There are many innovations in blended learning that are making it an even more effective and engaging learning experience for students. Here are a few of the most promising trends:

• Use of artificial intelligence (AI) to personalize learning. AI can be used to track student progress, identify areas of need, and recommend personalized learning activities. This can help students learn at their own pace and in a way that is most effective for them.
  
• Development of more immersive and interactive online learning experiences. Online learning is no longer just about reading text and watching videos. Thanks to new technologies, online learning can now be more immersive and interactive, with features such as virtual reality, gamification, and simulations. This can help students learn more effectively and retain information better.
• Increased use of mobile devices for learning. Mobile devices are becoming increasingly powerful and affordable, making them a great way for students to learn on the go. There are now many mobile apps and learning platforms that can be used to access blended learning content and activities.
  
• Collaboration between Trainers and Learners in online learning environments. Online learning doesn’t have to be isolating. Thanks to tools like video conferencing and chat, teachers and students can collaborate in real time, just like they would in a traditional classroom. This can help students get the support they need and make learning more engaging.

These are just a few of the innovations that are making blended learning a more effective and engaging learning experience for students. As technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovations in blended learning in the years to come.

Martin Zgraggen published a literature analysis citing one of these papers. He mentions the TIBL Project as

A current study project based on student’s perspective (Mazohl, Ossiannilsson, & Makl, 2018) is (2017 – 2019) conducted under the umbrella of Technical Innovation in Blended Learning (TIBL). An EU project on continuous vocational education investigating the use of multiple devices in blended learning. The activities performed are the development, implementation, performing and evaluation of pilot courses in C-VET.
Source: Literature review: Blended learning in Vocational Educational Training Hospitality Courses Zgraggen, Martin December 2018

The mentioned citation is part of the project “Blended Learning in Vocational Educational Training (Hospitality Industry)” and serves as a bases for further phases in the project.

This quote in another project shows the good project results and their influence or the further usability in the field of vocational training and here in particular in continuous vocational education and training (C-VET).

The keynote speaker, Univ.Prof. Felix Breitenecker (from the University of Technology, Vienna) gave an introduction to the project. Harald Makl and Peter Mazohl (from the EFQBL) presented the project and the results with the specific focus on

• The developed pedagogical framework
• The quality enhancement framework
• The use of multiple devices, and
• The Toolbox

Here is an image album of the successful event!

The TIBL project (Technical Innovation in Blended  Learning), mutiplier event for SADE took place in combination with SADEs annual conference at Saturnus Conference, Stockholm, SE. In additon it was combined with another EU project, the VTT-BOX where there are some synergy effects and spin offs. The mutiplier event gathered some 50 delegates from different kind of stakeholders and sectores, such as Univerities, National Authorities as Swedish Higher Edcuation Authority (UKÄ), The Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR),The Swedish Agency for School Education (Skolverket). Other delagates were just to mention some Företagarna (organsation for the co-operative sector). Digital Skills and Job Coalition, Sweden, the National Organization for e-comptence (REK), Schools, Companies, and also the private sector and individuals who had an interest in the field.

Besides delegates from Sweden, we had delagates and presenters from the Nordic countries, Denmark, Norway, and Finland. Iceland was about to join but they had to cancel. In addition, we had delegates from the Netherlands. During the event the Nordic network for open online and flexible learning was launched NordFlexOn, to be hosted by ICDE.

The theme for the Multiplier event was on

”THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION IS NOT ABOUT TECHNOLOGY
– IT’S ABOUT PEOPLE ”

The President Ulf Sandström and V President Ebba Ossiannilsson for SADE in action.

See the full program here

All presentations will be available here

The main objective of the project, presented at the Portaceli school in Seville to teachers of Vocational Training, university and company trainers, is to make available to these professionals a simple tool that helps them and guides them in the design, implementation and evaluation process of blended learning courses. All this, from an innovative perspective that has as a reference modern pedagogical approaches and quality assurance systems.

