Blended professional learning

Modelling the paradigm shift

Abstract

Many academics are grappling with transforming their teaching practices to embed 21st century pedagogy creating new challenges for academic developers. To address this, a professional learning program was redesigned integrating emerging technologies and practices to provide an immersive experience in the flipped classroom strategy and to foster technology enhanced pedagogy using an experiential learning framework. Participants (n = 195) in the first iteration of the program reported a very positive learning experience regarding engagement, motivation to integrate learning technologies in teaching and confidence to embrace new pedagogies. Overall, conceptions of and engagement with the flipped strategy were also highly positive but the blended nature of the course poses challenges in terms of participants’ personal learning journeys, raising critical implications for those involved in planning and facilitating professional learning courses.