From face-to-face to distance: towards flexibility in five dimensions of blended learning: Lessons learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

In the rapid switch from contact to distance learning in response to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic staff at a university of technology with predominantly vulnerable students had to switch to emergency teaching and learning. This rapid switch required enormous flexibility of all staff and students in relation to five distinct dimensions – place, time, service, technology, and pedagogy. This reflective piece considers implications of each of those dimensions, as well as the extent to which lecturers worked within them in their attempts to save the academic year. Data, consisting of emails, WhatsApp messages, minutes of meetings, lecture notes, Zoom recordings and online forms, were analysed thematically and categorised into the five dimensions. These findings are then compared to the literature on knowledge management, learning theory and emergency teaching during the pandemic. The contribution of the study lies in a decision framework for the selection of technologies and pedagogies along the five dimensions of flexibility in blended learning.