Returning the favour: using insights from online learning to enhance on-campus courses

Abstract

Online learning environments have enriched distance education offerings by increasing the opportunities for interaction of learners with peers and teachers. At the same time they have enabled educational design to move beyond resource-based approaches by supporting the use of varied pedagogical approaches borrowed from on-campus classrooms. Now, as more on-campus students mix significant family and work commitments with education, the experience of online learning in distance education is being transferred into on-campus courses to create blended learning experiences that afford learners both greater flexibility and richer learning opportunities than would be possible using traditional on-campus forms. This paper will review the concept of interaction in blended environments and will describe how on-campus courses are integrating online elements to transform learning experiences.