Blended learning in first year curriculum : melding pedagogies to support student engagement and empowerment

Blended learning involves a careful and considered approach to the identification and combination of different modes, times, places and purposes of learning, with emphasis on judicious integration of fit-for-purpose educational technologies in order to enhance student learning experience and outcomes. Students commence their first year of university with a vastly diverse set of personal, social and cultural characteristics that can shape their tertiary experience and engagement with learning. This can present a challenge to first year curriculum design, delivery and evaluation. This presentation will explore how blended learning pedagogy, transition pedagogy and transparent pedagogies were melded within a first year Allied Health unit at Australian Catholic University in an aim to enhance student engagement with and empowerment within the program. Processes of decision making regarding design, delivery and evaluation of first year curriculum will be shared and supported with case examples and data from the discipline of Speech Pathology.