Perspective Chapter: Online Learning in Professional and Vocational Education – Seeking Sustainable Lessons during and Post the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study provides insights into how teachers and their students in professional and vocational education perceived the advantages of online education experienced during COVID-19 pandemic and what they considered the affordances worthwhile to implement permanently afterwards. The study used a Group Concept Mapping approach that allowed students and teachers to formulate their own thoughts on their online education. The study addresses the following research question: What are according to teachers and students in professional and vocational education valuable aspects of online education during the pandemic that should retain in their programs afterwards? The Group Concept Mapping consisted of brainstorming by generating statements (780 respondents), sorting of the statements (87 respondents) and rating of the statements (278 and 196 respondents). The findings show that the generated statements refer to seven themes worthwhile to take into account for the further development of online learning, referring to very different aspects, such as didactical issues, interaction, planning and scheduling and the need for proper preconditions. Students and teachers did not differ significantly in their ratings on the statements. The main conclusion is that the findings offer support for moderate change towards a larger application of online learning as part of blended learning programs.

1. Introduction

COVID-19 had a devastating impact on all parts of our society, including significant effects on education. In particular, the closure of universities and schools caused a tremendous shift in teachers’ and students’ routines. Instead of delivering face-to-face classroom-based learning activities, teachers had to switch overnight to online delivery modes most had never applied before. Perhaps some teachers had already experimented with online delivery modes on a small scale (e.g. for maintaining contact and supervising students during their internships). However, face-to-face delivery modes had been the standard in most types of education, including professional and vocational education, until COVID-19 arrived. Not only were teachers and students caught off guard by how the COVID-19 pandemic restricted their everyday lives, they also needed to adapt within a few weeks to novel ways of teaching and learning when universities and schools closed.

It is worthwhile to emphasise that in many cases teachers and students were able to shift towards online education, something with which they were unfamiliar. However, doing so had its price: faculty members noted high levels of frustration, anxiety and stress about half a year after the pandemic began. Increased workloads and a deterioration of work-life balance frequently caused strong feelings of longing for careers outside education or even the desire for early retirement [1].

It also is likely that teachers experienced lower levels of self-efficacy when they were forced to switch to teaching online, since their unfamiliarity with online teaching may have increased their sensitivity to burnout [2].

Students too were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. A large-scale study among university students showed that they experienced higher levels of isolation because of the lack of interaction with fellow students and teachers. Students expressed mixed feelings about the shift to exclusively online learning activities, such as lectures, small-group meetings, individual supervision and coaching sessions [3].

In addition to the many negative experiences related to solely online education, the surveyed students in professional and vocational education mentioned advantages of combining classroom-based learning activities on campus with online education. COVID-19 caused students and teachers to become engaged – however involuntarily – in online education, and their experiences offer insights from which we may benefit in the years ahead. This study provides insights into how teachers in professional and vocational education and their students perceived the advantages of online education experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and the learnings they considered worthwhile to implement permanently afterwards. The study applied a Group Concept Mapping (GCM) approach that elicits the affordances from the participants themselves instead of asking them to fill out pre-defined questionnaires designed by researchers.

2. Literature review

Shifting demographics resulting in a decline in the number of students and the need to offer flexible programmes that better suit the preferences of today’s students are just two examples of challenges underlying the need for widespread implementation of technology for learning purposes. Comparative research by the OECD [4] indicated that online learning in education was predominantly used in distance education programmes that attract part-time adult students or students in remote areas, or it was applied to open education initiatives (e.g. massive open online courses (MOOCs)). Though the prevalence of technology use in vocational and higher education (e.g. using digital platforms and tools) differed between countries, it generally appeared to be quite modest before the pandemic [4]. To that point, widespread implementation appeared to be more observed in policy documents than in the day-to-day reality at colleges and universities [5].

Though the literature [6] describes this using different terms (e.g. web-based education, e-learning and distance education) in this chapter we refer to it as online education. A key feature of online education is that at least 80% of the content is delivered via the internet and typically no face-to-face meetings are scheduled [7]. Singh and Thurman [8] define online education as education delivered in an online environment through the use of the internet for teaching and learning. This includes online learning by students that is not dependent on their physical or virtual location. The teaching content is delivered online to enhance learning and interactivity in the synchronous or asynchronous environment. In this chapter, we adhere to the abovementioned definitions. We observed that during the pandemic, there were times when almost 100% of education was delivered online (except for final assessments that were sometimes located on the campus to avoid fraudulent student behaviour).

Limited experience with the application of technology at the start of the pandemic resulted in low levels of readiness for implementing and delivering full-scale online education. In most cases there was an unexpected disruption of conventional teaching and learning due to a forced and fast migration to emergency remote teaching, since teachers did not possess the skills to deliver high quality effective online learning that was based on a cautious design and gradual development [9]. These authors question the quality of online education during the pandemic and therefore they define this as remote teaching and learning, rather than online education. The latter is much more grounded in research and theories and is implemented gradually, accompanied by evaluations to support its further development. Not only for the teaching staff the forced shift towards online education can be regarded as a major challenge, also it remains questionable to what extent today’s students can be defined as truly digital natives. The fact that most students have grown up in a society in which digital technology is a part of their daily lives does not automatically imply that students have the ability and/or the motivation to become engaged in online education [10]. It is quite likely that the (negative) experiences of students and teachers during the pandemic were partly shaped by their low levels of ability and readiness to become engaged in full-scale online education. This is also signalled in recent research studies.

