From f2f To blended courses: an italian university case study in a school of education

Although virtualization of the Italian university system was initiated almost ten years ago, third-level e-learning courses are still not widely available. To date only e-learning universities offer online courses, while traditional universities continue to deliver predominantly face-to-face courses. One of the critical issues is the fact that lecturing staff are more experienced at teaching face-to-face courses and lack confidence in creating e-learning didactic models. This paper discusses how face-to-face courses may be converted to blended courses. The key features of the conversion have been identified on the basis of courses implemented at an Italian School of Education. The analysis was conducted using a systematic observation method which focused on two aspects: the didactic features of the online courses and the technological tools used. As a result, the following course attributes were observed and discussed: type of learning promoted by the didactic method implemented; type of activity assigned to students; use of assignment deadlines; role of face-to-face lectures/tutorials in the blended model; tasks effectively carried out by lecturing staff and tutors; workload of lecturing and tutoring staff; approach to managing online communication; promotion of open-minded learning processes; delivery of advanced multimedia learning objects versus standard files. The study identified four types of didactic model which may be implemented by teaching staff with basic technological skills: delivery of learning objects and individual activities; individual activities and peer-collaboration; group activities; knowledge management and self-regulation.