Teaching English studies through blended learning

Staff development 

 

Given the time pressures faced by academics, strong incentives are needed to encourage them to develop 

blended learning activities and methodologies. If institutions are serious about enhancing student education, 

then they need to ensure that academics are given the time and space to learn how to use new technologies 

and to experiment with blended learning. They also need to ensure that achievements in this area can be 

factored into promotion. Academics are often under considerable pressure to hit research targets in terms of 

grant applications, Research Excellence Framework (REF) outputs, and so on. This can lead to an 

understandable tendency to ‘coast’ when it comes to teaching: a situation that may have to change with the 

new fees regime.