Implementation of Blended Learning at the Institutional Level

Abstract

Blended learning has become the new normal in higher education. Research and practice have demonstrated its learning effectiveness.

Blended learning has become the new normal in higher education. Research and practice have demonstrated its learning effectiveness (Siemens et al. 2015). At the institutional level, however, there is a lack of systematic planning strategies and implementation guidelines for promoting blended learning, as well as methods for evaluating the effectiveness of blended learning. How to implement blended learning more effectively and sustainably in institutions has become a key issue in the digital transformation of higher education.

Section 4.1 of this chapter explains two frameworks for the implementation of blended learning from the perspective of institutions and stakeholders; Sect. 4.2 discusses the main components for the implementation of blended learning in institutions; Sect. 4.3 proposes strategies for institutions to implement blended learning; Sect. 4.4 describes the qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods for the institutional implementation of blended learning. This chapter provides strategies and approaches for implementing blended learning for higher education administrators, support and service staff and other stakeholders. At the same time, this chapter can be used as a reference by government departments when formulating policies to promote blended learning in institutions.

4.1 Frameworks for Implementing Blended Learning in Institutions

4.1.1 A Framework for Institutions to Implement Blended Learning

According to a series of studies on blended learning in institutions in the USA, three aspects of approaches have been identified, namely strategies (purpose, advocacy, implementation, definition, policy), organization (management, infrastructure, teacher professional development, course arrangement, evaluation), and support (technical, pedagogical, incentives). With the support of UNESCO, Lim and Wang (2016) proposed an implementation framework including eight aspects, namely vision and planning, curriculum, professional development, learning support, infrastructure, facilities, resources and support, policy and institution structure, partnership, research, and evaluation.

Based on the research results and implementation cases of various countries, this section proposes a framework for institutions to implement blended learning (Boelens et al. 2017). The framework consists of nine components (as shown in Fig. (4.1). Setting goals and developing action plans are a start for an institution to implement blended learning and are the basis for evaluating the implementation's effectiveness (Graham 2006). According to the developed goals and action plans, the institution sets up an organizational structure, issues corresponding policies and norms, and establishes a technical-support environment and staff-supporting system (Machado 2007). The institution then implements blended learning through redesigning programs and curriculum and enhancing the staff’s capabilities with information technology. The cultural atmosphere of implementing blended learning in institution will gradually be created through this process. Finally, the use of effectiveness evaluation allows the institution to assess progress against the set goals, which can provide the basis for adjusting goals and action plans in the next round.

Fig. 4.1

A framework for institutions to implement blended learning

Set goals and develop action plans: An institution determines the positioning of blended learning in student cultivation according to the requirements of the institution’s vision and characteristics. Based on the current situation of blended learning, the institution sets the goals (including the overall objectives of implementing blended learning and operable objectives), and major tasks and safeguard measures in action plans.

Set up an organizational structure: The institution should build and enhance the corresponding organizational structure for implementing blended learning in order to accommodate innovations in teaching and learning, refine procedures in the information age, as well as ensure the smooth implementation of blended learning.

Issue policies and norms: To promote the implementation of blended learning, the institution should formulate and issue relevant policies and norms including the design and development, application, management, and evaluation of implementing blended learning.

Enhance capabilities with information technology among staff: To successfully implement blended learning, an institution is necessary to continuously enhance teachers’, students’, and management staff’s capabilities with information technology. Teachers' capacity is key for the implementation of blended learning. The institution should develop a capacity developing system, including training content, implementation plans, safeguard measures, and evaluation. In addition, the institution should also improve leaders' information leadership, staff’s capacity of information management and service.

Redesign programs and curriculum: To meet the needs of talent cultivation in the information age, the institution should reposition the goals of program development and redesign the content of courses and programs.

Establish a support service system: To ensure the implementation of blended learning among teachers and students, the institution should establish a support service system, including services to support teachers' teaching and students' learning. The primary role of teaching support services is to provide teachers with relevant information technology support services, as well as to offer students with learning guidance, technical guidance, and humanistic care related to blended learning at the curriculum and institution levels.

Build a technical support environment: The development of the technical support environment required for blended learning is crucial to its effective implementation. The information technology environment and digital resources necessary to support the institution’s implementation of blended learning include information infrastructure, the physical teaching and learning environment, and online learning spaces and resources.

Create a cultural atmosphere: The institution gradually creates a corresponding meaningful perspective and team atmosphere in the process. A good cultural atmosphere can promote teachers’ recognition of the value of blended learning implementation and their willingness to participate in the process.

Carry out evaluation: In the process, it is necessary to develop evaluation plans and systems in line with the goals set. Regular evaluation throughout the process should be adopted to improve the process of implementing blended learning.

4.1.2 A Framework for Stakeholders to Implement Blended Learning in Institutions

The abovementioned framework presents the elements and interrelationships involved in implement blended learning in institutions. It is also crucial to consider the responsibilities and interrelationships between different stakeholders, such as teachers, students, institution leaders, managerial staff in internal supporting units, and external support units.

Based on relevant research, this section proposes a framework for stakeholders to implement blended learning in institutions (as shown in Fig. 4.2). Teachers play a central role in the implementation of blended learning, designing, developing and delivering blended courses to help students achieve learning outcomes. Institutional leadership, staff in internal support units, and people outside the institution have different roles to play in supporting teachers (Bai and Han 2020).

Fig. 4.2

A framework for stakeholders to implement blended learning in institutions

Teacher

When teachers design, implement and evaluate blended courses, they are influenced by various factors, including personal factors, institutional factors, course factors, technological factors, students, etc. Personal factors include teachers' awareness, attitudes, skills and teaching experience. Institutional factors include the institution's requirements, investment and evaluation for teachers to implement blended learning. The course factor is relatively complex and varied. The ability to develop digital learning resources, design online and offline learning activities, and carry out data-based learning evaluation for blended courses will affect teachers' adoption of blended learning. Technological factors include technical support, technical training and technical infrastructure. Student factors include student characteristics, learning needs and online learning experience.

Institutional leaders

Institutional leaders always set the direction and focus of blended learning implementation, making strategic decisions and leading the way in terms of what goals the school wants to achieve, what subjects are involved, and how blended learning implementation will be supported. Teachers, staff in internal support units and people outside the institution all implement the leadership's thinking. It can be said that the effectiveness of leaders' decisions and leadership directly determines how far and how steadily the institution can go with blended learning. Leaders should consider the following key points when promoting blended learning (As shown in Fig. 4.3) (Boelens et al. 2017).

Fig. 4.3

The focus of institutional leaders in implementing blended learning

Based on the current status. Institutional leaders should confront the actual conditions of institutional development, especially the current situation of teachers, which will be considered as the starting point for blended learning.

