinking, debates, reasoning, and decision-making. Text or video has been used to present cases have been. The design and development of a case library is important in blended learning.

Reference materials refer to policies, regulations, rules, and educational regulations, records of major educational events, important articles, and books. Reference materials are important resources for inquiry-based learning such as researching a certain topic. Teachers can provide students with classic, important, and relevant reference materials to improve the efficiency in a certain field. When selecting and developing reference materials, necessary is to consider the file format and file size (whether it needs to be compressed).

2.4 Development, Implementation and Evaluation

Development and implementation phases build on both the analysis and design phases. The purpose of these phases is to generate learning activities and assessment instruments. Tasks completed include developing course activities, developing learning unit activities, and establishing assessment and feedback instruments. This section also provides implementation strategies of blended learning.

2.4.1 Course Activities

Design of course activities. Course activities are the sum of operations that learners need to complete to achieve the established learning objectives (He et al. 2006). Designing course activities includes the overall arrangement of course activities and the setting of learning activities for each unit. Special attention to the characteristics of online and offline learning activities and their internal connections is needed. Courses are usually scheduled by semesters. Course activities can be organized in three stages: initial stage, middle stage, and later stage. Emphasis of the learning activities varies in different stages (Feng et al. 2021).

The initial stage occurs generally during the first two weeks of the course when students review the course objectives, course content, and teaching methods and get familiar with teachers and other students. The design and implementation of course activities in this stage need to consider from the following aspects:

• Help students establish their identity and a sense of belonging and form a friendly and active learning environment. Typical activities include icebreakers, introducing the blended learning environment, facilitating group questions and answers, composing of groups for the following collaborative activities, encouraging students to express themselves freely, and more.

• Help students strengthen their understandings of the course and build a good teacher-student relationship. Typical activities include introducing the course contents and schedules, clarifying expectations and assessment methods, explaining the course’s rationale to student development and talent training, and introducing teachers to students to get to know each other better.

• Promote students' interest and motivation in blended learning. Typical activities include clarifying rewards and punishments, notifying learning objectives, and explaining the significance of the course to stimulate the students’ external motivation. Other activities include fostering students' motivation by providing learning scenarios that adapt to students' a prior knowledge, group characteristics, and learning needs.

Case 2.6

The organization of blended learning activities at the beginning of the course of “Western Economics” (Yuzhong Liang of Anshan Radio and Television University) is shown in the table below.

Activities	Learning method	Strategies
Activity 1: Welcome letter	Online	Create a sense of belonging and build a good atmosphere
Activity 2: Read course information	Online	Familiar with the learning environment
Activity 3: Teachers’ self-introduction	Online and offline	Know the course and trust the teachers
Activity 4: Ice breaking	Online and offline	Create a sense of belonging and build a good atmosphere
Activity 5: Group building	Online and offline	Create a sense of belonging and build a good atmosphere
Activity 6: Objectives and standards informing	Online and offline	Stimulate learning motivation
Activity 7: Context importing	Offline	Stimulate learning motivation

Activities 3, 4, and 5 are carried out in online and offline environments. At the beginning of the course, teachers use WeChat, QQ and other instant messaging software to issue a “welcome letter” to inform students of the basic overview of the course including the schedule of specific instructional activities, details of the course objectives, and steps to use the platform. At the same time, teachers provide a “self-introduction” in the welcome letter allowing students to understand them and build a sense of trust, and helping students to quickly adapt to the new learning environment. Next, teachers design an “online icebreaking activity” and carry out “team building” activities. During the activity, group members introduce their age, occupation, etc., greet each other, and cooperate to conceive the group name and learning slogan. These activities further expand into face-to-face learning. According to online activities, teachers can design simple group tasks to shorten the distance between learners, help students establish identity and a sense of belonging, and initially form a learning community. On this basis, teachers encourage students to formulate basic rules for online discussions, to promote students’ open communication, and create a relaxing and a freely communicative atmosphere. In the first face-to-face learning lesson, teachers should introduce themselves to students to strengthen students’ academic trust in them. In addition, teachers design offline icebreaking activities to help students become more curious about scarcity, opportunity cost, and other related concepts and improve students’ learning interest and motivation by connecting students’ life experience and asking guidance questions. In addition, teachers introduce detailed evaluation criteria and rules to students, and emphasize the importance of online discussion to stimulate students’ learning enthusiasm.

Case 2.7

Example of the initial activity of the course: icebreaking activity—Eight Nouns (Bonk and Khoo 2014)

This example is derived from the undergraduate course “Blended Learning Design and Application” of Tsinghua University in China.

Activity content and purpose: Each student writes down eight nouns that best describe their own characteristics in the online discussion area and explain why they chose these attributes. The first few nouns are generally easy to think of, but when getting to the last three words, it often takes a while to think about. The words not easy to think of can later reveal characteristics that the students did not expect. This activity helps students become familiar with each other quickly. For example, a student from Turkey lists a dishwasher in the eight-noun activity because he likes washing dishes very much. Although the word is exaggerated and humorous, everyone will remember this classmate. The eight nouns are creating a social interactive learning atmosphere, which is often the starting point of curriculum learning. It enlivens the atmosphere of the whole team and establishes a social consensus among all participants (this activity applies not only to the network environment, but also to the real classroom environment).

Suggestions and tips: Teachers should make sure that all students have clarified the rules and requirements of the activities. Teachers themselves take the lead in posting their own eight nouns, or they can post several nouns of former classmates as examples. Each student should reply to at least one student's post.

The middle stage refers to the main part of course activities. The duration of middle stage in blended learning varies in different courses. The design and implementation of course activities at this stage need to consider from the following aspects:

• Guide students to learn effectively by organizing and implementing appropriate course activities. Typical activities include tutoring, listening to students, having conversations with students, and enhancing interactions between teachers and students through case analysis and discussions.

• Encourage individual students and groups to build knowledge and deepen cognition through continuous communication. Typical activities include brainstorming, focus group discussion, debate, role-playing, and problem analysis. Those activities can help students learn and grow collaboratively.

• Encourage students to actively participate in blended learning and avoid burnout in the middle stage. Typical activities include encouraging and praising in a timely manner, providing peers’ role modeling, and evaluating peers. Those activities can improve students' self-efficacy and learning engagement.

Case 2.8

“Paragraph Writing” course (an English education course offered by the University of Indonesia).

This course mainly adopts the flipped classroom model. Teachers provide students with the necessary learning materials in advance including writing cases and require students to read and study in advance. The organization of blended learning activities in the middle of the course is shown in the table below.

Activities	Learning method	Strategies
Activity 1: Face-to-face learning	Offline	Motivate students’ continued engagement
Activity 2: Experience/case sharing	Online and offline	Guide effective learning
Activity 3: Brainstorming	Offline	Facilitate individual and group knowledge building
Activity 4: Case study	Offline	Facilitate individual and group knowledge building
Activity 5: Peer evaluation	Online	Motivate students’ continued engagement

Teachers give face-to-face lectures once a week to create a high-intensity teaching presence. In class, teachers first chose a writing topic such as “definition” and “causality” to explain, and then provide students with difficult writing template cases corresponding to the topic through offline learning. Based on online case-sharing activities, teachers progress layer by layer to enrich blended learning resources. Students then brainstorm in groups during class, analyze the information, and discuss the central sentence, argument, and summary sentence of the case, and shared the discussion results with the whole class. After class, students write paragraphs according to the learning theme of the week and submit them to the homework area, where all students’ work could be displayed. In addition to evaluating students, teachers also design online peer evaluation activities to stimulate students’ continuous participation. In the next face-to-face class, teachers might provide face-to-face comments and guidance on students’ homework from the previous week, which continues to stimulate students’ enthusiasm for learning.

The final stage occurs in the last two weeks of the course. At this point, majority of the learning content has been completed. This stage focuses on summary, reflection, and presentation of students’ course products. The design and implementation of course activities at this stage need to consider the following aspects:

• Promote presentation of students’ course products. Typical activities include presenting learning products completed in the course and supporting the transfer of learned knowledge and skills to solve real world problems.

• Support students' self-reflection and evaluation. It refers to the execution of reflective evaluation activities to promote students’ meaningful construction. Typical activities include teacher evaluation, peer evaluation, and self-reflection. Providing procedural scaffolds, presenting navigational maps or mind maps, and giving timely feedback and guidance can promote the smooth implementation of the above activities.

Case 2.9

“Java Programming”, undergraduate course at Peking University, China

The 15-week course is divided into three phases: Conceptualization, Construction and Dialogue. The latter stages of the course are the construction stage and dialogue stage, that is, students transfer the knowledge acquired in the early conceptualization stage. In the course, teachers provide expert code examples in the teaching materials for students to refer and help students solve similar programming problems. Students refer to the resources provided by the online platform, solve problems under the face-to-face guidance of teachers, design a variety of programming schemes, and then compare and self-evaluate to select the best scheme. After students submit their work to the platform, the teacher scores them, and other students can also communicate on the creation and transfer ability of the program. In addition to the evaluation and feedback of teachers and peers on students’ work in the platform, teachers also design peer evaluation and independent evaluation activities in the offline classroom. Through face-to-face communication and discussion, students can more deeply reflect and summarize their own learning, thereby promoting development of their problem-solving ability and self-reflection ability.

Example of the organization of blended learning activities at the end of the course is shown in the table below:

Activities	Learning Methods	Strategies
Activity 1: Personal creation	Offline	Comprehensive display and self-development
Activity 2: Works demonstration	Online	Comprehensive display and self-development
Activity 3: Peer evaluation	Online and offline	Self-reflection and evaluation
Activity 4: Self-evaluation	Offline	Self-reflection and evaluation

Integration of online and offline learning activities. The schedule of school courses is different such as semester course, weekly course, and session course. Course schedule in universities and vocational colleges usually occur between 16–20 weeks in a semester. There are one to three face-to-face meetings each week, ranging from two to four hours. Instruction needs to match the course schedule. The characteristic of blended learning is that both offline learning activities and online learning activities are intertwined and run throughout the whole course (Neumeier 2005). Therefore, compared with face-to-face learning, the focus of designing course activities in blended learning is the connection between offline activities and online activities. For example, one of the two offline activities originally scheduled for face-to-face course each week can be scheduled as online activities in blended course.

To improve the connection between online and offline activities, teachers are suggested to utilize online tests and discussions to assess students' online learning performance, stimulate students to reflect online learning content, and timely adjust offline activities according to students' online learning performance. Teachers can also provide online feedback utilizing offline activities such as offline questions, quizzes, and discussions. The integration of online and offline activities is affected by same place/different place, online/offline, and synchronous/asynchronous.

Same Place/Different Place. It means whether teachers and students are in the same classroom and how long they can be in the same classroom. In most cases, teachers and students in universities can stay in the same classroom, which supports more offline activities. In some cases, for example, international students affected by the epidemic could not return to their campus. Therefore, course activities need to combine both offline and online activities so that teachers and local students can participate in the same classroom while international students can also participate remotely. In other cases, for example, learners in open universities work during the day and cannot go to school on weekdays. In those cases, more online activities will be more suitable.

Synchronous/Asynchronous. It means that teachers' instructional activities and students' learning activities could occur at the same or different time. Offline activities scheduled synchronously can create a collaborative learning environment where students can concentrate on completing learning tasks under the supervision and guidance of teachers directly. Students can also obtain real-time interactions and receive answers timely. Online activities can be delivered via learning management systems and scheduled asynchronously to allos students to study at their own pace and offer more flexibility of learning.

Online/Offline. Offline activities occur in physical spaces such as classrooms, training rooms, and more. Online activities require the support of technical systems (e.g., network teaching platforms, video conference systems). They all have different characteristics, so the arrangements are also different.

Items that are appropriate for online activities.

Learning Content. Learning content that requires repeated activities suitable for online activities such as watching the process of creating animation. Students can complete these activities independently.

Learning Process. The following activities are appropriate for online participation: (a) activities that require timely feedback such as online testing and online assignment submission, (b) activities that require advance communication and exchange with students such as submitting preview reports and learning the problems students encountered while working on the report, and (c) activities that must be carried out based on individual differences of students, for example, students can choose text or video to learn the content based on their proficiency level.

Study Time. Activities that permit flexibility are suitable for online learning. For example, students can participate in online discussions according to their timeframe.

Items that are appropriate for offline activities.

Learning Content. If the content contains many hands-on activities, those activities are more appropriate for offline. Other activities that need specific physical spaces, such as activities in specific training rooms, simulated factories, and real workplaces, are also suitable for offline activities.

Learning Process. Activities that require frequent interaction and cooperation between teachers and students, such as role-playing, cooperation to complete a task, and face-to-face discussion, are more appropriate for offline.

Learning Time: Any type of activities delivered offline using a face-to-face approach.

2.4.2 Unit Activities

Information technology expands the space and time of teaching activities for teachers and students, so the design of unit activities needs to consider not only the activities that take place in class, but also the activities before and after class.

Organizing Pre-class Blended Learning Activities. According to the unit objectives, teachers should construct and provide a learning unit guide, learning resources, learning tasks, and unit activities. Then, teachers should facilitate students with online learning and answering questions. Finally, teachers should evaluate students' pre-class learning results and adjust learning activities. Table 2.10 presents the objectives, instructions, tools, and implementation conditions of blended learning activities suitable for pre-class learning.

