Interactive poster

How could tutors’ time be allocated most effectively in a blended approach to teaching?

Conclusion

Teachers do spend more time working, because of increased workload, but also because workspace and homespace is less differentiated. Learning to use technology also takes time. This is where institutional support appears to be most in evidence. Some interviewees saw the potential for time-saving in blended approaches as well as changes in the way in which they taught, encouraging more social constructivist pedagogies. However, this is not the experience of all and it’s clear that institutions must devote resources to helping teachers develop their pedagogy as well as putting in place mechanisms that enable teachers to work from home without negative impacts on careers and home life.

With blended teaching approaches being recognised as a way forward following the Pandemic, the way in which tutors' time is allocated needs review. Interviews with HE staff from both creative and non-creative disciplines in two countries, highlighted some key approaches for achieving greater efficiency.

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Method

Acknowledgements: With thanks to all participants for their time and input.

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Literature shows that blended approaches call for more social constructivist pedagogies (Tynan, Ryan, and Lamont-Mills, 2015; Acar, Sharicz, and Foust, 2021; Bruggeman et al, 2021; Huang, 2018; Gregory and Lodge, 2015) pioneered through the work of Vygotsky and Piaget. Teachers help learners to construct knowledge through interaction, rather than just providing knowledge. Cutajar (2019) maps the teacher’s human roles to the affordances of technology. These include teacher-as-learner, creative actor, and empathic guide (p. 9). For many teachers in higher education, this changes what they do. Adopting a blended approach, therefore, has an impact on teachers’ time. Increased workload is one of the main focuses (Tynan, Ryan, and Lamont-Mills, 2015; Jeffrey, et al, 2014), particularly regarding learning how to use new technologies (Gregory and Lodge, 2015; Eriksson et al., 2017). This impacts teachers’ roles because this may be in addition to their usual workload. Crabtree et al (2020) suggest that blended approaches should be introduced as a way of reducing stress for academics rather than increasing it. However, they found that a lack of institutional support had the opposite effect. Without institutional support, they suggest that the flexibility offered by blended approaches, allowing teachers to spend more time at home, will serve to decrease equity and diversity. Those whose teaching roles are more home-based will be the ‘unambitious’ who make workplace sacrifices in order to manage blended learning (e.g. women, people with care responsibilities), rather than the ‘ambitious’, who will avoid teaching situations and approaches that are more time consuming than usual.

Interacting with students: It's been dealing a lot more with one to one issues dealing with the pastoral issues (Aquarius) In blended models, there is rather a continuity of dialogue after the in-class education. There are group meetings for discussion (and why not sometimes chit-chat?) and one-to-one feedback sessions so that the teacher can follow each step of the student’s research and design. (Blue) Interactive pedagogies: There are certain things that are quite advantageous, for example, the chat window is something that I wouldn't have thought of previously. It's another form of communication and another way that students who are maybe a little bit less inclined to ask questions can communicate with you. The Boom Bringing students together for various things, even if it's just having a group tutorial with supervisors and leaving them on for 20 minutes when you finished so that you switch everything off and go away but they can actually catch up and they've really enjoyed that (Aquarius) The student engagement has been patchy especially with not being on campus, a lack of contribution to lectures and in general being somewhat silent (Gemini)

Increased time regarding workload: Preparation of material to put online or send or use when I have the online (sessions).” The Pen To pre-record a lecture can take twice as long, due to checking and re-recording content which would not happen if it was live (Sagittarius) I often find myself working in the evening or long days to get everything done. (Sagittarius) Technology as a time-saver: Feedback from students is that they have found being able to go back through videos is a great way of nurturing their individual learning needs where they may not catch it the first time. (Taurus) So, in a way that [pre-recorded lecture+online seminar] made things better for me because it meant I didn't have to deliver the lectures again.And I could use that time for discussion rather than for primary kind of teaching, if you see what I mean. (Gemini) We introduced weekly Q&A's which were new to blended learning, allowing students to ask questions in a live setting, to avoid student stress and minimise email questions. (Pisces)

Institutional support: Our university’s online education team is very helpful. They answer any questions about the interface quickly and effectively. (Pink) Travelling to work: It has become more effective in the sense that I find myself using time better because I don't have to commute» The Pen The only redeeming element was the lack of commuting to campus that gave me some early evening family time (Leo) Home / work balance: The inability to plan a day with regular breaks due to workload and being ‘trapped’ in a small bedroom which I use as an office. (Leo) And you feel guilty because you think I should not be in the kitchen having coffee, I should be working. There are no boundaries between work and home….So even stopping for lunch, you know, you can't relax for that hour that you're supposed to take to thinking. (Aquarius)

How do you interpret ‘Blended Teaching’ in your specialism?

How do you allocate your time on a blended teaching module?

What has been the impact Blended Teaching has had on your role?

How do you use technology in your teaching?

We used semi-structured interviews with 12 HE staff currently adopting a Blended Teaching approach. These interviews focused on four themes: