Instructor Approaches to Blended Learning: A Tale of Two Business Schools

The body of academic research on technology-supported learning is growing rapidly, with much of the focus upon student learning effectiveness. This paper addresses the gap in educational technology literature on the examination of instructor characteristics. We shift the focus from student outcomes to instructor input, pedagogy and their strategy of technology selection. In particular, we explore instructors' approaches to blended learning, pedagogical aims and instructional design. Our study of management academics at two UK business schools reveals that blended learning adoption varies greatly. Based on forty semi-structured interviews with management academics, we find that this adoption depends on personal predispositions of academics towards educational technology. Personal understanding and interpretations of the blended learning phenomenon cluster into four distinct groups: traditionalist, pedagogy-centric, techno-centric and cautious, and instructional design and delivery preferences vary widely between groups. The findings of this study demonstrate that there is a wide variation in instructor approaches to blended management learning and that manifests itself markedly in the pedagogical strategies and instructional design and delivery of management education.