Table 2.10 Blended learning activities suitable for pre-class

Organizing In-class Blended Learning Activities. Based on pre-class performance, teachers can conduct lectures and answer questions regarding students’ challenges and difficulties. If learners have mastered the knowledge or skill during pre-class activities, teachers can reduce the lecturing time and increase time for facilitating collaboration with their peers. Teachers can also facilitate students with independent explorations, patrol inspection, and in-class tasks individually or collaboratively. Table 2.11 presents the objectives, instructions, tools, and implementation conditions of blended learning activities suitable for the in-class time.

Table 2.11 Appropriate in-class blended learning activities

Organizing After-class Blended Learning Activities. Teachers grade homework and provide feedback on students' learning performance. Teachers can also share some samples and guide learners to reflect the learning progress using prompting questions such as “what problems and difficulties have I encountered in blended learning?” and “What are the gaps between me and the samples, and how can I improve?” Table 2.12 presents the objectives, instructions, tools, and implementation conditions of blended learning activities suitable for after-class activities.

Table 2.12 Blended learning activities suitable for the after-class

The connection of pre-class, in-class, and after-class blended learning activities. The load and time intervals of pre-class and after-class activities should be appropriate according to the course schedule. Classes with longer intervals are good for scheduling big projects such as homework and project-based tasks (i.e., one week). If a course’s interval is short, review and preview tasks are good activities (i.e., one day).

At the beginning of offline activities, teachers need to provide feedback on students' pre-class activities whether it is homework and reviewing the previous stage or previewing the content of this lesson. This way, teachers can connect students’ offline activities with online activities and thus, promote engagement in the pre-class and after-class activities. Figure 2.3 shows an example of the pre-class, in-class, and after-class blended learning activities, including students' learning activities, teachers' instructional activities, offline activities, and online activities.

Fig. 2.3

Pre-class, in-class, and after-class blended learning activities for a learning unit

Pre-class activities not only relate to in-class activities, but also after-class activities. For example, the preview report carried out during pre-class relates to after-class reflection activities. Then, students review the preview report after class in groups, conduct self-reflection, and reflect upon their experience, which is beneficial to optimize the effect of follow-up preview activities.

Extended Reading 2.4

The flipped classroom is a form of blended teaching. Researchers have sorted out the typical teaching modes of the flipped classroom (as shown in the table below). These flipped classrooms have organized different pre-class, in-class, and after-class activities.

Proposer	Pre-class	In-class	After-class	In the second class	Features
Sams and Bergmann (2013)	Video instruction	Problem solving			Through the video, superficial knowledge is moved into the pre-class and out-of-class learning, while the in-class teaching time is used for problem-solving and deep learning activities. The traditional teaching mode of “teaching first and then solving problems” is moved forward in both time and space
Talbert (2011)	Video instruction Self-test Exercise	Problem solving Sharing and communication Report display Answer questions Evaluation feedback Summary and reflection			Pre-class and in-class exercises can promote students’ understanding of knowledge and help teachers know students’ understanding on the content. Then, teachers provide feedback according to students’ responses to the exercise
Lo et al. (2018)					Based on the First Principles of Instruction, blended teaching has been proved that the teaching effect in mathematics, Chinese, physics, and other subjects is significantly better than traditional teaching methods
Song and Kapur (2017)		Problem exploration	Video instruction		A flipped classroom model based on beneficial failure, which has proved to improve students’ conceptual understanding of mathematics and problem-solving ability
Musallam (2013)		Problem exploration	Video instruction	Test application Sharing and communication Report display Answer questions Evaluation feedback Summary and reflection	Explore-Flip-Apply: In the exploration stage, students carry out exploration activities in class to form necessary prior knowledge of the target content. In the flipping stage, students watch the teaching video outside class, systematically learn the teacher's explanation of knowledge, and submit video feedback to the teacher. In the application stage, the teacher explains the problems encountered in students’ video learning in class, tests the students, designs application problems for the students to complete, and evaluates the students
Guo (2018)	Problem exploration Video instruction	Test application Sharing and communication Report display Answer questions Evaluation feedback Summary and reflection	Homework practice		The general mode includes seven links: objective, preparation, instructional video, review, test, activity, and summary

Selection of learning activities in blended courses. Teaching modes, knowledge types, and unit objectives determines specific unit learning activities.

Select learning activities according to teaching modes. There are two teaching modes: teaching-based and learning-based. The common teaching-based mode includes five-step teaching strategies (stimulating motivation, reviewing old courses, teaching new courses, applying consolidation, and checking the effect) and demonstration-imitation teaching strategies (demonstrating actions, students' practice under the guidance of teachers, independent practice, and skill transfer). Learning-based mode includes the discovery learning mode (problem situation, hypothesis-testing, and integrated application) and the anchored teaching strategy (creation of a situation, problem determination, independent learning, collaborative learning, and effect evaluation). The learning activities selected according to different teaching modes are shown in Table 2.13.

Table 2.13 Learning activities according to the teaching mode

Select learning activities according to knowledge types. According to Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy of educational objective, knowledge is classified into factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and meta-cognitive knowledge. The learning activities corresponding to different types of knowledge are shown in Table 2.14.

Table 2.14 FiveLearning activities according to the type of knowledge

Selecting learning activities according to unit objectives. According to Benjamin Bloom's classification of educational objectives in the cognitive field, learning objectives are divided into six levels: memory, understanding, application, analysis, evaluation, and creation (Bloom 1956). There are also differences in instructional activities for different learning objectives, which can be seen in Table 2.15.

Table 2.15 Instructional activities according to teaching objectives

Extended Reading 2.5

Strategies for implementing blended learning activities

• Provide a clear and complete unit guide (including learning objectives, learning activities, deadlines for task completion, and evaluation methods)

• Link classroom activities with extracurricular activities (Thai et al. 2017)

• Provide clear guidance and timely reminders, feedback, and incentives (Bernard et al. 2014)

• The difficulty of the learning task is appropriate, and sufficient time is given to complete the task (Kim et al. 2014)

• Give full maximization to the main role of students to be able to learn independently (Keller, 2008)

• Facilitate self-reflection and mutual evaluation of students (Shih, 2011)

Pay attention to the emotional interaction between teachers and students, and organize various forms of communication and interaction (Ma et al. 2015).

