If you are in this section, you’ve already designed your course and incorporated the technology you think will support your learners. Now is the time to bring this all together, thinking about how you will teach in the blended model you’ve chosen.
Consider before you read on
- Where should I start with blended teaching?
- What instructional strategies and learning activities should I employ to facilitate students’ learning in person and online?
- How will students demonstrate what they’ve learned?
Switch to digital resources
Digitize your resources before you start modifying your instructions. Look to blend what you plan to have online versus what you plan to have in your classroom. Video tutorials, podcasts, online games, and illustrated reference materials are some of the strategies to support engaged learning. Ensure your instructions are clear and well documented so learners can move from one modality to the other seamlessly.
Digitally enhance the things you already do
Instead of forcing unfamiliar strategies into your teaching, think about how you can digitally enhance your existing practice. You don’t need to rebuild from scratch.
Encourage online collaboration and discussion
Alternate in-class collaborative activities with online ones. You’ll start to notice some new voices making themselves heard. Different students shine in different modalities; blending creates more entry points for engagement.
Blend traditional and digital assessments
Using technology in formative and summative assessments opens the possibility of engaging tasks students can’t do on paper. It also allows you to extend tasks and invite deeper thinking.oss both spaces.
Use technology meaningfully
You can use the SAMR model to determine how meaningful a role technology plays in your chosen strategies. Ideally, any technology you use in blended teaching should significantly augment or transform students’ learning — not just replicate what you’d do without it.
Don’t be afraid to experiment
Effective blended teaching begins with experimentation. Trial different digital tools and strategies to see what works. Some will become pillars of your everyday practice, while others will fail not long after students open their technology. That’s normal and expected.
Supporting resources
The Basics of Blended Instruction – Educational Leadership Magazine
Guide to blended learning (Chapter 1 and Chapter 3)
Community doesn’t happen automatically in blended courses especially in the online spaces. It requires intentional design and consistent effort. The payoff is a course where students feel safe to take risks and genuinely engage.
Questions to guide your thinking
How do you plan to intentionally build community in your blended course?
How do you plan to create safe, welcoming spaces for students to connect and learn?
What are you trying to achieve with particular activities, community building, social presence, connection, engagement?
Spend time intentionally engaging
It is imperative to spend the time to intentionally engage to build community in online spaces. If you don’t have spaces for informal check-ins and for people to connect, then it won’t happen. The course space becomes performative; it’s important to support students in connecting outside the formal course space.
Different online spaces carry different levels of formality
Performative/formal online spaces are focused more on one-way communication (e.g., a blog or discussion forum). More informal spaces, Padlet, a student-run backchannel, can promote active discussion and engagement. Match the tool to what you’re trying to achieve.
Support students in connecting outside the course space
This could be suggesting informal online spaces, putting people in groups, creating opportunities for students to exchange contact information, or simply acknowledging that learning together matters beyond the formal course environment.
Supporting Resource
Intentional blended teaching means making deliberate choices about what happens where, why, and how, and making those choices visible to students so they understand the design behind their experience.
Questions to guide your thinking
- How will I intentionally create community and connections with students?
- What will be the best use of in-person and online time? How will students demonstrate what they’ve learned?
Design with purpose
Map learning outcomes overtly to activities and assignments, for example, “Assignment 1 = LO1 and LO6” so that learners know clearly how the work is tied to the learning both in person and online. This transparency reduces student anxiety and increases engagement.
Create digital content
To support student learning when away from the in-person classroom, develop short 5–8 minute videos or curate interactive content that allows students to learn at their own pace online. Start strategically, you don’t have to do all of it at once. Use your previous knowledge about what needed mediation from past course offerings to build the technology intervention needed to learn difficult concepts.
Establish routines
Teach students how to log in, transition between activities, and troubleshoot. Consistent routines are critical for smooth operation in blended courses, and they reduce the cognitive load of navigating two learning environments.
Structure your in-class pacing
Use consistent flow: for example, a 10-minute mini-lesson, followed by station rotations (group work, digital, and independent), and an exit ticket. This steady exchange between what is to be learned online and in person, and how these connect is the hallmark of effective blended design.
Use face-to-face and synchronous online time wisely
Consider reserving your in-person or synchronous online time for collaboration, problem-solving, and personalized feedback. Use asynchronous online time to have learners reflect, read, watch, and hear before coming to class.
Leverage data
Use digital tools to track student progress in real time to quickly identify gaps and provide targeted support. If a student has been absent from the Moodle site for a few days, consider a quick check-in to see if they need assistance.
Supporting resources
Blended course implementation checklist
Station rotation in blended learning
Flipped Learning Case Study: Pragmatics of Learning and Teaching