Blended learning is like cooking. An important challenge is to mix the various resources to best effect. Some resources are already in existence when a course gets underway, such as online modules or materials developed by TAFE NSW, ANTA, public internet sites, or textbook publishers.

Other resources only come into being as a result of an exchange. Take the example of forums. A student posts a question, which results in responses by several students and the teacher. In this case, the ‘resource’ that results is evolving and interactive.

Let’s consider some of the challenges for teachers in making effective use of resources. One is the issue of whether to use pre-existing material, or to create your own. Certainly, there is lots of material already available. Many teachers find that ANTA Toolboxes (particularly the more recent ones) and learningware produced by TAFE NSW are very useful. You can base your whole course on such material, or use it for background reference.

Another valuable resource may be material that supports textbooks. Publishers are increasingly providing supplementary material online or on CDs:

‘We’ve been fortunate, in that the textbooks we prefer to use come with a CD. Instead of trying to get funds for fancy graphics and animations, you can advise students to go to their CD and "have a look at the diagram". I’d highly recommend that approach-it will save you a lot of time and money.’

In some cases however, no suitable resources are available. As described in Exemplar 11, which deals with training for florists, producing your own can be a highly creative exercise:

‘What I did was to go and take digital photographs of hundreds of flowers and leaves, and put them online. As far as I know, the result is unique, and I’m very pleased with it. It is fairly complete. You can click on a photograph and see it in enlargement, and the module contains a lot of theoretical and reference material as well.’

Another challenge is to decide how you want to use the internet. In some online courses, the internet is a core resource. For example, Exemplar 14 describes students using the internet to draw on the expertise of people around the world for help in researching family history. Exemplar 20 is about encouraging students to explore sites dealing with foreign languages and translation.

At the same time, there are challenges in encouraging students to search public internet sites. Aside from the obvious one of keeping students focused when so many distractions are available online, there is also the challenge of validating the information found:

‘We don’t encourage our students to go off searching through the internet for information. Even though there is a lot of good information out there, there is also a lot of rubbish.’

Of course, an increasingly important skill in the internet age is for students to be able to judge the value of different information. As suggested in Exemplar 16, all students need help to learn how to locate, use and assess the value of online information.

It can also be challenging to keep online resources up to date. Exemplar 10 describes how this is done in quarry management. Managers in this industry need to keep up to date with a lot of technical and legislative information which keeps changing:

‘Our course website contains hyperlinks to material like legislation and technical information. We’ve got copyright permission to go straight to the source. As legislation is updated, or as new commentary is made, our students get to see the current material.’

The example of quarry management also illustrates how it is possible to tap into the knowledge that is out there in the industry:

‘Sometimes, when a few of the students are working on a problem, they come up with something that goes beyond their expertise. What they can do is send it to us and, if it is tricky, we can send it on to the Institute of Quarrying, who will open it up for comment by members. A query like this might get 20 or 30 replies. It is as if the learner has access to 2000 teachers! A very, very rich resource.’