Case 2.10

Blended Learning Design and Application, Tsinghua University 2021 Fall Undergraduate Course

Design of pre-class learning activities:	Learning objectives (ABCD method)	Learning content (knowledge points, skill points)	Resources/Tools	Online/offline	Time management
1. Preview learning resources: ∙ Browse the learning video of the micro-course “Unit 1 Understanding and Designing a Blended Course - Teaching Activity Design” ∙ Browse the learning video of the micro-course “Unit 2 Building a Blended Course-Unit Activity Building” ∙ Watch the video above for ideas on the design of activities for the unit, as well as the construction of online activities After the preview, please think about the following questions and share them in the discussion area: ∙ Among the courses you have taken before, what are the most impressive learning activities? What are the forms and processes of these activities? What resources you have used? ∙ Why did the above learning activities impress you? If appropriate learning activities were selected and designed for your group's blended learning course, which activities would you choose? Give at least two reasons 3. Participate in the discussion of other students: browse the answers of other students before noon this Monday, select the answer with the clearest logic, praise the student's post, and reply with reasons 4. Submit questions: If you have any questions during the learning process, you can also submit them in the discussion area	1. Students can independently and accurately retell the types of instructional activities by browsing the micro-course videos 2. By browsing the micro-course videos, students can master the method of building instructional activities on the online course platform	1. Knowledge points: (1) The position and role of instructional activities in whole teaching design (2) The type of instructional activities 2. Skill Points: (1) Design of instructional activities (2) Construction of instructional activities in the online course platform	1. Micro-course video 2. Discussion area 3. Courseware	Online	Six days
Design of in-class learning activities:	Learning objectives (ABCD method)	Learning content (knowledge points, skill points)	Resources/Tools	Online/offline	Time management
1. Listen to the teacher answer the questions raised by the students in the pre-class preview 2. Listen to the teacher explain the design of instructional activities	By listening to the teacher's explanation, students can remember the selection and design principles of instructional activities, and consciously apply relevant theories in the process of designing instructional activities, consider important matters, and design appropriate instructional activities in the group cooperation 2. Students can build instructional activities on the online learning platform through group cooperation by listening to the teacher's explanation and the learning video before class	Knowledge points: (1) Principles of selection and design of instructional activities (2) Relevant theories supporting the design of instructional activities (3) Precautions for the design of instructional activities	1. Courseware 2. Organizing students’ homework 3. Online learning platform	Online & offline	2 classes
Design of after-class learning activities:	Learning objectives (ABCD method)	Learning content (knowledge points, skill points)	Resources/Tools	Online/offline	Time management
1. Complete the after-class reflection and post it in the discussion area: ∙ What knowledge did you acquire in this class? What other questions are there? ∙ A summary of the learning methods of this course. Deadline: x month x day 23:59 2. Complete the homework and submit it to the online learning platform: ∙ Based on the course unit you selected, complete the design of instructional activities of the unit according to the teaching objectives and the matched teaching resources, and fill in the “Teaching Activity Design Form” ∙ (2) Complete the addition of learning activities for this unit on the online learning platform, which may include micro-videos, tests, assignments, discussion areas, learning reflections, questionnaires, etc	1. Students can deepen their understanding and memory of the design of learning activities through reflection after class 2. By completing homework, students can apply the theoretical knowledge they have learned into practice, and design a learning activity that matches the teaching objectives and content of the selected courses	Skill points: Learning the application of activity design	Online learning platform	Online	Six days

Case 2.11

Business Marketing and Negotiation

Stages	Activities	Objectives
Pre-class	Watch the micro-video of the quotation and complete the preparation for the simulated negotiation ∙ Students who choose to act as job seekers comprehensively analyze their own abilities and job characteristics to reasonably formulate their own expected salary ∙ Students who play the role of recruiters comprehensively analyze job requirements and reasonably formulate expected job salaries	Understand the factors, principles, and strategies to be considered in the quotation, as well as the way to deal with the other side's quotation, and be able to use it flexibly
	Watch a micro video of asking the price	Understand the way, frequency, and basic methods of bargaining, and analyze the opponent after bargaining
	Watch the micro-video of the counteroffer	Understand the preparations before counter-offering, the way of counter-offering, the determination of the counter-offer, and the skills of counter-offering
	Watch the micro video of bargaining	Learn basic strategies for bargaining
In-class	∙ Simulated negotiation 1: salary negotiation ∙ Practitioners: flexibly apply the strategies and techniques they learned to negotiate and strive to achieve their goals ∙ Observers to think: What are the steps in the bargaining process? What methods and techniques are there in each link? What price strategies can we use?	In the practical activities of simulated negotiation, let students use relevant strategies and skills flexibly, discover and solve problems
	Combine cases and learn new knowledge (negotiation deadlock and concession strategies)	Learn and understand the reasons for the negotiating deadlock and the methods and skills to deal with it in the case
	Teachers inspire students to think through cases by guiding and summarizing	Learn and understand the implementation steps, strategies, and skills of concessions in the case
	Simulated negotiation task 2: purchase computer	Make corresponding preparations for the simulated negotiation practice in the next class
After-class	Prepare a plan before negotiation by forming a team, preparing negotiation information materials, formulating negotiation plans, etc	Circular review and application of knowledge, formulate a negotiation plan based on the content they learned in the previous units, and make corresponding preparations for the formal negotiation in the next class
In-class	∙ Purchase computer simulation negotiation 2 (1): group 1 and group 2 ∙ Think: How do you feel about their negotiation? What aspects should we learn? What areas still need improvement? ∙ Purchase computer simulation negotiation 2 (2): Group 3 and group 4 ∙ Think: what do you think of their negotiation? What aspects are worth learning? What aspects need to be improved?	In the practical activities of simulated negotiation, let students use relevant strategies and skills flexibly
	Class discussion	Find and solve problems in practice

2.4.3 Evaluation

In blended learning, evaluation is to measure the degree to which learners have acquired the knowledge, can perform the skills, and exhibit changes in attitudes as required by the learning objectives of the blended courses (He et al. 2006). Evaluation in blended learning not only evaluates the final learning effect of students in the blended course, but also diagnoses the existing problems in the learning and provides feedback and guidance for further improvement.

2.4.3.1 Learning Unit Evaluation

In each learning unit, organization of learning activities takes place in the stages of pre-class, in-class, and after-class. Assessing the learning outcomes in these three stages helps determine the achievement of the learning objectives of each stage and provide feedback for revising the learning activities of the next stage. When conducting blended learning assessment, it is necessary to analyze students’ performance at each learning stage in the learning unit and provide students with timely feedback and guidance accordingly. Table 2.16 presents the commonly used evaluation methods and feedback methods in the pre-class, in-class, and after-class stages of the blended course.

Table 2.16 Learning assessment and feedback methods in blended course

Assessment of pre-class learning. The main assessment items in this stage are students’ participation in learning and the results of students’ self-learning before class, including adaptability towards blended learning, acceptance, task completion, online learning behavior, learning effect, and more. Students’ learning data, completed tasks, questionnaires, and other methods used for assessment can be reviewed via the online teaching platform. The feedback and guidance given to students at this stage can be dynamic online Q&A and instance assessment message. Teachers can also provide thorough feedback and explanations in the next class. Teachers can timely adjust the learning activities in the classroom (in-class) according to the students’ learning situation and difficulties. Table 2.17 presents the item, purpose, method, and evaluator of pre-class learning evaluation.

