Participative training or learning online - does it have to be either/or?
Jacinta Sweeney has run Bond’s Introduction to international development course as part of our open programme, for in-house clients, and now with an online component. She finds that blending e-learning with a highly participative short course has the potential to deliver the best of both worlds.
Various phrases have been used to describe the e-learning experience: rich and focused, surreal yet interesting, irritating and superficial. It’s a medium with which many have a love-hate relationship….people may dip their toe, rather than dive straight in to online waters.
Many like to say it’s generational – “At my age, I’m happy to wait to meet others before I discuss the big issues”; “Online learning and anything IT-related is for youngsters”. Many people feel the need for face to face training courses over online ones any day.
But need we choose one or the other?
Bond piloted an online module linked to its two day Introduction to International Development course in September. The approach we took, and the feedback we got, confirmed the strengths of an approach which blends the best of online components - working in one’s own time (3pm or 3am), enabling time to reflect – with the best of face to face training – meeting other people and networking, delving deep into the bigger issues of aid, trade, MDG effectiveness - in ‘real’ time and with real people.
The impact of this ‘blended’ approach to learning can be powerful. Francesca Purcell of Sightsavers attended the face to face course and worked through the online course. She found it “ace and very thought provoking”, with the key outcome of inspiring her to research into doing an MA in Development Studies.
So how does blended learning work?
People who sign up for the next time we run the course will have a new opportunity, to do some pre-course reading and virtually meet (e-meet?) others on the course, before working with them for two days in London on 5-6 January 2011.
Following the two day course, participants return to the online module which offers two options: to embed what they’ve already learned from the face to face sessions and, if they want an extra challenge, to probe some key topics in more depth – the MDGs, Aid and Debt and Climate Change.
And what might it consist of?
Participants work through a series of resources – basic quizzes, further reading, video clips – that relate specifically to each of the topics covered in the two day course. Participants may select only the topics they enjoyed most on the face to face course or they may work through all of the topics that the face to face course offered.
We all know the intensity of courses and we equally know the challenge of doing any kind of follow-up to even the most stimulating of courses when we return to the office. Based on feedback from the September course, we have designed the January course so that participants can complete each topic within, at most, twenty minutes at a time. Participants will also be able to download and keep resources to work through in their own time.
We’re looking forward to the next stage of this new approach to learning at Bond and we’re hoping that the dipping of the toe will be transformed to a confident dive straight in as a result!
Introduction to international development: find out more and book
