Designing and Developing Digital and Blended Learning Solutions

1.1 The ease of access that has come with the invention of the internet and other related paraphernalia that allows for a better exchange of views and ideas amongst the students and the teaching staff, has only improved with the use of technology in this area.

Some of the modes of information exchange currently at our disposal include^[1]

• Interactive Whiteboards (IWB) allow images from a computer to be displayed through a digital projector, onto a large (usually wall-mounted) board. Users can interact with the content on the board using fingers or a stylus.
• Software Applications (Apps) are designed to operate on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers.
• Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 includes features and functionality that were not available before, for example. podcasts, blogs, wikis, RSS (Rich Site Summary – used for updating regularly changing web content), social networking and tagging.

Beyond this, some of the digital applications available to get our data across to the students include things like,^[2]

1. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), for example, mobile phones that can be used to be connected to the world at all times. This leaves superior technology at the disposal of the students which is relatively cheap also.
2. Creating E-Portfolios, wherein the students can upload their work in form of scanned images, thereby creating a virtual log book for all of the entries which can be accessed by those who have the permission for the same. This enables the students to create extensively detailed documentation that can be presented through various mediums.
3. Flipped classroom, where the students gain knowledge from the movies or documentaries about the evolution of the various components present in nature and create a chart, visually representing the process. this allows students to learn the concepts in greater depths and understand the processes involved.
4. Personal learning network (PLN) is all about creating a group environment using the online technology, like Twitter pages of various universities or using google classroom to address the students of a particular class together. This permits the teacher to share extra material that goes above and beyond what is taught in traditional class rooms, making the students much wiser.
5. Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) web-based face to face learning model, which employs the use of online tutorials and other web-based seminars etc.
6. Apart from the above-mentioned methods of teaching the student, the student can take up the initiative on their own and learn from the material that is easily accessible on the web, in order to enhance his/her knowledge.
7. Other tools that can be employed include Evernote,^[3] Zotero^[4] etc.

1.2 Having all of these technologies at our disposal, now it becomes our responsibility to utilize them in an efficient manner to design our teaching methodology in a manner that helps us to train the resources at our disposal in a competent manner.

Since all of our target students are located in six countries across Europe and have sound knowledge of English Language, thus it will allow us to communicate easily and a sound communication process will be set up.

From of all the above mentioned the ideal method suited for our teaching purpose would be to create a personal learning network,^[5] which enables the students to bring their own devices.^[6] We will be using these methods to create an effective learning plan in which daily assignments will be uploaded via the personal learning network creating an environment in which the learner will interact and derive knowledge in his own personal learning environment, creating an association with the tutor with the intent of learning what is relevant to what they will be delivering webinars on.

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