Blended learning structure.

Here is how we think about and lay out an online/offline course. At its simplest a blended program is part video lesson, part workshop, all people figure out things together in groups.

Hat tip: We have stolen all our good ideas about structuring learning and building experiences from Simon Kavanagh at KAOSPILOT. Go and do one of their courses, they’re amazing. You won’t regret it!

The most basic blended structure looks like this:

A group of people on the left, an empty expanse of possibility, and some of shared end goal that we all want to reach together.

To ‘flip’ this course would be as simple as spending some time together, some time apart watching a video and doing group work, then more time together:

The above structure has 3 parts:

1. Meet each other, do the first part of the learning together.
2. Go home and watch a video, do more learning in a group.
3. Come together again, compare notes and see what happened.

This works well as an hour or two together, a week apart to go deep and do some work, and then another hour together a week later.

Let’s add another workshop in the middle!

We can repeat this structure as many times as we want to build up a program, and if we zoom into one of these little leaps, it would look like this:

When we repeat this for the overall structure we get this:

This shows 3 workshops with two halves each, and a couple of ‘leaps’ between those workshops to watch videos or do group work, or whatever else that particular part of the program needs.

If each workshop is one hour, and the ‘leaps’ between each are a week, we would have a structure that reads like this, with two 30 minute parks.

Workshop 1:

1. Meet each other, set up the whole course (pink).
2. Set up the first leap (aqua).

Week 1: Do the first leap of work outside class.

Workshop 2:

1. Feedback and support on the first leap.
2. Set up the second leap (red).

Week 2: Do the second leap of work outside class.

Workshop 3:

1. Feedback and support on the second leap.
2. Land the overall program as set up in the first workshop.

Learning is fractal!

This process is very similar to how Leo lays out his process for video lessons.

The exact structure for a program could be as simple or as complex as you and your students desire. Maybe you could do 4 segments per workshop?

1. Check in on each other and our long term learning.
2. Debrief on the previous leap of work in small groups
3. Teach one another something we learnt as a cohort
4. Set up the next week.

That’s it!

Read next: How to make flipped learning work in practice.

This is my attempt at a simple overview of blended learning . Please give me some feedback on how I could make it better! will@fitzroyacademy.com 🥰