The changing demographics of the student population, the current economic climate, global

and societal trends dictate that universities the world over increase access to their products
and services through distance and online learning. The UWI in The UWI Triple A Strategic
Plan 2017 – 2022: Revitalizing Caribbean Development sets out as its strategic goals
Access, Alignment and Agility. In order to operationalize the Triple A Strategy relative to
Access, The UWI Cave Hill campus has formulated strategic initiatives that are underpinned
by the notions of a SMART Campus capitalizing on advances in IT, towards improving
educational delivery and pedagogy; and harnessing these developments with the view to
making the Cave Hill campus the campus of choice for students, rather than a campus of
convenience. As such it is imperative that these processes are driven by the renewal,
design, redesign and delivery of efficacious curricula for blended and online learning.
However, anecdotal evidence suggests that there is the perception among faculty that a
traditional course can be converted to a blended course simply by adding technological
tools. Therefore efficient training in the principles of blended course design and delivery is
warranted. Opportunities for training include:

 Improved course designs

 Improved pedagogical practices resulting in increased student satisfaction and
enrolment.

The primary audience for the project will comprise full time and adjunct faculty, but research
assistants who work closely with faculty, and administrative assistants may also be involved.
These male and female participants must hold an undergraduate degree or higher, and must
be employed in higher education for at least one year. They will have varying experiences
with course design, and pedagogical training, experience with the LMS Moodle, and varying
levels of technological proficiency. Since the project caters to adult learners the design will
among other things permit learners to build on their prior experiences, provide opportunities
for learners to control their own learning, create opportunities for reflection throughout the
training, and facilitate interactions among participants with diverse views and experiences.

For this project a blended approach will be utilized for the delivery of the instruction. This
modality was chosen because of the flexibility that it will afford faculty members who will
carry their usual workloads, research and community service responsibilities. In addition,
they will engage in experiential learning as they experience a blended course from the
learner’s perspective. This should enable them to be empathetic with their own students
when they actually deliver their blended courses. Moreover, this modality will allow for the
modelling of best practices in blended design and delivery.