Seamus Fitzpatrick Shares The Benefits of Blended Learning at Griffith College
While blended learning has become increasingly common since the pandemic, Griffith College’s Business Faculty was an early adaptor of the method, implementing it back in 2016.
Speaking to Buisness and Finance Magazine, Seamus Fitzpatrick, the head of the Business Faculty expressed the many benefits in having this option for learners.
Explaining how it works, Seamus said: “Blended learning is a mixture of in-person and remote learning where lecturers will pre-record their lectures and those lectures will be uploaded for students to view and digest at their own leisure. These recordings are also complimented with interactive webinars and some on-campus Saturday classes during the term.”
He added that the idea came from an attempt to make courses more accessible to those who were struggling to travel to the campuses. “Over the years, we had students giving feedback and saying, ‘the commute was taking a lot of their time’. Students would also be unable to make evening classes due to their geographic location.”
Now, many more are turning to blended learning as they relocate, or adapt to doing more remotely, from work to education. Speaking about who would benefit from blended learning options, Seamus explained:
“[It’s for] Those who may have a considerable commute... we’ve got students doing it all over Ireland, right up to Donegal, saving time in terms of the commute, and saving money in terms of the commute, and also it appeals to those who got comfortable doing a lot of their work remotely, who beforehand might not have been as comfortable or tech savvy. And also, because the job scenario has changed, students who were in Dublin who maybe had to dash over to get to college, are now working remotely from home, and it would suit them to do a blended.
It suits those who are trying to keep a work/life and homelife balance."