Clarify the desired goals. Institutional leaders need to be clear about what needs to be achieved in the institution's digital transformation (e.g. to achieve the transformation goals, to build faculty capacity, etc.), but the goals are not clear and unambiguous at the outset and require a gradual process of exploration.

Focus on teacher capacity development. Institutional leaders should plan the institution with teacher guidance at its core. They are generally not directly involved in specific teacher training, but rather exercise their responsibilities by introducing policies and norms, formulating development strategies, setting up special programs and conducting effectiveness evaluation to guide teachers to clarify their direction, improve their skills, motivate them and broaden their horizons.

Implement blended learning in a phased and focused manner. Institutional leaders should adopt a phased approach to promoting the construction of blended courses by focusing on different capacities, such as improving teachers' basic skills, design skills and innovation abilities, to achieve the milestones of blended learning implementation and showcase the results.

Provide support services. Institutional leaders can support blended learning through management guarantee, quality assurance and human resource allocation. Specifically, the management and service support provided by staff in internal support units facilitates a suitable environment for the implementation of blended learning. The development of curriculum standards and requirements enhances the quality of blended learning. People outside the institution, such as experts, peers and technical staff from companies, can help provide practical support for the implementation of blended learning.

Staff in internal supporting units

Staff in internal support units are responsible for promoting and supporting teachers' blended teaching. Whether blended learning can actually be implemented, whether the implementation plan can be carried out, and whether teachers can be effectively supported is often closely related to the effectiveness of the work of these staff. They play a central role in communication between institutional leaders and teachers, and between people outside the institution and internal stakeholders. Staff should be aware of the following points when supporting the implementation of blended learning (Fig. 4.4).

Fig. 4.4

Roles of staff played in implementing blended learning

Implementation and feedback. The institution's vision is implemented in the day-to-day management and support of blended learning so that teachers are guided by the vision. Feedback on teachers' blended learning needs and opinions should also be provided to leaders in a timely manner. This requires staff to have a comprehensive understanding of teachers' blended learning situation and to reach out to teachers to actively identify and solve problems.

Act as a bridge between internal and external cooperation. Staff should play an active role in communication and collaboration between the university and its external partners in order to facilitate cooperation.

Smooth and effective communication. Staff should use school leadership, external support and themselves as the three fulcrums to form a synergy that creates smooth and good communication. Practice shows that the smoother the communication function, the more support it will receive and the smoother the multi-party cooperation will be (Baier-D’Orazio and Mukuza Muhini 2016).

Forming management leadership. Around the goal of implementing blended learning, staff should gather institutional leaders and people outside the institution to form “management leadership”, and closely link inside and outside the institution to form the willpower and action force to grasp the implementation, and continue to promote the progress of work and consolidate its effectiveness.

People outside the institution

People outside the institution refers to people from external institutions, companies and individuals who work in partnership and cooperation with the institution to better implement blended learning. Practice shows that relying on the institution's own capacity to promote blended learning is not only too slow, but also easily misleading. It is therefore necessary to build a collaborative and cooperative blended learning community with the help of external forces. Institutions should consider the following points when implementing blended learning with external support (Johnson and Graham 2015).

People outside the institution include experts from other similar institutions, companies, research institutions, etc. The types of experts include teaching experts, technical experts, research experts, etc. Expert support is introduced at the appropriate time according to the stage and needs of blended learning implementation.

The focus and content of the support provided by the external experts differ from stage to stage: the initial stage is to map the overall situation of the institution and provide planning support for the institution to implement blended learning; in the construction stage, the focus is on supporting the construction of the pilot course; in the application stage, the pilot course should be provided with tailor-made teaching support to form institution-based examples and lead the whole institution's curriculum reform. The content of the support includes updating the teaching concept, teaching design guidance, educational technology training and services, and data-based teaching effectiveness evaluation.

The institution should establish a trusting, close and harmonious relationship with the external experts. The institution should ask these experts to land the ideas of the management, to establish a co-planning relationship with staff, to help teachers with guidance and to be deeply involved in the whole process of implementing blended learning.

4.2 Main Components for Implementing Blended Learning in Institutions

The framework for institutions to implement blended learning consists of nine main components (Fig. 4.1). The following five components are discussed in more detail in this section: setting goals and developing action plans, setting up an organizational structure, issuing policies and standards, creating a cultural atmosphere, and building a technical support environment. Evaluation of the effectiveness of implementation is discussed in Sect. 4.4. For the programs and curriculum redesign, please refer to Chap. 3 Development of Academic Programs in the Digital Age and Chap. 2 Implementation of Blended Learning at the Course Level. For establishing a support service system, please refer to Chap. 5 Supporting Students and Instructors in Blended Learning in this book.

4.2.1 Setting Goals and Developing Action Plans

An institution should set clear goals and action plans to support the implementation of blended learning. The process of the setting goals and plans is illustrated in Fig. 4.5. Based on the overall vision, the institution sets the direction for blended learning. At the same time, by analyzing the status quo of blended learning, the institution clarifies the existing basis and the key problems of the blended learning. The institution then sets development goals for blended learning, including long-term objectives and milestones, taking into account national policies and standards about blended learning. Based on the objectives and milestones, the institution plans the main tasks and support measures for the implementation of blended learning.

Fig. 4.5

Set goals and action plans for implementing blended learning

Setting the direction for blended learning

The implementation of blended learning must be subordinated to the overall vision of an institution. When formulating objectives and action plans for blended learning implementation, the institution needs to clarify the positioning and the role that blended learning can play in talent development. The digital age has put new demands on human resources, which requires the institution to reconstruct its teaching philosophy, methods and tools to meet the needs of the digital age for talent development. Based on the student-centered approach, blended learning cannot simply copy traditional teaching onto the Internet or combine online and offline teaching. It requires the institution to reintegrate and redesign curricular elements such as learning outcomes, content, activities and assessment in a learning environment that integrates virtual and real life. In this way, students are more likely to be engaged and have a personalized learning experience according to their own learning characteristics and abilities.

Analyzing the status quo of blended learning in the institution

In order to set goals and action plans for implementing blended learning, the institution should analyze the existing basis of blended learning. In order to facilitate the institution's examination of the achievements and key problems of blended learning, this book provides the following diagnostic framework as shown in Table 4.1. The framework consists of a total of 41 specific diagnostic indicators in 8 sub-dimensions under 3 dimensions, namely basic information about the institution, the current situation of blended learning, and the supportive environment for blended learning. Depending on the situation in the institution, managers can use this framework as a tool to select the relevant diagnostic indicators or add additional indicators and develop a customized diagnostic tool for the current situation of blended learning in the institution.

