Learners vary a lot. Reading through the Exemplars, you’ll see that some of the learners described have never used computers:

‘Some of my students freaked out at the mention of computers!’

Of course, ‘freaking out’ is only one of a range of reactions. Some students, with little or no computer experience, are still confident and eager:

‘In going online, we were immediately confronted by the different levels of our students, some of whom were very quick to complete the tasks [but then] quickly became frustrated’.

And then there are large numbers of learners who have some, and perhaps a lot, of knowledge of computers:

‘Our students [studying programming/software development] are intrinsically motivated. They’re good, independent learners, so they don’t need to rely that much on chat.’

Apart from the issue of familiarity and confidence with computers, learners vary in other important ways. The Exemplars include:

  • middle level managers working long hours in demanding jobs [Exemplar 21]
  • middle-aged women returning to the workforce [Exemplars 4, 5, 6 and 7]
  • young students who may have behavioural or other problems [Exemplar 13]
  • learners who may be living and working at remote locations [Exemplars 14 and 16]

So how do you cater to such differences? The Exemplars illustrate a variety of ways:

  • at the beginning of the course, try not to rely on your own assumptions about what students know. You can, of course, survey them to find out how they rate their computer skills but, better still, get them to do a few tasks which actually test their skill levels-for example, sending you an email
  • for students who are not confident with computers, allow plenty of time to work face-to-face until they’ve picked up the basics. Also, encourage students to work together in small groups with a computer, so they can help each other if they get stuck
  • ensure that materials are designed in a flexible way to accommodate different student groups. Well-designed modules allow the teacher to tailor assessment tasks and timing to the group. You may also want to make sure that, for people who don’t have computer skills or computer access, alternatives are available such as mailing in hard copies of assignments
  • build in tasks and options that cater to different learning styles. For example, you may include both chats and formal written tasks such as keeping a journal. The first suits people who like informal discussion, whereas the second is better for people who like time to reflect.

However, a word of caution. As illustrated in Exemplar 21, you can go too far with flexibility. The teachers in this example came to feel that they had built in too many options:

‘We’ve just about burnt ourselves out trying to be flexible. Lots of the options [we provided] were not used. For example, forums were not used much, and students quickly lost interest because others were not involved. Similarly, if you did venture into the chat room, you’d find yourself the only one there, a very lonely place. Next time, we will definitely reduce the number of options.’

So you need to think hard about flexibility. When is it appropriate to be flexible and open, to have multiple options, to leave things up to students to decide? And when do students need clear, definite guidelines and requirements to do certain things?

It isn’t possible to be too prescriptive here-your reasons for combining online and face-to-face, and the materials themselves, will largely determine how you structure the learning experience.

Nevertheless, it’s fair to say that the focus of the more successful programs described in the Exemplars seems to be on integration (everything complements everything else, to form a neat whole) rather than on providing multiple options (where there can be too much duplication, and too many choices).