One of the great advantages of blended learning, in contrast with pure online, is that students have an opportunity to meet and get to know each other. In some of the Exemplars, students are doing traditional face-to-face subjects in parallel with blended or online subjects. Inevitably, relationships carry over:

‘Our students know each other, they’ve been in classes together. When they do our online subjects, there are already groups and relationships. It means that, quite naturally, they work together and help each other if they get stuck.’

In other Exemplars, students meet for the first time at the orientation or some other point early in the course. If well structured, these meetings can provide a good basis for relationship-building:

‘People in our industry have often heard of each other, but may not have actually met. So the orientation can be the starting point for warm friendships, which continue to grow via things like chat sessions.’

But even when students do not meet face-to-face early on, you can still do a lot to build relationships within the group:

‘When they started, I also buddied them up. I gave them the name of another student, so they each had a buddy who they could talk with. I got that idea from doing the FAMe course. I enjoyed having a buddy, and when we eventually met face-to-face, it was nice.’

In several of the Exemplars, it is clear that relationships such as this that formed early in the course were then the basis for groups of students working together and helping each other:

‘I ran an exercise2 where everyone tells everyone else a little about themselves online. I thought it was fantastic what eventuated from this! It led to a few peer support groups [amongst people with common backgrounds].’

You can and, when appropriate, should play an active role in getting such groups started. The Exemplars illustrate a number of ways to do so:

  • even when, as in the case of OTEN3, it is possible to enroll students individually, it may be preferable to enroll them in groups, perhaps one group every few weeks, and encourage them to see themselves as peers and allies
  • during the orientation, have people work on exercises in pairs
  • nominate project groups, and get them to decide on their own team leader (responsibilities might include pulling together answers to a discussion topic; submitting group project work; liaising with the teacher when there are common queries; and general group maintenance tasks such as chasing up noncontributors)
  • ensure that participants have each other’s email addresses.

You can also use forums to shift the focus from yourself and the course materials as the source of knowledge, to students as an important source of knowledge.

For example, suppose a student emails you with a query that is relevant to others in the group. Instead of replying immediately, you can post the query on the forum, and invite students to reply. After all, some students may have considerable insight and knowledge. It’s good for them and you if they can share what they know:

‘Within each module, there are forums that students can participate in. One student might post a comment or question, and others will respond. I’ve found this part of the course quite refreshing, a good form of peer support.’
‘Amongst the students, there are a few boffins who get very involved, helping other students through the forum. It’s marvellous, and helps us.’

The issue raised here is really when to intervene, and when to wait to see whether the group can deal with an issue themselves:

‘My subject is one where there are often a lot of questions. I try to hang back a little from answering these directly. Instead, I create the expectation that students will help each other work through their problems. By doing so, they learn a lot more.’

Chats are another way to foster group work. The term ‘chat’ is a misnomer, in that it suggests something casual and light. In contrast, the best chats are focused, and an effective form of dialogue.

The Exemplars show that teachers are having mixed success with chats. A range of factors, from the group size, to whether students have keyboards skills, to their work commitments and availability, and their level of motivation, all impact on the success of chat sessions. While a number of these factors are outside your control, there are some things you can do to make chats work:

  • at the beginning of the module, let students know that chats are an integral part of the course
  • agree on a definite time for chat sessions, ensuring that it accommodates as many participants as possible
  • provide a focus for the chat-a topic to consider, an issue to resolve
  • don’t overdo the number or duration of chats-as noted in Exemplar 1, it is better to have less chats (perhaps one every two or three weeks) but to put more effort into promoting the ones that are conducted.

2 This activity was inspired by an exercise which is part of Professional Development Network’s FAMe program.
3 OTEN is the open training and education network of TAFE NSW.