Table 2.17 Items and methods of pre-class learning evaluation

The ARCS model questionnaire is a tool to measure students' learning motivation in an information-based environment, which includes four parts: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction perceptions. This tool assesses students' motivation in blended learning (Ma & Lee, 2021). Based on the assessment results of ARCS questionnaire, teachers can provide feedback and guidance to specific students such as presenting students' online learning time, the number of times they participated in discussions, and the number of comments received on their homework and thus, timely remind students of their progress. Students’ interests can also be stimulated through various means such as video materials, group activities, and games.

Extended Reading 2.6

Pay attention to the appropriate adjustment of teaching objectives and instructional activities based on the situation reflected by students’ pre-class learning. The following figure presents an example of how to adjust subsequent learning activities based on the results of pre-class evaluation.

Assessment of in-class learning. The assessment items include students’ online participation, classroom participation, completion of classroom tasks, and classroom learning results. In addition to using classroom observation, questioning, and tests to assess the learning effect in class, teachers can also use peer-evaluation and self-assessment for in-class assessment. Teachers then provide after-school learning resources and after-school learning tasks based on the in-class assessment results. Feedback and guidance at this stage completed in a timely manner in class can help. Table 2.18 presents the item, purpose, method, and evaluator of the in-class learning assessment.

Table 2.18 Items and methods of in-class learning assessment

Extended Reading 2.7

Action After Evaluation:

After obtaining the evaluation of students' classroom learning participation and task completion, teachers should timely adjust the content and focus of classroom teaching. They can appropriately change the classroom rhythm, and judge if necessary to interrupt the students' original activity process for unified guidance according to the actual teaching situation or provide targeted feedback and guidance for students. According to the evaluation of classroom learning results, it is important to formulate the contents and requirements of after-school activities and tasks.

Students’ engagement is key to successful blended learning. Student learning engagement includes students’ behavioral engagement, cognitive engagement, and emotional engagement. Behavioral engagement is explicit and observable such as attending classes on time, observing classroom rules, and completing work tasks. In addition, behavioral engagement reflects in the intensity of participation activities (e.g., attention, persistence, time investment, effort) and activity participation (e.g., participation in online and offline discussions). Cognitive engagement refers to the use of learning strategies. Different learning strategies lead to different levels of cognitive activities. Strategies such as exercising and summarizing to memorize, organize, and understand learning content, and using time management strategies to plan learning tasks (the OSLQ questionnaire, the Online Self-regulated Learning Questionnaires) can be used to assess students’ ability to self-adjust in online learning (Barnard et al. 2009). Emotional engagement refers to students’ emotional reactions including interest, boredom, happiness, sadness, and anxiety. It can also refer to feelings of belonging and upholding values.

Online learning behavior data can also assess students’ engagement in blended learning. Table 2.19 presents the data in an online teaching platform in China including entering online courses, accessing learning resources, completing online tests, completing online homework, and posting replies in the discussion area.

Table 2.19 Learning behavior data in an online teaching platform in China

Assessment of after-class learning. The items of after-class assessment include the completion of homework and students’ summary and reflection on the learned unit. Assessment of the achievements of students’ unit learning objectives uses students’ homework performance, reflection and summary reports, after-school extension tasks, and more. Comparing after-class learning assessment with pre-class learning assessment to check students’ learning outcomes and progress is helpful in adjusting designated learning resources and learning activities in a timely manner. Feedback and guidance at this stage through individualized online tutoring lessons for students are useful. Comments and summaries provided in the next class based on the completion of homework in class and after class can reinforce learning.

Teachers are responsible for assessing the completion of the students’ homework and the students conduct self-assessment through learning reflection. The reflection not only includes the reflection of the learning process, but also the overall reflection on learning outcomes via intrinsic psychological perception questionnaires. Through the analysis of learning satisfaction and self-efficacy, students could reflect on the learning process and teachers can adjust instructional strategies accordingly. Table 2.20 shows the items, objectives, methods, and responsibilities of after-school learning assessment.

Table 2.20 The items and methods of after-school learning assessment

Extended Reading 2.8

Actions After Evaluation:

At the beginning of the next class, teachers will give feedback on the outcomes of students’ after-class learning assessment, so students can obtain feedback and a sense of achievement. Targeted supplementary teaching for students who performed poorly after class can be offered.

Extended Reading 2.9

Learning satisfaction refers to learners’ pleasant feelings or attitudes towards the learning experience. Pleasant feelings or positive attitudes refer to “satisfaction,” while “dissatisfaction” represents the opposite (Long 1989). In regard to assessing learning satisfaction, after-class questionnaires are usually adopted to get to know the students’ subjective feelings. The questions often used include “Compared with other courses, I just feel that the quality of the course is good” “I would like to recommend this course to other students,” “I am satisfied with XXX in this course,” and so on in the context of self-reporting. The students choose from a scale that includes “strongly agree-agree-neutral-disagree-strongly disagree.”

Bandura, an American psychologist, first proposed self-efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to people’s beliefs in their capabilities to mobilize the motivation, cognitive resources, and courses of action needed to exercise control over environmental demands (Bandura 1977). It is an important reference for measuring and evaluating learners’ inner psychological perception. The General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), developed by Schwarzer and his colleagues, is widely used and has been translated into many languages and marketed around the world. The general self-efficacy scale contains 10 questions, all of which are representative of 4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree- disagree-agree-strongly agree). Students are asked to choose from the scale according to different situations. The scale includes items such as “I can always solve problems if I try my best,” “when faced with a difficult problem, I can usually find several solutions,” and “it is easy for me to stick to my beliefs and achieve my goals.”

2.4.3.2 Course Evaluation

In blended learning, summative evaluation measures the overall effectiveness of a blended course. Examples of summative evaluation include open/closed book examinations, project reports, course papers, academic defense, and so on. In social science, summative evaluation via research reports and papers can help judge the quality of learning. Science courses can use the final exam, and engineering and medical courses can use practical operation in simulated scenarios. Design-based courses can consider project design and presentation as summative evaluations.

Extended Reading 2.10

There are three types of learning evaluation: summative evaluation, formative evaluation, and diagnostic evaluation, as shown in the following table.

Category	Summative evaluation	Formative evaluation	Diagnostic evaluation
Purpose	To improve the teaching effect	To identify problems in teaching and learning in time	To understand the knowledge students have mastered and their preparation
Time	Evaluating at the end of the course, at the end of the term, at the end of the school year, etc	The evaluation of the intermediate process, which is generally carried out during the course	The predictive evaluation at the beginning is generally conducted before class, before each semester, and the beginning of the academic year
Description	The overall evaluation of teaching means judging its effect after the completion of instructional activities The evaluation of the result at the end of the term is the summative evaluation	In the teaching process, it is used to understand student learning and discover problems in teaching and learning in time Tests, study reports, and other forms are often used. The test questions should be based on the predetermined objectives of unit teaching	Also known as preparatory evaluation. It generally refers to the investigation of students’ knowledge, skills, and emotions before the teaching activity This kind of survey help teachers understand students’ background knowledge and their preparation for learning so they know whether students are ready to learn

Combination of quantitative and qualitative evaluation. A complete learning evaluation system should combine quantitative and qualitative evaluations. Some learning activities, such as objective questions testing the memory and understanding of knowledge, are more appropriate for quantitative evaluation. Some learning activities such as students’ participation in group cooperation and their passion for study, support, help given to peers, and other forms of cooperation are more appropriate for qualitative evaluation. Some learning activities need both qualitative and quantitative evaluations. For example, when two students have similar performance accuracy evaluated by a quantitative method, a qualitative method is needed to evaluate the quality of their performances. Results of qualitative and quantitative evaluations can show student differences in learning attitudes and cognitive levels.

