The understanding that technology enhances education led our organisation to trial a blended delivery strategy for one of our first-year units of competency: the qualification was certificate III air conditioning and refrigeration from the electrotechnology training package. The connectivist epistemology posits that “people, organisations and technology can collaboratively construct knowledge” (Starkey, 2012, p. 26). Therefore, the organisation purchased a SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) package that included learning materials and assessment activities.
The SCORM supplier held a two-day orientation for the trainers and assessors where emphasis was put on the use of Gagne’s nine events of instructional design: “Gagne’s instructional design distinguishes verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, attitudes, and psycho-motor skills to facilitate a learning plan in a stepwise manner” (Bashir et al., 2021, p. 1224). However, the results of the blended delivery learning strategy fell short of the intended objectives. According to Walsh (2017), the TPACK (Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge) model of technology integration encourages teachers to align pedagogy to suit teaching with the help of educational technology (p. 30). Our team failed to effectively implement the blended learning delivery strategy.
Firstly, the teachers felt threatened by the change and thought that they were being replaced by the technology: teachers were used to face-to-face direct instruction classroom delivery. Secondly, the teachers’ computer self-efficacy played an important role since most teachers were not trained to competently mentor/coach/scaffold students in a blended delivery learning approach; therefore, the poor teaching practices influenced negatively on the students’ achievement and motivation (Siddiq & Scherer, 2016, p. 3). Finally, the SCORM package had problems that required the authority of the provider to effect changes. Accordingly, both teachers and students were frustrated because of the obvious errors that were evident in the program. Regrettably, the program was abandoned after two years.
References
Bashir, K., Rauf, L., Yousuf, A., Anjum, S., Bashir, T. M., & Elmoheen, A. (2021). Teaching benign paroxysmal position vertigo to emergency medicine residents by using Gagne’s nine steps of instructional design. Advances in Medical Education and Practice, 10(12), 1223-1227. https://doi.org/10.2147/AMEP.S309001
Prismos Decors [Photograph]. (n.d.). Imagine, Create, Transform. https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/578782989581739667/
Siddiq, F., & Scherer, R. (2016). The relation between teachers’ emphasis on the development of students’ digital information and communication skills and computer self-efficacy: the moderating roles of age and gender. Large-scale Assess Educ 4(17). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40536-016-0032-4
Starkey, L. (2012). Teaching and learning in the digital edge. Routledge
Walsh, J. (2017). Models of technology integration: TPACK and SAMR. TLN Journal, 24(2), 26–30. https://search-informit-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/doi/10.3316/aeipt.219383