Table 4.1 The diagnostic framework for the implementation of blended learning in an institution

The implementation of blended learning should address the real problems of talent development, especially those that arise in the teaching and learning process. The problems to be solved in institutions vary. For example, research-oriented universities need to solve the problem of students' basic knowledge learning and research innovation. Application-oriented universities need to solve the problem of students’ knowledge application ability, and vocational colleges need to solve the problems of students’ basic work ability and vocational skill development.

Setting development goals for blended learning

The institution sets long-term goals and milestones based on the direction of blended learning, taking into account the status quo of blended learning and relevant national policies and standards. Long-term goals should be sustainable and consistent with the institution’s long-term development strategy, including values, beliefs and visions. The implementation of blended learning in an institution involves a variety of roles, including institutional leaders, departmental support staff, teachers and students. It has been found that when teachers and students are aware that the institution’s goals are aligned with their own, it has a significant impact on the implementation of blended learning. The institution must first build consensus among senior management and determine the long-term goals for blended learning. Once management has chosen the long-term goals, the various supporting staff in departments, teachers and students can have a common and consistent direction to achieve these goals). To gain the support of teachers and students for the long-term goals of blended learning, the institution can organize an institution-wide pep rally for blended learning to motivate teachers. On the other hand, a symposium of student representatives can be held to mobilize the power of student organizations and spread the ideas of blended learning (Halverson et al. 2014). In addition, the use of a variety of institutional promotional channels can bring the ideas of blended learning to every teacher and student and gain their understanding, recognition and support.

Milestones are specific, measurable outcomes that the institution will achieve in implementing blended learning. Milestones usually describe what the implementation is trying to achieve, with a focus on short-term results. Milestones can also be seen as short-term goals that need to be reflected in the institution’s annual action plans. Setting specific targets for activities in the implementation process can provide direction for action across departments and units. In setting milestones, an institution may wish to refer to the elements in the Framework for Institutions to Implement Blended Learning, mentioned earlier in this section (Fig. 4.1).

Planning the main tasks and supporting measures for the implementation of blended learning

Implementing blended learning in an institution is a long-term, systematic undertaking. Once the goals have been set, the institution should formulate the action plans and clarify the means and strategies for achieving these goals, including the tasks, time, methods, persons responsible and supporting measures required. In formulating the plans, it is necessary to carry out a comprehensive analysis in terms of feasibility, expected results, costs and timing. According to implementation experience and relevant studies, the strategy of “pilot before promotion” is more appropriate for the institution to implement blended learning in a systematic way. Therefore, when formulating plans, the institutions can plan the implementation in phases in terms of program and curriculum, technical support environment, support service systems, and staff capacity. Evaluation will take place at the end of the pilot phase and the ultimate goal of implementation will be achieved through adaptation and improvement during the promotion phase.

4.2.2 Setting up an Organizational Structure

In order to ensure a smooth and stable implementation of blended learning, an institution needs to establish a customized organizational structure that addresses the management, processes and staff involved in the implementation. Such an organizational structure aims to clarify the roles and responsibilities of relevant departments and to establish a management process for blended learning. In this way, problems are more likely to be resolved efficiently and risks avoided during the process, contributing to the effectiveness of blended learning.

In terms of the organizational structure for the implementation of blended learning, special committees and working teams should be added to the existing administrative and service departments in the institution (Moskal et al. 2013). According to organizational design theory (Daft et al. 2010), three aspects of work activity design, reporting relationships and departmental combination should be considered in the organizational setting. Work activities refer to the specific tasks assigned to each responsible department. Reporting relationships refer to the chain of command or line of authority to which members of the institution should report their work. The departmental combination includes functional grouping, divisional grouping, multi-focus grouping, horizontal grouping and virtual network grouping. Multi-focus grouping is often referred to as matrix grouping. It includes both horizontal and vertical grouping alternatives suitable for organizations with significantly changing environments and objectives that reflect dual requirements. Such a structure can facilitate the communication and coordination needed to respond to rapidly changing environments. As the implementation of blended learning involves many departments and staff in an institution, it lends itself to the departmental grouping of a matrix structure.

To facilitate the implementation of blended learning in a systematic way, the institution should establish a leadership group, an expert advisory committee, and dedicated offices and working teams to guide the relevant functional departments in coordinating design, implementation and evaluation. The organizational structure for the implementation of blended learning is shown in Fig. 4.6.

Fig. 4.6

Organizational structure for implementing blended learning

The leadership group for the implementation of blended learning

The implementation of blended learning involves several aspects, including program and curriculum development, teaching and learning support services, staff capacity, technical support environment, cultural atmosphere, etc. It is therefore necessary to develop a leadership group, centered on institutional leaders, to coordinate the overall implementation. The group will be chaired by the president or vice-president responsible for teaching. The group will be chaired by the President or Vice-President for Teaching and Learning and will include as members the Deans of Faculties and the Heads of relevant Administrative and Service Departments. Its main functions are to formulate long-term goals and milestones for implementation, to formulate and issue relevant policies and standards, to co-ordinate implementation tasks as a whole, and to conduct research and evaluation to meet the needs of blended learning implementation.

The expert advisory committee

The expert advisory committee for the implementation of blended learning is made up of experts and academics in education management, instructional design, blended learning, information technology and experienced frontline teachers. The main role of such a committee is to provide guidance and think-tank support for the implementation of blended learning.

The offices of the implementation of blended learning

The office of implementation of blended learning works under the guidance of the leadership group. With the help of staff members from administrative and service departments, such as Academic Affairs Office, Teacher Development Center, Teaching Quality Assessment, Educational Technology Center etc., the office carries out planning, research, and evaluation.

The working teams for the implementation of blended learning

Different working teams can be set up according to different functions, including the teaching management team, the instructional design team, the teacher development team, the technology support team and the IT security team. The composition and responsibilities of each group are shown in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2 The working teams for implementing blended learning

Administrative and service departments in the institution

The Academic Affairs Office is the operational administrative department responsible for managing the institution’s blended learning. It directs and coordinates the institution’s teaching, builds the teaching system and improves the management system. It also conducts the management of blended learning projects and the day-to-day management of independent research projects on blended learning to improve the quality of teaching.

The Teacher Development Centre is committed to promoting blended learning by providing professional development for teachers, research on teaching and learning, and consultancy services. In addition, it strives to build a communication platform within and outside the institution, to address teachers' challenges in blended learning, and to improve teachers’ skills in blended learning.

The Teaching Quality Assessment Centre formulates various evaluation rubrics and plans, implementation methods and related documents required for monitoring blended learning. It also organizes the implementation of blended learning supervision and teaching and learning evaluation. It is responsible for collecting and processing information on teaching and learning quality, such as supervision and evaluation, and publishing evaluation results.