Combination of formative and summative, online and offline evaluation. Formative combining summative evaluation and online combining offline data ensure a comprehensive learning evaluation (Choules 2007). Formative evaluation is the real-time monitoring of the whole learning process, and students’ understanding of learning content. It includes students’ independent learning on the online learning platform, performance in class, discussion of course topics, after-class homework quality, and reflection and summary of course learning. The summative evaluation is to evaluate students’ learning effectiveness in the middle and at the end of semester. It includes the examination results in different stages, the proposal submitted at the end of term, and the final group project report. Online evaluation includes quizzes, online homework and work comments, a personal reflection of learning and feedback, as well as observation and measurement of a series of online learning behaviors such as discussion. The offline evaluation mainly includes tests in different stages, offline homework and work comments, observation, recording, and evaluation of classroom behaviors such as attendance, obedience to classroom rules, group discussion, Q & A, and group activities.

The combination of instructors’ evaluation, peer-evaluation, and self-evaluation. There are two parts in blended learning: online and offline. Sometimes teachers are present, but sometimes they are not. Therefore, in addition to feedback provided by instructors, feedback provided by peers is also useful for evaluation (Vo et al. 2017). Self-evaluation can help students develop the habits of continuous reflection. Instructors’ evaluation and peer-evaluation are helpful in receiving an objective and comprehensive evaluation of learning results from different perspectives. As collaborators in class, peers can directly observe each other’s learning behaviors, attitudes, and outcomes. Diversified evaluation does not weaken the role of teachers but emphasizes the multi-perspectives in evaluation so that the evaluation results are objective and comprehensive. These three evaluation methods have different advantages. It is necessary to allocate the scores of different dimensions under the overall evaluation framework.

The explicit evaluation rubrics and the useful evaluation results. At the beginning of the course, students should be provided with evaluation rubrics such as the composition of process-oriented and result-oriented scores, the composition of online and offline evaluations, and the proportion of evaluation results from different sources, such as teachers and students. In the process of implementing blended learning, we should strictly follow the rubrics to ensure the transparency of the evaluation and the fairness of the evaluation results. Clear rubrics also can assist students’ learning process. Analyzing the usability of the evaluation results is needed. Analysis not only includes the semantic meanings of the questions, but also whether they are universal and fair to all students to avoid Differential Item Functioning (Camilli and Shepard 1994). Besides, clearly distinguishing valid data from invalid data is important. For example, the time span of students’ online learning, elapsed time of reading and watching materials, and activity levels (such as the number of “likes,” the number of “being liked,” the number of posts, the number of comments) are taken as the basis to measure students’ enthusiasm. Restrictions should be set to avoid distortion of evaluation results. For example, if the student’s online learning time is limited at the beginning, but increases rapidly in a short period of time, the data will be considered invalid or reduced. For the evaluation of student participation in the discussion forum, if the words of a post are too few (such as less than 10 words), it will be considered invalid.

Evaluation guiding students’ learning. The function and purpose of evaluation is the assessment for or as learning rather than the assessment of learning. This requires teachers to provide students explicit evaluation goals in advance, help students recognize the expectations, motivate students to feel their “pulse,” help students identify their current achievements and problems, and the gaps between goals and actual learning. Therefore, students can learn to narrow the gaps and achieve the goals. The goal of “promoting learning through assessment” through self-reflection can be truly achieved (as shown in Fig. 2.4).

Fig. 2.4

The directive role of evaluation in learning and teaching

The online learning data of each blended course allows each student to review their progress and results. Therefore, teachers should encourage students to share their learning experiences and shortcomings, actively engage in consistent self-reflection, rethink accurately, and adjust their learning (Davies et al. 2011). In terms of setting scoring goals, giving students extra incentive points and lessening punitive deduction points help directly engage students in evaluation.

Extended Reading 2.11

Relevant Concept: The Purpose of Assessment

Assessment of learning: Exams taken as the major representation of summative assessment. As the absolute authority and evaluator, teachers assess students’ learning results according to their test scores. As the main indicator to measure everything, standardized scores are used to assess the degree to which students achieve their goals at the end of the learning stage, with the aim of identifying, selecting, and classifying students.

Assessment for learning (Broadfoot et al. 1999): Assessment is no longer regarded as a standard to judge good or bad results, but as a tool to promote learning. The main purpose is to promote students’ learning through assessment, make assessment a part of the teaching process to help students gradually achieve their learning objectives, pay attention to the formative assessment, and give a high degree of attention to the incentive and development function of assessment.

Assessment as learning (Dann 2014): Assessment is no longer a means or part embedded in the learning process, but a correction mechanism internalized in learning activities. Assessing others is a process of constantly deepening and reconstructing knowledge. In the process of constantly assessing others’ answers and comparing them with their own knowledge, students can clarify the idea of the topic and gain a deeper understanding and mastery of knowledge. Therefore, they naturally enter into deep learning in the process of assessment.

