NLA University College (NLA) and Sogn and Fjordane University College (HiSF) have the last five years offered teacher training programs using a blended learning (BL) model in order to meet needs for more flexible education (Østerud, 2004). Our design of BL is a combination of on-campus teaching and synchronous online teaching using the web conferencing software Adobe Connect (AC).

Online synchronous teaching is a substantial part of the teaching activities and this has challenged many aspects of the institutions’ traditional way of teaching. In 2013 this BL model was instituted in two classes of part time Early Childhood Education at HiSF and also carried on in two new part time classes in 2015. The different aims of our part-time BL courses are a combination of increasing students’ activity outside the face-to-face classroom, a more learning focused education and the need to meet part time students' needs.

The emphasis of this study is to find out to which extent these changes have challenged and influenced the pedagogic aspect of teaching activities. We want to study how this BL model has influenced the relation between the teachers and the students in the four classes of Early Childhood Education (N=97). Furthermore, we want to investigate how the students take part in the academic discussions in the synchronous online teaching environment. Have the teachers and the students achieved what Gilly Salmon (2011) calls e-moderating skills? All these aspects are regarded as important in the students’ learning process as a renewed focus on quality of instruction, student engagement and retention has followed the “anytime, anywhere” nature of online teaching (Finkelstein, 2006, s. vii; Hattie, 2009).

The research methods for the study are both quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative data contains both questions with predefined answers and open questions for student reflections. The qualitative data will be gathered using focus group interviews, where we will go deeper into the objective for the study. This mix of methods will give us a deeper and more valid foundation for our discussions.

Bibliography

Finkelstein, J. (2006). Learning in Real Time Synchronous Teaching and Learning Online. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass A wiley Imrint.

Hattie, J. A. (2009). Visible Learning. New York, US: Routledge.

Salmon, G. (2011). Emoderating The key to teaching and learning online (Vol. Third edition). New York: Routledge.

Østerud, S. (2004). Utdanning for informasjonssamfunnet. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.