The Educational Technology Centre is mainly responsible for developing, managing and maintaining the blended learning environments, including physical multimedia classrooms and online learning management platforms. It is also responsible for training in educational technology skills, developing multimedia resources for blended learning, monitoring online usage and analyzing resources.

The Campus Network Centre (or IT Centre) is responsible for building and maintaining the campus network and other information infrastructure, including the management of the backbone network, egress bandwidth, virtual desktops, hardware, software and the data center. At the same time, it must work with the operators of the online learning management platforms to provide technical support for blended learning.

Case 4.1

The organizational structure for blended learning in Central China Normal University (CCNU) includes the Academic Affairs Office, the IT Office, and the Teacher Development Center. A leading group for educational informatization is established, led by the president of the university. The responsibilities of the leading group include:

• reviewing the medium and long-term development plans, annual work plan, and important work systems of informatization;

• listening to the feedback from the experts of the evaluation committee;

• guiding, monitoring, and evaluating the IT Office of the university.

By cancelling some traditional departments such as the Audio-visual Center, and the Information Center, etc., and integrating the original departments, CCNU established the Center for Digital Teaching and Learning Resource Development and the Informatization Office as the functional office dedicated to informatization. Moreover, The Teaching and Learning Quality Assessment Center and the Teacher Development Center cooperate with departments such as the Registry, the Student Labor Office, and the National Engineering Technology Research Center for Digital Learning. They perform their duties; collaborate; rectify the management system; clarify the boundaries of power and responsibilities; eliminate information isolation islands; and develop a new system that can provide teaching and learning, research, technology, management, and support led by department leaders, which is conducive to information technology

4.2.3 Issuing Policies and Standards

The systematic promotion of blended learning requires the guidance of policies and standards. Policies and standards serve as a foundation to support managers, staff and teachers in the implementation of blended learning and to set goals for them to achieve. At the same time, policies and standards can be used as a reference for administrative and service departments to manage, support and evaluate the implementation of blended learning.

The policy framework for implementing blended learning

To implement blended learning at an institutional level, it is necessary to formulate policies that reflect the values, vision and goals of the institution. Policies also determine the strategic direction and focus of blended learning and optimize the allocation of resources. The policy framework for implementing blended learning includes specific actions, role allocation, staff development, resources and evaluation. To be clear, specific actions refer to the actions an institution needs to take to achieve the milestones of blended learning implementation. Role allocation refers to policies that clarify the specific responsibilities of teachers, students, staff and other stakeholders in the process. Staff development refers to the skill requirements of staff and their development pathways, of which teacher competence for blended learning is considered the most important. Resources refer to the teaching and learning resources and financial investment involved in implementing blended learning. Evaluation refers to the monitoring and quality assessment of the effectiveness of the implementation of blended learning.

Classification of policies and standards

Policies and standards formulated in the process of implementing blended learning can be grouped into four categories, namely those related to design and development, application and management, evaluation, and incentives and assurance, as shown in Fig. 4.7.

Fig. 4.7

Classification of policies and standards for implementing blended learning

Guidelines and standards for design and development mainly include those for blended course design and development, resource development and technical support environment development. Guidelines and standards for blended course design specify the process, rationality and legality of curriculum design by teachers and support staff, such as emphasis on student-centered design, allocation of online and offline learning hours, and other requirements based on the institution’s professional certification. Guidelines and standards for blended course development specify the content, presentation formats and technical requirements for teachers and support staff to develop blended courses. Guidelines and standards for resource development mainly clarify the requirements for the digital learning resources that teachers and support staff develop when implementing blended learning. These include the classification, presentation and technical requirements of such digital resources, as well as the access conditions, terms of use and evaluation methods for integrating such resources into blended courses. Guidelines and standards for the development of technical support environments mainly include uniform requirements for IT hardware facilities, equipment and software for blended learning, with the aim of ensuring that the above aspects meet the relevant standards and the needs of teachers and learners in blended learning environments.

Policies and standards for application and management include policies for staff capacity building and specifications for managing teachers’ implementation of blended learning and students’ blended learning behavior. Staff capacity building policies refer to a set of hierarchical and classified policies formulated to build the capacity of leaders, teachers, departmental administrators and support staff in the process of implementing blended learning. Such policies aim to change staff perceptions of teaching and learning, to make them understand the value of blended learning, and to enhance their skills in instructional design, teaching and learning management, and the use of information technology required for the implementation of blended learning. Standards for the management of teachers’ implementation of blended learning specify requirements for teachers, including teaching concepts, teaching behaviors (such as online teaching process, online homework assessment, online discussion and feedback, and online testing and grading), and ethics and other related behaviors in the online learning space. Standards for students’ blended learning include requirements such as learning time and attendance, code of conduct, and ethical requirements in the online learning space.

Guidelines and standards for evaluation include provisions for quality assessment of blended course delivery, approaches to assessment of blended learning, and assessment of teacher performance. Standards for quality assessment specify content and methods for assessing the effectiveness of blended course delivery (see Chap. 2 Implementation of Blended Learning at the Course Level in this book). Assessment guidelines for blended learning include requirements for assessing students in the process of blended learning. When planning assessment approaches for blended learning, the focus should be on student learning and academic achievement based on formative assessment. By using information technology to record students’ learning processes, taking into account students' online learning behaviors, classroom learning performance and academic performance, a formative assessment system can be established for course assessment (Welker et al. 2017). Based on some basic standards at the institutional level, teacher autonomy should be fully realized so that teachers are encouraged to optimize assessment approaches for their students based on the actual situation of the courses. The guidelines for the evaluation of teachers' performance include participation in blended learning as one of the criteria for promotion in the context of the annual evaluation at institutional and departmental level.