Case 2.12

Essential Biology: An Undergraduate Course of Tsinghua University, China

Design of pre-class learning assessment	Learning Objectives	Resource/Tool	Distribution of Scores
	Student (A) can recall the composition, structure, the basic principle of replication, and discovery history of double-stranded DNA (B) by watching the teaching video (C), and the accuracy of exercises for preview shall reach over 60% (D)	Learning management system (LMS)	∙ The total score of the pre-class part is 2 points ∙ If student finished watching the preview video and homework for previewing before class, they would get 1.5 points ∙ If the actual score is 5 points or more, students will get 2 points. But, if the actual score is lower than 5 points, one point lower will be deducted 0.1 points (for example, one would get 1.8 points, if the actual score is 3 points) ∙ If the student only watched the video before class without finishing the exercises, or only finished the exercises without watching the required video, the student would get 1 point only ∙ No score will be given if the preview is not completed before class
Design of in-class learning assessment	Learning Objectives	Resource/Tool	Distribution of Scores
	After listening to the lecture and completing the class games, students can: ∙ Describe the process of PCR ∙ Identify the similarities and differences between DNA replication and PCR (the above knowledge will be tested through in-class exercises and games, and the accuracy shall reach more than 60%) ∙ Analyze the functions of various reagents in real PCR kits and the successful factors of the PCR experiment ∙ Lay the necessary foundation for further learning using the nucleic acid detection method of novel Coronavirus which can be applied to clinical practice	Offline teaching and Rain Classroom	∙ The teacher assigns points according to the background data of Rain Classroom (a total of 1 point; 0.5 points for each question for example) ∙ Answer the question within 1 min and students will get the score ∙ No score is awarded without participating
Design of after-class learning assessment	Learning Objectives	Resource/Tool	Distribution of Scores
	Student (A) can use the basic principles of PCR (C) to analyze the effects of various reagents in real PCR kits (B) after completing the classroom learning, and the accuracy shall reach more than 60% (D)	Learning management system (LMS)	∙ 1 point for each correct answer to the question. Full marks given for two or more correct answers. For every 2 wrong answers, 0.5 points will be deducted (if one answer is wrong, no points will be deducted), until 0 points are left ∙ 1 point for each correct answer. A score of 0.8 is given if the result of the formula is wrong or if the number of primers used in the last round is considered. Submitting the answer will earn 0.6 points ∙ 1 point for each correct reason. Full marks given for three or more correct answers. For every wrong answer, 0.5 points will be deducted until 0 points are left

1. Describe the relationship between assessments:
2. The assessments before, after, and in class are gradual. The assessment before class can find out the basic level of students to guide teachers to change the key points and methods of teaching. The assessment in class can be compared with the assessment before class to understand the degree of students’ mastery of new knowledge through courses. And, by contrasting the assessments in and after class, the teachers can know the students’ final degree of mastery of the new knowledge and consolidate it
3. TIPS:
4. 1. Consider the elements of learning assessment, comprehensively consider the assessment of the learning process and learning results (matching with learning activities and existing learning objectives)
5. 2. Learning objectives: Elements and Design Methods of Learning assessment (Application)

Case 2.13

Business Marketing and Negotiation, a professional course of vocational college

The course adopts a combination of unit assessment and final assessment of learning results

Unit assessment: This course consists of eight units, and each unit consists of a task, including fundamental learning, comprehensive practical training, and student tasks

Final assessment: Final assessment includes comprehensive simulated negotiation tasks and closed-book exams scheduled in the last two weeks of the semester. The topics and requirements of comprehensive simulated negotiation tasks are released in the second week of the semester. As the learning activity proceeds, students can complete the related preparation for the negotiation (e.g., building a negotiating team, collecting data, formulating negotiation plans, choosing negotiating strategies). The simulated negotiation is held in the penultimate week of the semester in class. Each student’s score is based on their group performance and assessment of peers in groups. Closed-book exam: The final exam is held in the last week of the semester. The types of questions include multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and a case study. The criterion of assessment for the completion of comprehensive simulated negotiation tasks are shown in the following table:

Task	0 point	1 point	2 points	3 points	Score
Formulation of negotiation plan	Not submitted	The negotiating plan is incomplete and only a few of the stages have been considered	The negotiation plan is complete, but the application of strategies and skills is not strongly related to the goals	The negotiation plan is complete, including the basic principles, strategies, and skills of negotiation at each stage
Simulated negotiation	Not participated	Vague roles without their own starting points and positions The pace of negotiations is disrupted by the other party	Having a clear position and starting point But, not being able to apply strategies and skills flexibly to achieve the goals. The negotiation is weak	Having a clear position and starting point And being able to flexibly use a variety of skills and strategies of negotiation

2.4.4 Evaluation on Implementation of Blended Learning

At the end of a semester, teachers need to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing blended learning. Evaluation results are important for further improvement. Evaluation on the effectiveness of implementing blended learning includes two perspectives: (1) teachers’ self-assessment on the implementation of blended learning and (2) students’ learning experience of blended learning.

Teachers’ self-assessment on the implementation of blended learning. Teachers can use the questionnaire as shown in Table 2.21 to conduct self-assessment.

Table 2.21 The questionnaire of self-assessment on the effectiveness of implementing blended learning

Students’ blended learning experience. Students’ learning experience, especially student satisfaction, is important for further improvement in implementing blended learning. Satisfaction refers to students’ pleasant feelings or attitudes towards learning activities, in this case, blended learning (Long 1989). There are many factors that influence students’ learning satisfaction including class size, students’ prior experience, age, the relationship between teachers and students, engagement, and technical skills. To measure students’ learning satisfaction, questionnaires are used. A sample learning satisfaction questionnaire is shown in Table 2.22.

Table 2.22 The learning satisfaction questionnaire on blended course

Additionally, teachers can self-assess their teaching by using students’ learning performance in each learning unit and course data. Specifically, course tests and discussion posts on the course website help evaluate whether students have completed the pre-class activities. Student’s in-class discussions, group activities, experimentations, and presentations evaluate students’ in-class activities. Whether they reached their unit objectives through exercises, assignments, discussion forums, and reflection reports on the course website, students’ achievement of pre-determined unit objectives is made. Behavioral data and statistical results on the course website assist in evaluating students’ engagement and completion of after-class activities.

2.5 Suggestions for Implementing Blended Learning for Different Modes

The implementation of blended learning has different modes, which vary in learning objectives, time and space, and teaching environment. Thus, content and delivery methods should be adjusted when implementing blended learning.

2.5.1 Implementation of Blended Learning for Different Learning Objectives

When implementing blended learning for different learning objectives, blended learning is classified into two categories: (1) skill-driven blended courses and (2) competency-driven blended courses (Valiathan 2002).

Skill-driven blended courses. Skill-driven blended courses combine students’ self-paced online learning and online learning support from tutors or teaching assistants. This type of blended courses works best for procedural knowledge and skills. In skill-driven blended courses, teachers need to provide students with a specific pre-class learning plan and requirements of the learning schedule. Teachers provide online assistance during students’ self-paced learning. Offline in-class activities focus on practicing, forming group collaborations, and obtaining teachers’ onsite guidance. When implementing skill-driven blended courses, teachers can consider the following steps:

• Before class: Teachers send out online learning tasks

• Before class: Teacher provide brief lectures of learning content

• Before class: Students complete self-paced online learning

• In class: Students practice and complete group tasks

• In class: Teachers offer onsite guidance and feedback

• In class: Teachers conclude the offline sessions

• After class: Teachers assess students’ learning performance in an online learning environment

Competency-driven blended courses. Competency-driven blended courses utilize performance support tools and knowledge management tools. This type of blended courses works best for implicit knowledge and workplace competency development. In competency-driven blended courses, students are assigned workplace tutors and provided with learning tasks before class. Students can share their experience in the online learning communities. Students also need opportunities for observing and interacting with field experts in a real workplace. When implementing competency-driven blended courses, teachers can consider the following steps:

• Before class: Assign workplace tutors to students

• Before class: Build an online learning community

• In class: Students practice offline

• In class: Students discuss with the workplace tutors

• After class: The workplace tutors answer students’ questions

• After class: Students complete homework and learning reflection in an online learning environment

2.5.2 Implementing Blended Learning for Different Time and Space

Blended courses include offline and online sessions. Teachers and students have different types of connections such as synchronous and asynchronous. Therefore, when implementing blended learning for different time and space, blended learning is lassified into three categories: (1) synchronous blended courses, (2) asynchronous blended courses, and (3) courses that combine synchronous and asynchronous courses (Li & Zhu, 2019).

