The Iterative Blend: A Pragmatic Approach to Realizing Institutional Aspiration

Concurrent Session 1
Streamed Session

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Session Materials

Brief Abstract

This session describes how pockets of faculty-led pedagogical experimentations were instrumental to the successful scaling of remote teaching and blended learning across the institution. Discover faculty development strategies for iterative and agile implementation to realize evidence-informed practices despite the absence of a unified definition of blended learning at the beginning.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Maylyn Tan, Singapore Institute of Management

Dr Maylyn Tan is the Head of Academic Development at Singapore Institute of Management Global Education (SIMGE). As a key member shaping the teaching and learning approaches in SIMGE, Maylyn led the implementation of the interconnected model of professional growth in her role in talent resourcing, on-boarding, performance recognition, and learning development of faculty. Maylyn’s interests are in instructional design, learning in the workflow, and the diffusion of innovation with a focus on learner-centered instruction across multi-modal learning environments. She hosts regular scholarly exchanges and professional learning events among the academic community to champion evidence-informed educational practices. For her work in establishing a mentoring-based induction program, Maylyn received the International Teaching Research Award grant from the Centre for Distance of Education, University of London. She was also awarded the JHU EdD merit scholarship for her study on mobile learning for value creation in virtual communities of practice. Maylyn received her B. Applied Science degree in Materials Engineering from Nanyang Technological University. Her passion for understanding how people learn has led her to pursue advanced degrees in education with Melbourne University and Johns Hopkins University.

Extended Abstract

Situated learning and meaningful academic socialization are key factors to facilitate instructional change. Pivoted by the pandemic, faculty-led pedagogical innovation, specifically, the infusion of synchronous and asynchronous learning within the primarily face-to-face curriculum served as a timely enabler during the switch to emergency remote teaching. Although there was no agreed institutional understanding of blended learning, the collective reflections from a handful of faculty champions and academic developers fostered a culture of iterative instructional practices to facilitate the transition towards a blended learning approach anchored on the community inquiry framework (Garrison, 2002) and Salmon’s (2013) Five Stage Model.

In this session, I will delineate the agile methodology undertaken by the academic development team to lower implementation barriers and facilitate mindset shifts to establish blended learning at scale. Session attendees can expect an interactive session (with Mentimeter and Miro) with opportunities to contextualise the learning in their institution.