Blended Learning Essentials is a MOOC, designed to encourage and support teachers and trainers who want to make better use of blended learning as part of their teaching practice.
Initially comprising two courses which ran three times, the first phase of BLE reached thousands of UK VET professionals, with good completion rates and very positive reports from participants in post-course evaluation. This reported doubling of the level of awareness of digital tools and technologies and significant increase in confidence in using digital tools by participants. The project was extended to include development of additional courses and enable the whole programme to run again so that more teachers and trainers can benefit from professional development and students benefit from more effective teaching contributing to better learning outcomes. It has now been used over 61,000 times. BLE has encouraged the development of a community of teachers and trainers gradually building knowledge of how best to make use of digital tools and optimise blended learning opportunities in the FE and Vocational Skills sector.