Creating Mature Blended Courses: The European Maturity Model Guidelines

Abstract

The pandemic has urged European universities and other institutions of higher education to switch in a very limited time from on-campus to remote teaching or to teaching modes that combine online and face-to-face activities. Instructors, as well as other course designers and support service staff are in search of evidence-based frameworks that show how to incorporate proven blended scenarios, adapted to their context. Between 2017 and 2020 seven European project partners collaborated in order to establish a conceptual and operational framework for blended education and teaching, labelled as the European Maturity Model for Blended Education. Its aim is to map blended learning practices, conditions, strategies and policies in a systematic manner and to empower higher education institutions to achieve up-scaled blended courses. In this contribution, we focus on what has been developed with regard to the course level. First, we describe the dimensions and indicators of the model, next we indicate blended courses might be altered in terms of their level of maturity using a series of guidelines and open-source tools and materials. We conclude by proposing how to employ the guidelines in a workshop setting.