by Palmer Lomer

1. Engaging students in
active blended learning:
transparent pedagogy.
Elizabeth Palmer
University of Northampton
elizabeth.palmer@northampton.ac.uk
@ejpalmer1986
Sylvie Lomer
University of Manchester
sylvie.lomer@manchester.ac.uk
@SE_Lomer
Ivelina Bashliyska
University of Northampton
With thanks to:
David Cousens
Nadine Shambrook

2. Active Blended Learning
Active learning:
• Experiential
• Practical/ hands-on,
• ‘Real world’ orientated
• Collaborative
• Reflexive
Blended learning:
• Technology-enhanced
• Face-to-face [F2F] &
online combined
• Digital literacy

3. ABL example: Neo-liberalism as a key
issue for education (first year)
Pre-session
task
•Watch a short lecture introducing neo-liberalism in theory
• Research an example of neo-liberalism impacting education and
bring to session
Seminar
•Plenary discussion clarifying understandings of neo-
liberalism
•Student groups share examples and explain why they
exemplify neo-liberalism
•Examples added to class PowerPoint
Post-
session
• Students read assigned article
• Write discussion board post linking
example to the article

4. Data Collection:
201 Students
47 Focus groups
4 Faculties
24 Students
5 Focus groups
5 Schools
Pilot (yr.15/16) Main study (yr.16/17)

5. The Basics
• Timing:
“Sometimes the prep
comes up really late so
you’d have the lecture in
the morning, they’d put
the prep up the night
before.”
• Communication:
“Not everybody knows
about it. So I haven’t
done it because I don’t
know what it is.”
• Technological literacy:
“Which is really bad
considering I’m paying
for it here but I don’t
know how to use it, it’s
not clear.”
• Technical issues
“A lot of people have
problems figuring out which
heading it is under! Like…
Which module is this? It’s like
finding whichever module it is,
clicking on it and then going
to the activity!”

6. Learning beliefs:
“I think as well it just depends on
what type of learner you are.”
“They [lecturers] are telling you
that it’s important for you to do it
but at the same time the way
they’re conveying that message to
you, it doesn’t seem like it’s
important to do it.”
“And we haven’t had to do it in
the past so to suddenly be
expected to do all these, it just
feels like extra things. It just
seems a bit more difficult.”
“It is teachers avoiding teaching. So they
are just like… because they don’t want
to turn up to class they are just sending
you some activities.”
“Yes it can be a lazy way of teaching or
people think that it is a lazy way of
teaching”
“If you can’t be bothered to teach that
element of it, it can’t be that important.”

7. “I think a lot of people only think they are going to
get things out of what they’re told, like what the
lecturer tells them…They don’t really see the
benefit of, not putting effort in, they don’t really,
they kind of blame it on, you know, the lecturers
aren’t very good.” -
“[of an online discussion board] You are just
putting your opinion and you leave. You don’t
go back and reflect on what everyone else put”
“Stuff delivered online…there’s no critical
thinking. …There has to be some sort of
thing that’s going to make people think.”
“We pay a lot of money to then not
actually have support from lecturers…and
access to professionals”
“I mean, when it comes to me sometimes it’s hard to
force myself to just sit and do some work. I don’t know,
it just, it depends on a person. Like, how well organised
you are and how much time do you want to devote to
learning.”
Learning beliefs:

8. Conclusions:
• Learning styles as fixed and
not encompassing online
learning
• Belief in superiority of F2F over
online modes
• Suspicion of motives for
introducing blended
• ABL seen as ‘uncritical’, not
reflective and not important
• Evidence of a dualist epistemic
stance dominating
Activity:
Discuss what learning beliefs you hear
in your role, from staff and/or students.
How might these impact / mediate
engagement with ABL?

9. Relationships and Collaboration:
“If we could do things as a group or as a
class concerning creating stuff rather than
leaving us to do it on our own.”
“you get so much out of your peers’
perspectives on what you are learning
because, well you just do don’t you?”
“[lectures are more informative than
seminars] because in class, obviously,
people want to discuss and ask
questions”
“If the lecturers go online, if they go in
and read and put comments and
everything, it encourages us to want to
do them more.”
“They've [lecturers] got to be there for
you, to feel comfortable.”
“Why have I done it if no one will be
looking at it?”
“It's not supportive either because you
can't ask them and engage with them.”
“If they show interest it
encourages us.”

10. Conclusions:
• Students valued ‘interest,
care & empathy’,
evidenced in:
o Staff presence/
visibility
o Interaction both online
and F2F
• Opportunities for
collaboration
• Struggles with
independence
Palmer, Lomer & Bashliyska,

11. Task Design
“Sometimes the prep comes up
really late so you’d have the
lecture in the morning, they’d put
the prep up the night before.”
“They said we needed it for the
class but then no-one mentioned
it.”
“It’s not really that
interactive. All I’ve done
is just open a
PowerPoint.”
“I think if you are going to deliver
things online it has to be there has
to be some sort of thing that’s
going to make people think. Not
just like, ‘Look it up on a website
and then fill in the gap’.”
“I thought that was nice because it was a
group activity that we had to do together
to make a collage of pictures from
history and then present… like talk about
them together so that was quite fun, it
was group work, we got to do it all
together”

12. Conclusions
• F2F & online linked
• Timing/ Planning
• ‘Contact’: Presence,
Feedback & Support
• Interactive tasks (Level)
• Multimedia
• Collaboration

13. Transparent pedagogy
• Students need to understand the value
and rationale for how we are teaching
and what this implies about learning and
knowledge
• Need for explicit conversations about
pedagogy, epistemology and learning
beliefs
• Consistency in lecturers’ behaviour,
explicit stance and learning design
• Consistent pedagogical approach across
online and F2F modes
Activity:
Design a learning
activity (could be for
staff or students) to
surface pedagogy &
epistemology.
Consider how this
activity could address
the list of learning
beliefs you generated
earlier.
Add to Google Doc:
http://bit.ly/2xPutul

14. Thank You!
Palmer, E. Lomer, S. & Bashliyska, I. (2017)
Factors that encourage and inhibit student
engagement in active, blended learning [ABL].
University of Northampton.
Elizabeth Palmer
University of Northampton
elizabeth.palmer@northampton.ac.uk
@ejpalmer1986
Sylvie Lomer
University of Manchester
sylvie.lomer@manchester.ac.uk
@SE_Lomer