Incentive and assurance policies include incentive policies and assurance policies. Incentive policies include identity incentives, behavioral incentives and effectiveness incentives. Identity incentives motivate teachers through identity propaganda. For example, special identities are given to teachers who have made great contributions to the promotion of blended learning. These teachers are invited to attend relevant exchanges or academic conferences to encourage them and publicize their important contribution to blended learning. Behavioral incentives refer to the validation of specific behaviors that can motivate teachers to continue with the stated behaviors. For example, research and implementation projects related to blended learning can be awarded to pioneers of blended learning to support them in continuing to implement blended learning through research projects. Another way of incentivizing behavior is to recognize the workload of teachers in promoting blended learning by multiplying their original teaching hours by a certain coefficient, or by increasing the corresponding teaching salary to financially reward excellent courses. Teachers can be subsidized with information-based facilities and equipment for blended learning. Preferential policies can also be formulated for teacher tenure and promotion. The above list is just a few of the possible measures that can be adopted. Effective incentives recognize achievement, which in turn gives teachers a sense of identity. For example, teachers who are successful in blended learning can be awarded ‘Outstanding Teacher’, ‘Outstanding Contribution to Blended Learning’ and other similar awards. Support and security policies include security policies and funding assurance policies. The purpose of security policies is to ensure the security of technical systems and various types of data in the process of blended learning. The content of security policies includes objectives, targets, content, organization and staffing requirements. The purpose of a financial security policy is to ensure a long-term and sustainable financial investment during an institution's implementation of blended learning. When formulating a financial security policy, the following aspects should be considered:

• The formulating a sustainable institutional funding mechanism,

• Establishing a normalized reserve fund for the implementation of blended learning,

• Considering an appropriate allocation of funds for the development of hardware, software, teaching and learning resources, maintenance of technical systems and staff development,

• Improving the cost–benefit analysis of funding investments,

• Developing a long-term method of monitoring project effectiveness, and

• Establishing a tailor-made project evaluation and audit mechanism.

4.2.4 Creating a Cultural Atmosphere

Organizational culture is the sum of a set of values, beliefs, perceptions and attitudes shared by all members of an organization and passed on to new members. Organizational culture plays the role of guiding, regulating, unifying and motivating organizational behavior. Organizational culture expresses the sense of identity of its members and encourages them to recognize and strive for a higher level of things than their own self-interest. It sets appropriate standards of behavior for members of the organization and binds the organization together. As an ideology and control mechanism, it guides and shapes the attitudes and behavior of its members. Cultural change is a deep embodiment of organizational change (Daft 2015). Therefore, the development of a cultural atmosphere enables the institutional implementation of blended learning in a more systematic, deeper and sustainable way (Basir et al. 2010). In general, the creation of a cultural atmosphere of institutional implementation of blended learning can be divided into three layers, namely the first layer, which reflects the material layer related to blended learning of an institution; the second layer, which refers to the regulations and codes of conduct to maintain the implementation of blended learning in an institution; and the third layer, which refers to the goals, values, basic beliefs and principles that the institution prevails in the implementation of blended learning.

In the process of blended learning implementation, it is necessary to start from the first layer culture, the second layer culture to the third layer culture, thus gradually creating a cultural atmosphere for blended learning implementation. The first layer culture is a carrier for the development of institutional culture. In this process, an institution can demonstrate its philosophy and determination to implement blended learning by developing and optimizing the physical learning environment and the online learning space, and by promoting it through appropriate channels. The second layer culture is gradually developed through the implementation of routine management requirements of an institution. It is an intellectual norm that is recognized and followed by all members of an institution. It reflects the unique values and behaviors of the institution. In the process of implementing blended learning, an institution should try its best to listen to the opinions of teachers and students in the formulation, introduction and implementation of its policies and standards in order to build consensus, incorporate cultural construction into the implementation and develop a cultural atmosphere in line with the institution. The third layer culture teaches teachers and students how to put the values into practice from a practical perspective and how to internalize the values, beliefs, opinions and attitudes of blended learning in their hearts and externalize them in practice. In order to actively create a cultural atmosphere for the implementation of blended learning, institutions can start from the following aspects.

• Focusing on the role of leaders. Cultural development requires values-based leadership. The awareness, enthusiasm and initiative of institutional leaders for cultural development will determine the breadth and depth of institutional cultural development. Institutional leaders should integrate the long-term goals and milestones of blended learning implementation to develop the values of blended learning. In addition, institutional leaders should disseminate and implement these values throughout the institution;

• Emphasizing the role of public relations. Public relations are an important force in guiding the psychology and behavior of teachers and students. The institution can increase the scope and intensity of publicity about blended learning through the intranet, newspaper, bulletin board and various new media channels, and guide teachers and students to understand the benefits and necessity of blended learning through mobilization meetings, expert lectures, teacher-student representative symposiums, etc.;

• Using role models as examples. It is necessary to bring into play the role of teachers as pioneers. The institution can introduce incentive mechanisms to recognize and reward those senior teachers who actively implement blended learning, thus encouraging them to take a leading role; and

• Promoting Blended learning. It is necessary for the institution to implement blended learning through some routine actions, special ceremonies and symbols.

Case 4.2

Create of cultural atmosphere for blended learning by Central China Normal University

Through a series of measures such as establishing teaching and learning festivals, setting up the Teaching Innovation Award, and promoting cooperative education on the basis of the integration of science and education, CCNU has created a cultural atmosphere of emphasizing on teaching, advocating innovation, excellence in teaching, and eagerness to teach. During the Teaching and learning Festival, open classes, teaching and learning workshops, teaching and learning reform forums were held. The Teaching Innovation Award has been set up since 2014, focusing on the teaching effectiveness of teachers in the information environment, with the aim to mobilize teachers’ enthusiasm in implementing blended learning. In addition, under the guidance of the National Center for Engineering and Technology Education and the National Engineering Laboratory for Educational Big Data, the institution has facilitated teachers who need to implement innovative research on teaching and learning in the context of information-based learning, realized cooperative education based on the integration of science and education, and promoted the interaction between research and teaching and learning, as well as the integration of research and talent training

4.2.5 Building a Technical Support Environment

An environment that supports blended learning is one that combines face-to-face and computer-mediated instruction. The goals of creating such an environment include making learning accessible, facilitating small-group instruction, meeting diverse needs, increasing productivity, providing a variety of instructional methods and techniques, increasing student and teacher engagement, and providing additional support for complicated and abstract content (Neumeier 2005). The technical support environment generally consists of three parts: the physical teaching environment, the cyber learning space and the IT-based teaching tools (as shown in Fig. 4.8).

Fig. 4.8

Components of a technical support environment for blended learning

The technical support environment described above is used to support the needs of blended learning participants (teachers and students), such as fair, fast and convenient visit and access, motivation and perception, management and control, interaction and collaboration, communication and reflection, content and resources, evaluation and feedback, activity and method, and agent and support (Weller 2007).

Visit and access needs. Blended learning requires that the technical system provides teachers and students with fair, fast, and convenient visit and access, and supports teachers and students to participate in teaching and learning without barriers in various natural environments (Moskal et al. 2013). It is vital to ensure that teachers and students can have access to the virtual environment through mobile devices, PCs, electronic whiteboards, augmented reality, and other devices in the physical environment. It's also crucial for teachers and students to be able to access the cyber environment through learning management systems, simulation, virtual reality, and other technologies.

