Designing Personalised Blended Learning Courses for Engineering Students

Abstract

Blended Learning is a well balanced fusion of face-to-face learning and online experiences. In this paper we discuss some design aspects concerning the optimal proportion between the two means of education applied to Engineering students. Our approach is taking into account the creative potential of engineering students and their type of thinking that have been previously investigated through the Brain Lateralization Information System (BLIS) [1]. In this paper we aim at identifying ways in which creative thinking and problem solving techniques can be implemented as personalized Blended Education Programs for students attending courses in the fields of Engineering. A blended course has an integrated online component and a concomitant face-to-face seat time, in order to reach student populations that cannot attend a fully face-to-face program. The advantages of face to face and the advantages of online activities have been put into balance and discussed. The purposes behind learning activities should be expressed by: community building, trust building, spontaneous reaction, clarification on one hand and reflection, analysis, exploration, creation on the other hand. In our efforts of designing a blended course we have considered the best suited modality for each specialty.