Sociological insights: Designing pedagogically sound blended learning programs in enabling contexts

Higher education is currently experiencing an increasing focus on the use of innovative teaching methods to engage student cohorts within an atmosphere of shrinking university budgets. In this milieu, blended learning (BL), or integrating audio-visual materials into current face-to-face course designs, has become an increasingly attractive option that increases flexibility for students whilst adhering to challenging budgetary demands. In this paper, implementing BL in two sociology courses of an Australian university???s pathways program will be subject to critical reflection. Enabling pathways are free open-access programs offered to people who do not have the qualifications required for direct entry into an undergraduate degree program. We disseminated a suite of BL modules during 2019. These modules included visual learning objects featuring experts within their disciplinary fields and have a focus on bringing sociological theory into a real-world context. This paper aims to critique this pedagogical practice within a widening participation framework. We will examine the challenges of teaching students from under-represented backgrounds, including flexibility, engagement and infrastructure, and suggest a new pedagogical framework to address these challenges in a supportive environment.