Motivation and perception needs. Blended learning requires the technical system to enhance the motivation of teachers and students to participate in blended learning, or to sustain their motivation using various strategies (Geng et al. 2019). In addition, the system needs to be easily perceived by teachers and students to enhance their presence in teaching and learning. It is reported that enhancing the user friendliness of technical systems can help teachers and students build and maintain motivation for effective learning (Rafiola et al. 2020).

Management and control needs. Blended learning requires teachers and students to manage and control the teaching and learning process (Bärenfänger 2005). They can adjust the teaching and learning process individually, categorize different learning objectives according to the characteristics of students, and customize their learning progress. At the same time, the technical system needs to automatically record various data generated in teaching and learning management and control process.

Interaction and collaboration needs. Blended learning requires the technical system to assist teachers and students to interact and collaborate with each other (Sun et al. 2017). The system should be able to encourage teachers and students to have different types of interactive learning activities, such as asynchronous, synchronous, one-to-many, and many-to-many modes of communication, as well as encourage students to form collaborative groups of various organizations to help build a learning community. At the same time, the technical system needs to automatically record various data generated in the interactive and collaborative learning activities.

Communication and reflection needs. Blended learning requires the technical system to provide teachers and students with asynchronous, active, one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many and other forms of communication in formal and informal teaching and learning scenarios, including text, picture, audio and video, application software, and other formats of information (Bidarra and Rusman 2017). The system should allow teachers and students to record and insert reflective content into different teaching and learning stages, such as instructional design, instructional intervention, and learning progress adjustment. At the same time, the system needs to automatically record various data generated during communication and reflection activities.

Content and resource needs. Blended learning requires the technical system to provide blended learning with various forms of teaching and learning content and resources and provide teachers and students with content and resources design, construction, subscription, and iterative optimization services (Tucker et al. 2016). The system offers teachers and students fast and convenient access to external teaching content and resources. The system supports collaborative editing and refinement of content and resources and provides real-time customization of content and resources during the implementation of blended learning. At the same time, the technical system needs to automatically record various data generated in the design and optimization of content and resources.

Activity and method needs. Blended learning requires that technical system to provide support for teaching and learning activities and methods in conventional teaching and learning scenarios, as well as unconventional teaching and learning scenarios flexibly, such as classroom observation, fieldwork, and tours in science museums (Watson 2008). The system can provide cases, procedures, and other information for reference to enhance the effectiveness of teacher-student activities and the feasibility of teaching and learning methods.

Agent and auxiliary needs. Blended learning requires students to be more autonomous in the learning process. Therefore, the technical system needs to provide teaching agents to help teachers respond to students promptly and provide auxiliary analysis to help teachers and students understand the current learning situation in a timely manner (Montgomery et al. 2015). The system can effectively reduce the difficulties for teachers and students to participate in blended learning, improve the outcomes of teachers and students in blended learning, and reduce the rate of students' incomplete and withdrawal from courses.

Evaluation and feedback needs. Blended learning requires the technical systems to provide learning evaluation in multiple formats, multi-individual participation, and implementation methods for blended learning. It can provide a variety of feedback methods to help teachers and students to optimize blended learning and adjust teaching methods timely at each stage according to the evaluation results (Shih 2011). At the same time, the system needs to automatically record various data generated by evaluation and feedback.

According to the above requirements, the technical support environment is generally co-constructed by various information systems and tools, including the physical teaching environment, the cyber learning space and the IT-based teaching tools, which should enable intelligent teaching and learning activities, differentiated teaching process and personalized student support.

The physical teaching environment. When building a such environment, the IT department should work with faculty to analyze blended learning needs in different scenarios, including classrooms, labs, internships and practical. The physical environments that support blended learning in the above scenarios are mainly multimedia classrooms, smart classrooms, and internship and training environments.

Multimedia classrooms. They can support various teaching and learning activities in the classroom, enhance students’ observation and listening skills, and increase opportunities to choose teaching and learning strategies through all ICT-based media in blended learning. At the same time, multimedia classrooms can provide teachers and students with support in terms of connecting electronic equipment, accessing network, displaying multimedia content and interacting with information (a power supply, a laptop/computer, an Internet connection, a projector, a screen/white walls and a sound system, etc.).

Smart classrooms. They can provide intelligent services for various forms of blended learning (course teaching, experimental teaching, etc.). They include perception and intelligent adaptation of the teaching and learning environment, intelligent control of the teaching and learning process, intelligent push of teaching and learning content, various intelligent evaluation of teaching and learning quality, intelligent analysis and optimization of the teaching and learning process, and intelligent suggestions for teaching decisions, and so on. Smart classrooms add a variety of sensors, data collection and analysis systems, and various forms of feedback and intervention devices based on multimedia classrooms (Chong et al. 2010).

Internship and training environment. It can provide information-based support for work experience and training. Specifically, it provides access to the most authentic information-based training scenarios for the target learners, support for information-based needs analysis for work experience and training products, different work experience and training options, control methods of different durations and many simulation formats of work experience and training. Such environments can fully integrate the information technology needed to train professional competences and related skills, provide flexible, adaptive and innovative training formats, and offer psychological follow-up support as well as information-based physical health testing and support for students.

The Cyber learning space. A cyber learning space is an Internet-based virtual learning environment that reflects the key attributes of online learning spaces, mainly including learning and society. Learning refers to the basic attribute of an online learning space, which is to facilitate learning for students and teaching for teachers. Society refers to the attribute of the online learning space that supports interaction between teachers and students, parents, etc. The cyber learning space consists of unique characteristics, including individualization, openness, connectivity, interactivity and flexibility. The individualization of the cyber learning space is mainly reflected in the provision of different resources, tools, activities, services and designs for users with different roles. Openness is mainly reflected in the openness of resources and spaces. In other words, it is open to all users, other systems and other resources and tools within it. Connectivity refers to the communication between users-users, users-objects (space, resources, tools, technologies, services, etc.) and objects-objects. Interactivity emphasizes that it can provide a platform for interaction between users with different roles, between learners and resources, and between resources and resources. Flexibility refers to its scalability in both time and space dimensions. In the time dimension, the learning space can store learners' lifelong learning records or query the learning records of a particular time node. In the spatial dimension, the cyber learning space can be large or small, depending on the needs of the users. The more nodes the cyber learning space is equipped with, the larger the learning space will be. The cyber learning space has to be built systematically by the institution. According to their different functions, cyber learning spaces can be divided into four categories: course services, live teaching, learning resources and role-playing.

Course service space. It is based on learning management systems and helps teachers to build a website for blended courses with functions such as course design, course management, course delivery, communication and learning assessment. This type of system is usually used by institutions, e.g., Moodle, Canvas, Tsinghua Education online, etc.

