The Degree Apprenticeships have attracted students who are already established professionals to study at the University of Birmingham. Degree Apprenticeships enable students to complete a qualification that connects work-related skills with academic content to encourage evidence-based practices.

The student profile varies between new professionals and ones that are more experienced. These learners may have studied at undergraduate level, post-graduate level or indeed have no higher education. Equally, it may be some time since they have studied.

What these learners do have in common is that they typically lead busy work lives and the courses we deliver need to respond to and reflect their preferred method of study in a way that is truly student-focussed.

Creating blended degree programmes gives learners the flexibility to study when and where they choose.

We have created immersive environments in truly innovative ways that enhance students’ and academics’ experience and we have developed an inclusive environment that enables all learners to participate.

 So what are the main benefits of our blended approach to DAs?

  • Staff and students find that using a well-constructed blended approach offers more space to in the face-to-face time to explore topics in depth in lectures and seminars.
  • Designed and developed to cater needs of all of our students, Blended Learning enables learners to reach their full potential. 

In this short video we talk about our research-based approached to delivering student-centred learning using the blended approach.

Further Reading 

Bayne, S., 2008. Higher education as a visual practice: seeing through the virtual learning environment. Teaching in Higher Education13(4), pp.395-410.

Biggs, J., 1996. Enhancing teaching through constructive alignmentHigher education32(3), pp.347-364.

Burgstahler, S., 2009. Universal Design in Education: Principles and ApplicationsDO-IT.

Cvetković, D., 2017. ADDIE Model for Development of E-Courses. In Sinteza 2017-International Scientific Conference on Information Technology and Data Related Research (pp. 242-247). Singidunum University.

Dabbagh, N. and Kitsantas, A., 2012. Personal Learning Environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning. The Internet and higher education15(1), pp.3-8.

Kolb, A.Y. and Kolb, D.A., 2005. Learning styles and learning spaces: Enhancing experiential learning in higher education. Academy of management learning & education4(2), pp.193-212.

Lachheb, A. and Boling, E., 2018. Design tools in practice: instructional designers report which tools they use and why. Journal of Computing in Higher Education30(1), pp.34-54.

Merrill, M.D., 2007. The proper study of instructional design. Trends and issues in instructional design and technology, pp.336-341.

Shah, S.A., 2013. Making the teacher relevant and effective in a technology-led teaching and learning environmentProcedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences103, pp.612-620.

Story, M.F., Mueller, J.L. and Mace, R.L., 1998. The universal design file: Designing for people of all ages and abilities.

Wang, S.K. and Hsu, H.Y., 2008, November. Using ADDIE model to design Second Life activities for online learners. In E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education (pp. 2045-2050). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).