Seven new blended learning developers for extra support for the faculties

In the last half year TLS (Teaching and Learning Services) has been busy. Besides offering support and advice for lectures, helping with Brightspace, and facilitating workshops and UTQ courses, we’ve been occupied with hiring seven new blended learning developers (BLD-ers). These BLD-ers will be seconded to the faculties. So, every faculty will get one BLD-er who will support the lecturers by developing and improving education.

Wait, seven BLD’s, but we have eight faculties?
True, we hired seven BLD-ers. But the faculty of CEG already had an educational advisor who did a lot with blended learning. And luckily for TLS, she wanted to join the BLD-team.

OK, and what do you mean by ‘blended’?
Blended is no more and no less than creating a good combination of campus teaching (or in corona times, synchronous education) and studying at home. By creating a good flow of what students do at home and what they do on campus (e.g., lectures, groupwork, lab work, studio’s) they will have a better learning experience. Technology can support this process, for example by using Brightspace, MS Teams, quizzes, or videos. But more traditional technologies, such as a textbooks, can still be very important resources for learning.

Clear, and what will these blended learning developers be doing?
The BLDs are hired by TLS and are seconded for 80% of their time to the faculty. They will support lecturers and the faculty by improving education. Every faculty has made a plan for how their BLD-er can contribute to support and improve the education.

The other 20% of their time, the BLD-ers will work on sharing knowledge, collecting good practices and sharing these within the university. They will also be working on a knowledge base with documentation, guides, tips and tricks regarding blended education.

Sounds good, how can I meet them?
The team just started. If you want to meet your faculty blended learning developer, just send them an email and have a virtual coffee. 

If you have any questions regarding this blended learning developers team, about their activities, or if you have any input, please contact the blended learning developer of your faculty, or contact Wiebe Dijkstra (w.p.dijkstra@tudelft.nl), the team coordinator.