ABSTRACT
Blended learning has hidden costs of time and money, such as preparation of instructors, continued support for them as they adjust to the blend, and provision of materials. When designing and redesigning a blended course, pedagogical as well as practical considerations should inform which technologies are used. Most blended courses were based on their face-to-face predecessors. There was not much evidence of a trial-and-error implementation phase with curricular and materials revision as needed. Instructors and administrators were found to be more likely to compare student scores between blended and traditional face-to-face formats for evaluation of blended courses, rather than employing the evaluation frameworks presented in the literature, suggesting that evaluation is happening to justify courses’ continuation, rather than to improve them through substantive changes. This chapter draws upon these lessons and sheds light on decisions that are often made implicitly but where overt, pedagogically supported choices can be made instead. To solve issues of both instructor involvement and course design, an ideal solution would be to involve instructors in a collaborative development of course curriculum and materials, under the oversight of those experienced enough in digital pedagogy to give credibility to the results in the eyes of other instructors.
