Promotion

The main goal of the project is to connect pioneers at the UGent in a community of practice (CoP), to monitor their experiences, to help out where possible and to subsequently share our experiences with a growing number of colleagues.

Among professors

Researchers at Artevelde have differentiated three professor profiles related to using blended learning courses (article). There are three types of professors that can be differentiated using a questionnaire:

1. those who are enthusiastic, dare to give it a try and have sufficient skills,
2. those who see the advantages, initially dare but risk giving up due to limited skills,
3. those who are not interested and lack even the basic skills.

For each of these three profiles, they have developed a trajectory:

1. bringing the pioneers from different backgrounds together in a Community of Practice (CoP) and organize inspiration sessions and follow-up sessions
2. a combination of inspiration sessions and practical sessions is organized in small groups within a faculty (i.e., create a local network to tackle practical problems along the way) and supported by an expert user,
3. professors are first informed about the benefits and possibilities in an information session and later can get started in a practical sessions with intensive personal guidance.

Some more ideas

• Start with a CoP and encourage related courses to follow. For example, a course that builds upon your own course or that precedes your course in the curriculum (you'll be able to reap the benefits from more fluent transitions between your course and related courses).
• Alternatively, if the CoP exclusively contains highly skilled IT-experts, this might alienate professors that are less tech-savvy. For that group of professors the ideal ambassador is a colleague who has no IT-background. For example, the blended learning team at Artevelde guided the bio-esthetics group (make-up etc.) in creating a blended learning environment and subsequently used that course to demonstrate the feasibility of their project.
• include a module on our tools in the docententraining (or doctoral schools or permanente vorming)
• create a starters manual or brochure

Among students

• probe student experience via focus groups and questionnaires
• how large is the population of students who
  (1) want to use these tools anonymously,
  (2) want to use these tools under their own name,
  (3) want to co-create the course with their fellow students and professors
• is incentivizing needed or does it suffice to play into the natural needs of students and professors (could undermine intrinsic motivation)?
• Guide students in learning how to use GitHub by actively using it during the lectures. Every lecture should start with a Git clone.

Tools for spreading the word

• scientific publication
• explain something in a one minute video: Story me