In motion around blended learning: Insights from the lecturers’ perspective

Blended learning is not a flash in the pan, it’s here to stay. At The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) the implementation of blended learning is not yet in an adult stage, but in a newly introduced educational framework (The Hague University of Applied Sciences, 2017) blended learning plays a vital role. The intention is for teams to come to a shared approach when it comes to blended learning. In his blog, Leonard Geluk, (Geluk, 2016) the Chairman of the Executive Board of the University notes that ‘the development is slow to get off the ground’ and ‘there is still work to be done before we can fully embed ICT in education.’ The toolkit of teachers has been supplemented with many digital tools in recent decades (Geluk, 2014), but what makes lecturers actually use these new possibilities? What causes them to pick up the toolkit or leave it? Jacobs (2013) indicates that people’s ability to exploit the benefits of technology, in particular digital technology, is not obvious and can be a big challenge, especially for teachers. The central question to this study is: What brings lecturers in motion around blended learning? In my opinion, gaining more understanding in the lecturers’ perspective is an important part of the ‘work’ that Leonard Geluk describes above. This is the main goal of this research