Asynchronous blended courses. Asynchronous blended courses are the most widely used blended learning mode. Besides in-class lectures, after class online activities are added for independent learning and extended learning. When implementing asynchronous blended courses, teachers can consider the following steps:

• Before class: Teachers send online learning tasks

• Before class: Students complete self-paced online learning

• In-class: Teachers facilitate offline activities in class

• After class: Students complete homework and learning reflection in an online learning environment

Synchronous blended courses. Synchronous blended courses require both teachers and students have certain synchronous communication tools (e.g., video conferencing system, online real-time interaction tools). This type of blended course works best when teachers and students cannot come to the physical classroom. Teachers conduct lectures through video or audio-conferencing systems and interact with students in real-time. When implementing synchronous blended courses, teachers can consider the following steps:

• Before class: Teachers send online learning tasks

• Before class: Students prepare learning materials and synchronous communication tools

• In class: Teachers provide brief lectures of learning content via video conferencing system

• In class: Students interact with teachers online through video conferencing systems

• In class: Teachers conclude the session through video conferencing systems

• After class: Students complete homework and learning reflection in an online learning environment

The third category is a combination of the synchronous courses and asynchronous courses. This type of blended course works best when teachers are physically in-class while the students are either attending in person or online.

2.5.3 Implementing Blended Teaching for Different Learning Environments

The physical teaching environment can include many different spaces for learning. The space can include multimedia functionality, physical experimental training labs, virtual simulation training labs, virtual-real integration training labs, theory-integrated practical training labs, and actual workplace settings. The integration of online learning environment with these physical teaching environments generates different forms of blended learning. Details of these forms of blended learning are provided below.

Multimedia classroom + online learning environment. The multimedia classroom is the most widely used physical teaching environment. This model is suitable for courses with learning objectives focused on knowledge acquisition and developing intellectual and presentation skills. Students can acquire face-to-face assistance during self-paced online learning. When implementing this blended learning mode, teachers can consider the following steps:

• Before class: Teachers send online learning tasks

• Before class: Students complete self-paced online learning

• In class: Lecturing and tutoring are conducted in the multimedia classroom

• After class: Students complete homework and learning reflection in an online learning environment

Physical experimental training labs + online learning environment. The physical experimental training labs provide necessary physical equipment and devices for students to practice. This mode works best when learning content is primarily a motor, sensory, and perceptual skill. When implementing this blended learning mode, teachers can consider the following steps:

• Before class: Teachers send online learning tasks

• Before class: Students learn procedural skills in online learning environment

• In class: Teachers demonstrate procedural skills in the physical experimental training labs

• In class: Students practice procedural skills in a group or individually and teachers provide necessary assistance in the physical experimental training labs

• In class: Teachers conclude the learning sessions and provide feedback to students’ performance

• After class: Students complete homework and learning reflection in an online learning environment

Virtual simulation training labs + online learning environment. Virtual simulation training labs provide students virtual simulation systems and software for practice. This mode works best when learning content is primarily operational skills and completed on computers or with other digital devices. When implementing this blended learning mode, teachers can consider the following steps:

• Before class: Teachers send online learning tasks

• Before class: Students learn operational skills in online learning environment

• In class: Teachers demonstrate operational skills in virtual simulation training labs

• In class: Students practice operational skills and teachers provide necessary assistance in the virtual simulation training labs

• In class: Teachers conclude the learning sessions and provide feedback to students’ performance

• After class: Students complete homework and learning reflection in an online learning environment

Virtual-real integration training labs + online learning environment. Virtual-real integration training labs are equipped with virtual simulation software, virtual reality (VR/AR) software, Internet of Things, sensor networks, and more. The physical space and equipment integrate within an online learning environment in the virtual-real integration training labs to support students’ physical operations as well as virtual simulation operations. This mode works best when learning content is primarily professional and requires complicated motor and high-risk motor skills. When implementing this blended learning mode, teachers can consider the following steps:

• Before class: Teachers send online learning tasks

• Before class: Students learn motor skills in online learning environment

• Before class: Students watch demonstration videos in an online learning environment and complete simulation operations in virtual simulation training lab

• In class: Teachers explain the key points of skill operation according to students’ online learning

• In class: Teachers demonstrate the process of skill operation

• In class: Students practice operation in groups in the virtual-real integration training lab and teachers provide necessary assistance

• In class: Teachers conclude the learning sessions and provide feedback regarding students’ performance

• After class: Students complete homework and learning reflection in an online learning environment

Theory-integrated practical training labs + online learning environment. Theory-integrated practical training labs integrate online learning environment with practicing labs (sometimes equip with virtual simulation systems) to meet students’ different learning needs. This mode works best when requiring students to learn and apply the theories simultaneously. This mode also provides opportunities for deeper interactions between students and teachers, and fully develops students’ abilities. When implementing this blended learning mode, teachers can consider the following steps:

• Before class: Teachers send online learning tasks

• Before class: Students learn declarative and procedural skills and complete pre-test in online learning environment

• Before class: Students watch demonstration videos in online learning environment and complete simulation operation using virtual simulation software

• In class: Teachers lecture on key points and procedures according to pre-test results

• In class: Teachers explain the key points and procedures according to simulation operation results

• In class: Students practice operations in groups in the virtual-real integration training lab and teachers provide necessary assistance

• In class: Teachers conclude the learning sessions and provide feedback to students’ performance

• After class: Students complete homework and learning reflection in an online learning environment

Workplace + online learning environment. Workplace refers to the physical workplace with educational purposes, including on-campus and off-campus workplaces. Students are employees in the workplace and participate in related activities to obtain professional skills. They will conduct real tasks under the direct or indirect guidance of skilled employees. When implementing this blended learning mode, teachers can consider the following steps:

• Before class: Assign workplace tutors to students

• Before class: Create an online learning community

• In class: Students complete offline practice and conduct workplace tasks

• In class: Students discuss with workplace tutors

• After class: Workplace tutors conclude the learning sessions and provide feedback regarding students’ performance

• After class: Students complete homework and learning reflection in online learning environment.

In summary, this chapter has demonstrated how to implement blended learning in three phases as well as provided implementation strategies when teaching in different modes, such as different learning objectives and learning environments. Information presented in this chapter could serve as references for researchers and practitioners to implement blended learning in their own contexts.