{"id":133287,"date":"2021-11-24T14:54:11","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T13:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=133287"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:00","slug":"good-blended-education-is-like-the-perfect-cocktail-but-more-often-its-a-vodka-red-bull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/11\/24\/good-blended-education-is-like-the-perfect-cocktail-but-more-often-its-a-vodka-red-bull\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Good blended education is like the perfect cocktail, but more often it\u2019s a Vodka-Red Bull\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blended education as the future? Kris Stabel, educational consultant at Risbo and theme leader Education Innovation at the Community for Learning and Innovation, is not keen on this as a goal. \u201cThe goal must not be to have half of the students at home, the other half in the lecture hall.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>

It isn\u2019t easy to come up with a precise definition of blended education. Standard practice at this university is that of a modern lecture hall with lots of cameras and screens, where some of the students are present and the others watch online. Meanwhile, a lecturer tries to keep the technology working, the content understandable and the students awake, without having a nervous breakdown.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the type of blended education that Stabel dreams of. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t benefit our students, nor our lecturers.\u201d According to Stabel, the future of blended education is much richer, with many more options. \u201cWith blended education, you need to make sure that you don\u2019t keep thinking up the same solution. For me, it\u2019s about making the best educational choices from the various technical options. So, a video clip if that works best, a physical session or an online discussion, whatever the educational goals require,\u201d Stabel explains his dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood blended education is like the perfect cocktail, with all the ingredients in balance. Now, it\u2019s more often a vodka-Red Bull.\u201d Difficult to imagine, but Stabel is not a great fan of this mix.<\/p>\n\t

\n\t\t

Offline, online or hybrid? The future of education is very uncertain due to the corona crisis. Will everything change, or will everything return to normal?\u00a0In this theme week<\/a>, EM looks from all sides at what corona education has meant for students and teachers, how it can be improved and what we need to get rid of as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Can you repeat the question?<\/h2>

Furthermore, the technology must be flawless. \u201cAn annoying noise in the room can be distracting. Sometimes, students listening via a video link can\u2019t hear the question and are not always visible themselves.\u201d In the new blended lecture halls in the Theil building, that\u2019s been a problem: students in the hall don\u2019t always have a microphone when they ask a question.<\/p>\n

Good technology also means that the lecturer must be able to get it all working. Which can be hard, but Stabel saw an interesting solution during a trip to a German university. \u201cThere was a QR code stuck to a computer panel. The lecturers could scan it and then got instructions on using the equipment on their phone. But even then, technical support is required.\u201d<\/p>\n

No time from Hugo and Mark<\/h2>
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tikRotterdam<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

How does he want to achieve his blended dream at Erasmus University? That\u2019s a long-term project. Firstly, choosing purely \u2018physical\u2019 education is currently often an illusion, because some students cannot or are unwilling to come to Rotterdam. Secondly, during the pandemic there has been very little time to optimise the education for the blended era. And thirdly, due to the global chip crisis, it has become almost impossible to get the right equipment.<\/p>\n

The knee-jerk Dutch coronavirus policy hasn\u2019t helped either. Stabel: \u201cAs a lecturer, you need to design first, not immediately embark on blended education. But often, you don\u2019t get that time from Hugo and Mark<\/em>.\u201d Case in point: after last week\u2019s press conference, lecturers suddenly had to adapt their lectures, with only a weekend to do it. And then standard practice still applies: half in the hall, half at home.<\/p>\n\n\t

\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t
\n\t\t\u2018As a lecturer, you need to design first, not immediately embark on blended education. But often, you don\u2019t get that time from Hugo and Mark\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

\u201cThat setting is a huge challenge for lecturers,\u201d says Stabel. \u201cYou need totally different skills. Non-verbal signals come across very differently or not at all on a screen. And that gets in the way of several basic principles of what learning is: focus, involvement. I don\u2019t think that lecturers will be happy with this, unless they are very good, both educationally as technically,\u201d says Stabel.<\/p>\n

However, he does think that the current blended lectures have some value, also after the pandemic. So that students can decide whether they come to campus or not, for example. \u201cThen someone who\u2019s abroad can still take part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dissecting a frog<\/h2>

Stabel (himself more a beer drinker) has yet to find the perfect cocktail. \u201cI\u2019ve seen some inspiring examples, though. Take Arizona State University, for example, a global pioneer in this field. There they even provided \u2018wet lab<\/em>\u2019 education, like dissecting a frog, online.\u201d At EUR, there are also interesting examples. \u201cAt many courses, for example, the use of short instruction videos for students to watch before a lecture, has become very common.\u201d Another example is an honours lecture about sustainability communication. \u201cIn this case, Dutch and Chinese students came together via a video. That\u2019s very interesting, because in China they think very differently about such a subject. Without this technology, that would not have been possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will blended education continue after the pandemic? \u201cI think it would be a terrible shame if we completely turned back the clock. We\u2019ve learned a great deal from this time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Read more<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t