Live teaching space. It can provide real-time online video or live audio instruction. In this type of space, teachers teach in real-time video or audio, and students can interact through speeches, messages, bullet screens and comments during the learning process. This type is usually built by the institution or provided by social institutions as a cloud service, such as ZOOM, Skype, Tencent Meeting, etc.

Learning resources space. It is characterized by the provision of teaching and learning resources such as video, audio, lesson plans, lecture notes, courseware, exercises and multimedia materials. In this type of space, students can download or browse independently according to their learning needs. Such spaces are cloud services provided by social institutions such as TED (www.ted.com), Baidu Wenku (wenku.baidu.com), etc.

Role-playing space. It is characterized by role substitution to carry out inquiry-based learning. In this type of space, the individual student enters a virtual learning situation with a particular role to discover and explore. Knowledge construction takes place in groups. This type of space needs to be developed, such as Second Life (www.secondlife.com). The metaverse, based on VR technology, can provide unprecedented immersive experiences for students in the future.

IT-based teaching tools. In addition to the powerful and highly integrated network learning space, there are also special IT-based teaching tools that can assist teachers and students, such as MATLAB (for scientific data visualization calculation, nonlinear dynamic system modeling and simulation, etc.) and Mindmap tools (for visualization of ideas and presentation of knowledge framework), and language translators (or apps), etc.

4.3 Strategies for Institutions to Implement Blended Learning

4.3.1 The Focal Point for Institutional Efforts in the Implementation of Blended Learning

Graham et al. (2013) proposed three stages for the adoption and implementation of blended learning at the institutional level that starts with “institutional awareness”. However, in practice, as a large number of institutions have little knowledge of and no foundation for reform through blended learning, there is a need to add one more stage to indicate the reform process from the scratch. Therefore, there are four stages for systematical institutional implementation of blended learning, namely, the unawareness stage, the awareness/exploration stage, the adoption/early implementation stage, and the mature implementation/growth stage. Several key dimensions are involved in the systematical institutional implementation of blended learning, which demonstrates different characteristics at different stages of the reform (Porter et al. 2014). The key dimensions and their characteristics at the aforementioned four stages are shown in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3 The key dimensions and their characteristics in each stage of a blended learning implementation

For an institution passing from the stage of unawareness to the stage of mature implementation/growth, it has to go through three transitional processes. The focus is different in each process, namely the leaders, teachers and students of the institution (as shown in Fig. 4.9).

Fig. 4.9

The different stages of institutional implementation of blended learning and their focus

Transition I: In the transitional process from the unawareness stage to the awareness/exploration stage, the focus is to enhance the institutional leaders’ understanding of blended learning, to formulate goals and plans for the reform and to put them into action;

Transition II: In the transitional process from the awareness/exploration stage to the adoption/early implementation stage, the focus shifts from leaders to teachers, that is the implementation of training programs to enhance teachers’ awareness, attitude, and ability to adopt blend learning. The key point is that the management of the institution needs to have a clear awareness of blended learning and to formulate plans to implement blended learning;

Transition III (The adoption/early implementation stage): In the transitional process from the adoption/early implementation stage to the mature implementation/growth stage, the focus shifts from teachers to students, that is, that teachers implement blended learning with the ultimate goal of improving learning effectiveness and information-based learning ability.

4.3.2 Strategies Adopted by Institutions to Implement Blended Learning

For an institution to systematically implement blended learning, it needs to formulate specific strategies based on its predetermined goals, status quo, and its own characteristics. Given that the reform can be initiated by different subjects, the reform promotion strategies can be divided into two types, namely top-down and bottom-up strategies.

The top-down strategy

The implementation of the top-down strategy refers to the case when the institution’s top management initiates blended learning, conducts overall planning starting from top-level design, and gradually promotes the reform to the bottom level, i.e., teachers and students. The specific sequence for an institution to implement blended learning by adopting the “top-down” strategy is shown in Fig. 4.10. Starting from (1) formulating goals and plans, the institution (2) sets up organizations, (3) issues policies and regulations, (4) establishes a support and service system, (5) builds a technical support environment, (6) enhances staff capabilities and reforms the curriculum system, (7) reforms the program and curriculum system, in order to obtain staged evaluation results, and continuously adjusts all aspects, during which (8) a corresponding cultural atmosphere is gradually developed. Then (9) an overall evaluation result of implementation effectiveness is generated for this stage. Based on the evaluation result at this stage, the institution revises (1) its goals and plans. Some of the abovementioned steps are iterative throughout the entire reform process (such as iterative revision of policies and regulations, improvement of information capabilities of staff in cohorts, iterative adjustment of the evaluation system, etc.).

Fig. 4.10

A reference sequence for institutions to implement blended learning by adopting the “top-down” strategy

The main advantage of the “top-down” strategy is that it allows the institutions to formulate their overall goals and plans, making it possible for them to concentrate their strength and resources on designing and supporting implementation of blended learning in a holistic fashion. Also, the promotion of blended learning can be conducted with clear time nodes and can achieve expected milestones. Such a strategy sets high requirements on the information leadership of institutional administrators and the management ability of its organizations, as well as requires close cooperation of various departments to ensure the effective planning and implementation of all kinds of policies and measures (Porter and Graham 2016). In addition, since a top-down reform is mandatory, if a consensus cannot be reached during the process, it is likely to encounter resistance from teachers.

The “bottom-up” strategy

The implementation of the “bottom-up” strategy refers to the case that teachers voluntarily explore blended learning first and expand the scope after receiving support from the institution. The sequence of implementing blended learning by adopt the “bottom-up” strategy is shown in Fig. 4.11. The premise of adopting this strategy is that (1) a technical support environment is established, (2) some teachers spontaneously explore blended learning, and in this process (3) personnel capabilities are enhanced. When such teachers make up an increasingly large share of the entire faculty, (4) a cultural atmosphere of blended learning is developed in the institution. In this way, the institution is urged to (5) establish support service systems, (6) improve the technical support environment, (7) issue policies and regulations, (8) improve the organizational structure, and finally (9) formulate goals and plans at the institutional level and establish (10) establish an evaluation system for the effectiveness of implementation of blended learning. And then, based on the evaluation result, the (9) goals and plans are revised.

Fig. 4.11

A reference sequence for institutions to implement blended learning by adopting the “bottom-up” strategy

The main advantage of the bottom-up strategy lies in that since teachers are the initiators of the reform, they share a common internal motivation to drive the reform. Following the trend brought about by the teachers, the institution then promotes the implementation of blended learning gradually, which is not likely to cause great turmoil in the institution. However, due to the lack of preliminary overall planning and strong organizational management, the nodes of the entire implementation of blended learning are clear, and the implementation process can be protracted. It can be difficult to achieve clear milestones in the short term. At the same time, because the demand for teachers is scattered and short-term, the institutional support services for teachers' blended learning implementation will not be sustainable and sufficient, and therefore it will be difficult to ensure sustainable advancement of the reform with high quality.

