Design principles for hybrid learning configurations at the interface between school and workplace

Abstract

In today’s knowledge society, there is a demand for professionals who are able to create knowledge across boundaries of disciplines, professions and perspectives. Traditional universities, universities of applied sciences and institutions for vocational education are all challenged to educate these knowledge workers. Accordingly, these institutions are developing competence-based education programmes that promote authentic, self-directed learning and the development of a professional identity. A possible environment for realising this type of learning is the hybrid learning configuration in which learning is embedded in ill-defined and highly-authentic tasks. This study attempted to identify a set of principles that can underpin the design of such a learning configuration at the interface between school and workplace. The research approach consisted of educational design research. Starting from cognitive constructivist and socio-cultural perspectives, a set of initial design principles was developed and evaluated from the perspective of the participants during three consecutive iterations of design and implementation. The process resulted in a set of seven refined design principles which can be used as heuristics to guide the design and development of hybrid learning configurations in contexts that have similar goals and aligned tenets. © 2016, The Author(s).

Keywords

Author Keywords

Vocational education Authentic learning University of applied sciences Educational design research Hybrid learning configuration

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations

Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Gelderland, Netherlands

Staff Office Education and Research, Hanzehogeschool Groningen, Groningen, DA, Netherlands

Funding & Acknowledgements

No funding information

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Design principles for hybrid learning configurations at the interface between school and workplace

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