In the project, coordinated by the Professional Training Department of the Central Directorate of the SAFA Foundation, the following partners also participated: La Sapienza University of Rome (Italy), Aveiro University (Portugal), European Foundation for Quality in Blended Learning (Austria) and Swedish Association of Distance Learning (Sweden).

Likewise, teachers have a transferability guide to apply the model proposed by the TIBL project to other training scenarios and to other educational stages other than Vocational Training.

Over 30 teachers and trainers from different public and private centers attended this presentation.

The intellectual outputs (IOs) of the TIBL project will be presented to the Spanish Stakeholders in Seville, on September 19th. The multiplier event will take place at the famous Colegio Inmaculado Corazón de María, often referred to as Portaceli.

This school belongs to the Loyola Foundation, a network of 6 Jesuit schools which are run by the same General Manager of Fundación SAFA’s.

Portaceli school has just been awarded the title of “Google for Education Reference School” due to its extensive use of the Google for education tools and its commitment in the training process of their staff in the use of technologies. So it is indeed a truly appropriate venue for this multiplier event.

The presentation will be held from 16:00 to 21:00 and will include a network cocktail. All interested stakeholders are kindly invited to the event.

Read more about the European Vocational Skills Week here

#DiscoverYourTalent       #EUVocationalSkills

Read more here

Peter Mazohl (EFQBL), Ebba Ossiannielsson (SADE) and Luca Reitano (DigiLab) in the coffee break during the meeting and consultations in Rome (10/2018)

Peter Mazohl, Harald Makl (EFQBL), Ebba Ossiannielsson (SADE) and Luca Reitano (DigiLab) met to consultations in October 2018 in Rome. The discussed topics covered the development of documents and chapters for the MOOC as well as the creation of content for the “Trainers’ Toolbox”. Besides this, the publishing of the multiple device report (as a scientific paper) was discussed.

Another item was the planning and the start of the preparation work for the next meeting, which will take place in March in Rome at DigiLab.

In this meeting the developed materials will be reviewed finally and fixed.

DigiLab Rome, part of the University La Sapienza, is established in the refurbished building of an ald glas and mirror factory.

Currently, the partners are developing the MOOC (for the trainers’ training) and specific items for the toolbox. The EFQBL is working on the introduction videos and has just finished the first successful tryouts.

Video as media in training

The importance of using media in teaching, training, and learning was made visible at the Media & Learning Meeting 2018 (Leuven, Belgium). The fact that more than half of the European universities use videos in teaching was the reason to assemble educators from universities to discuss the topic and to develop strategies and settings of a most efficient use of media.

Differences in the TIBL-project

Discussion at the teaching event: How to use multimedia in courses? Special guest is Andreia Inamorato dos Santos (from the JRC)

In the TIBL-Project the use of media is a must – the project partners promote multimedia material and interactive training material for the training.
An important issue is to use interactive video: Videos are a kind of “one-way material” and can give you the knowledge to do something. For example, you use a YouTube video to exchange your broken laptop display. After you have done you have the typical forgetting course and after some hours you have completely forgotten everything.

Therefore, the project group developed the use of interactive videos used in the MOODLE environment of the project. These interactive videos and other interactive multimedia material provide a better training result (and finally make more fun during the training).

Theory behind

Mayer describes the fundamental principle behind multimedia learning as “People learn
better from words and pictures than from words alone.” This means that using both words and pictures is more effective than
words alone. Mayer also researched that narration and video appear to be more effective than narration, video and text (I would call it “overloaded multimedia).

Conclusion

Following these ideas, it also would make sense to create multimedia based PowerPoints (with a minimum of text) and add voice. These slides could be used online (for distance learning) as well.

Technical comments

Creating multimedia content must be planned well, is time consuming and needs a high level of competences. Shared material (as Open Educational Resources) are a way to offer not so well-educated people high quality multimedia-based material.

References:
Richard E. Mayer, in: Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Volume 67, Pages 1-318 (2017), Edited by Brian H. Ross
Mayer (2014): The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning, Second Edition: Cambridge University Press.