Each of the abovementioned two strategies have their own advantages and disadvantages. The institution can choose either one strategy based on its own needs and conditions. In the process of promoting blended learning, the institution can also integrate the abovementioned two strategies. In this way, the institution still leads the progress of the implementation of blended learning and conducts overall planning and implementation. At the same time, the institution encourages teachers to adopt blenden learning, allows a longer transition period, and provides different training mechanisms and multi-level incentive mechanisms to guide teachers to sustainably implement blended learning.

4.4 Evaluation of Institutional Blended Learning Implementation

In the process of institutional promotion of blended learning, it is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of the reform, identify the problems, and adjust the measures in the implementation process accordingly.

4.4.1 A Self-evaluation Framework for Implementation of Blended Learning in Higher Education Institutions

Based on Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations Theory, Graham and Robison (2007) examined the situation of implementation of blended learning in universities in the U.S.A., and proposed three categories with 12 dimensions of measures, namely: Strategy (Purpose, Advocacy, Implementation, Definition, Policy), Structure (Governance, Models, Scheduling, Evaluation) and Support (Technical, Teaching Pedagogical, Incentives). In his subsequent research, he revised the “model” under “structure” into “infrastructure” and “professional development”. In order to facilitate higher education institutions to evaluate the effect of their implementation of the blended learning, he developed an institutional self-evaluation checklist based on the blended learning adoption framework. The checklist contains relevant questions around 12 indicators under the three categories: strategy, structure, and support, which can be used by higher education institutions to qualitatively judge which of the above three stages their implementation of blended learning is in just by answering these questions, and to find out areas for improvement.

4.4.2 UNESCO Self-assessment Tool for Implementation of Blended Learning in Higher Education Institutions

In a book titled Blended learning for quality higher education: Selected case studies on implementation from Asia–Pacific published by UNESCO, based on the implementation of information-based learning reform or reform through blended learning by organizations and higher education institutions in the Asia–Pacific region, Lim and Wang (2016) developed a framework that illustrates the four stages of blended learning practices, i.e., under consideration, applying/emerging, infusing, and transforming., and eight key dimensions of strategic planning for driving blended learning practices, namely vision and philosophy; curriculum; professional development; learning support; infrastructure, facilities, resources and support; policy and institutional structure; partnership; and research and evaluation. Based on this framework, a framework and self-assessment tool for building the capacity of higher education institutions for blended learning was developed, which can be adopted by institutions to analyze the progress and stages of their blended learning reform from the above eight dimensions. An online system based on this tool was also developed for self-assessment by institutions.

4.4.3 A Quantitative Assessment Framework for Implementation of Blended Learning Based on Online Behaviors of Teachers

Blended learning reform involves a complex and continuous process. We need to understand not only the stages of the reform at an institutional level, but also the dynamic progress of the reform in a timely manner (Taylor an Newton 2013). Teachers, as the practitioners of the reform, constitute as one of the key factors that determine the success of the reform. No reform will succeed without complying to the will of teachers and the involvement of active participation of teachers. Therefore, by evaluating teachers’ involvement, we can understand the dynamic progress of the blended learning reform of the institution. At the same time, the continuous emergence of big data technology related to education and the data analysis methods make it possible to conduct quantitative assessment of blended learning reform based on the online teaching behavior of teachers.’

Based on the data of teachers' involvement in online teaching, Han et al. (2019) from the Institution of Education at Tsinghua University proposed a quantitative assessment framework for the implementation effectiveness of blended learning in higher education institutions. The proposed framework was proved to be technically adequate in assessing teachers' online presence in blended learning at an institutional level. Using this framework, institutions can gain a comprehensive understanding of their blended learning implementation so as to refine their strategies and advance their blended learning agenda.

The Quantitative Assessment of Online Teaching Presence (QAOTP) in institution-wide BL implementation consists of three key constructs–the intensity, the regularity, and the interactivity. The degrees of each construct can be quantitatively assessed.

The intensity of online teaching presence can be assessed by the frequency of the teachers’ overall course site visits in any given period of time (e.g., an academic year, or a semester). In other words, the more visits to the course sites, the stronger the online teaching presence would be during this period. Thus, the frequency that teachers visit their course sites is a primary indicator of the developmental stages of BL at an institution. A more detailed picture can be depicted by grouping teachers according to the number of course visits and calculating the percentage of each group to see the frequency of course visits by a group.

The regularity of online teaching presence can be assessed by dividing the period under investigation into smaller time units and then calculating the frequency of teachers’ course visits in each unit. The unit can be a month, a week, or any meaningful division of a time period. This is the second primary indicator indicating the level of BL normalization by checking the regularity or irregularity of the teachers’ course site visits incrementally throughout the whole period under investigation. This will further explain the first construct by showing a more detailed course site visit status phase by phase. Hypothetically and ideally, along with the normalization of BL, in regular teaching weeks (excluding exam and self-study weeks) in a semester, the total number of teachers’ visits to their course sites as a whole should be more or less evenly distributed throughout the teaching weeks. The rationale is that after teaching begins, teachers should moderate and/or teach the course online on a regular basis to maintain student engagement during this period of time. Thus, if the total number of teachers’ course visits for the whole institution is 100% for the teaching weeks in a semester, the average percentage of visit per teaching week should be 100% divided by the number of teaching weeks in the semester. This average can be used as a baseline to judge institution-wide teachers’ online participation phase by phase.

The third construct seeks data on the level of interactivity that a teacher engages students online. As the QAOTP framework uses the log data from an LMS, it is not easy to determine the depth of the interactivity of an action generated by a teacher. Thus, the interactivity construct is only qualified as being non-interactive or interactive. The teaching presence in this research only concerns the design and facilitation of online learning in a BL course. Teaching activities in the design category are usually non-interactive, while in the facilitation category, teachers engage learners in either interactive or non-interactive fashion. The interactivity construct should cover all the activities generated by the teacher in the course design and facilitation, both interactive and non-interactive.

The three constructs in the QAOTP framework should be equally important and indispensable. They complement one another in generating a more accurate and comprehensive picture of the degrees and features of online teaching presence than a single construct is able to achieve. That said, this is only an overarching framework that is designed with special attention to its applicability and replicability in that all three dimensions are only broadly defined with no specific requirements for how data should be categorized and treated. This leaves room for individual universities to integrate their specific data within the broad boundaries of this framework.