During the pandemic, many research studies were launched to monitor the experiences of students, teachers and managers. These studies found that full-scale online education had significant negative effects, such as social deprivation and lack of student motivation [3]. Students experienced many technical problems, observed that their teachers did not have the skills and knowledge to deliver online education, and noted a lack of teacher-student interactions [11, 12]. Limited experience with the application of technology at the start of the pandemic resulted in low levels of readiness for implementing and delivering full-scale online education. In addition to reporting many problems and disadvantages, these studies also highlighted advantages of online education. Students who were asked to name benefits of combining campus-based activities with online learning activities mentioned opportunities to access their teachers for short (individual) meetings, the availability of videotaped lectures that could be watched at home at convenient times, and a reduction in travelling [13]. Ellis et al. [14] noted that online experiences during the pandemic were a catalyst for change and led to a desire not to return to the educational practices in use before the pandemic. Comparable advantages were reported by Zhao and Watterston [15], who concluded that the pandemic creates opportunities for educational change.

It is quite obvious that nowadays, with the pandemic leaving behind us, full-scale online education is not the ultimate goal to strive for in professional and vocational education. Much more likely is that the educational change is heading for what is usually labelled as blended education. Characteristic for blended education is that there is always a combination of classroom face-to-face teaching with online teaching and learning [16]. The proportion of online learning and teaching may vary, but various authors (see for example [16]) estimate that typical for blended education is that between 20 and 79 per cent of the learning and teaching is taking place in an online modality. Blended education is not just a matter of proportion: The achievement of the appropriate mix, or blend, of the two teaching and learning modalities, requires a thoughtful design process in which different considerations are taken into account to achieve the most optimal blend. Preferences and technological abilities of teachers and students, pedagogical approaches, technical issues and organisational aspects are just a few examples of the considerations that are important cornerstones in the process of defining the right blend. There is a tendency to emphasise the technological aspects of the change towards blended education. However, it is not a matter of becoming more familiar with the use of technology as such; instead, there is a need for a broader view that addresses very different aspects to ensure a fruitful context that enables educators to make sense of the possible role of technology [13]. As Conrad et al. [17] stated: it is not simply duplicating the learning materials in a digital format.

The focus in this study is on gathering the experiences of students and teachers to uncover the advantages of online education during the pandemic. The purpose is to collect ideas that are conducive to the further development of online learning and teaching in professional and vocational education in the coming years. Not with the intention to strive for full-scale online education but rather to reveal the possibilities to move towards blended education that combines the benefits of conventional face-to-face and online teaching and learning. Most research studies that aimed at highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of online education heavily relied on collecting data via questionnaires so as to include many respondents and collect data promptly [3, 5, 11, 18, 19, 20]. Though it makes sense to use questionnaires, a major drawback of this method concerns the use of pre-defined items from the researchers’ viewpoint that may overlook particular experiences or thoughts of students and teachers. The present study used an alternative approach that allowed students and teachers to formulate their own thoughts about online education while simultaneously including large numbers of participants. The Group Concept Mapping approach that was applied in this study supports those goals [21]. This study addresses the following research question: What are according to teachers and students in professional and vocational education valuable aspects of online education during the pandemic that should be retained in education programs afterwards?

3. Method

This study was conducted at a university of applied sciences (for professional and vocational education) in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic. Faculty’s managers sent emails inviting students and teachers to participate in the brainstorm phase or rating phase, respectively. These emails also included a link to the GCM environment. For the sorting phase, both researchers emailed invitations to university staff members who perform policy, consultancy or research roles. That email also included a link to the environment for the sorting task.

3.1 Explanation of GCM

GCM is a mixed method and a digital tool for participatory research. It enables research in which participants start with a brainstorming session to generate ideas. These ideas are recorded and investigated via quantitative and qualitative analyses. Ultimately, the participants arrive — in an objective way — at a shared vision about a particular issue [22]. Next to software to collect and analyse data, GCM offers support in visualising the results of the analyses [23]. Kane and Trochim [24] reiterate the value of group concept mapping as a practical method for applied research activities, including theory development, program and social intervention planning, measurement development and scaling, and program evaluation [25]. It provides insights into the conceptual knowledge of the participants, offers the opportunity for discussion and assists the participants in reaching and identifying an objective consensus [26].

3.2 Phases in the GCM

The works of Kirschner and Stoyanov [22] and Kane and Rosas [21] were consulted to determine the activities per phase (see Table 1). The following phases are part of GCM:

1. The researchers modified the digital tool. This included adapting texts and formulating a ‘focus prompt’ for the brainstorming phase: Which aspects of online education in recent months helped you study or teach successfully, and would you like to keep them in your programme after the pandemic?

2. In the brainstorming phase, which lasted 1 month, teachers and students in the university of applied science were invited to write as many statements about their ideas as possible in response to the focus prompt. Teachers and students could participate anonymously as often as they wanted.

3. The researchers made a selection from the generated statements. They only included statements that were distinctive and closely linked to the focus prompt.

4. Completing background questions. All participants involved in the sorting and rating phases were required to answer some questions about their backgrounds. These items related to their position (student, teacher, other employee), gender and educational programme. There also was a text box where they could enter additional comments.

5. Participants who performed roles such as educational consultant, educational policymaker and educational researcher at this university of applied science sorted the statements thematically. They clustered ideas by putting similar ideas in piles and labelling each pile with the term they found most appropriate for it. For this (sorting) phase the participants needed a month and a half.

6. Students and teachers rated the ideas on a five-point scale based on the following questions:

   • How important is this idea for students’ study success?

   • How feasible is this idea?

   The rating phase lasted also a month.

7. The researchers made additional analyses and interpreted and reported the results

Phase	Activities	Participants
Conceptual design	Decisions on focus prompt; background items, sample.	Researchers (2)
Data collection brainstorming	Generating ideas in response to the focus prompt (what people think)	Students and teachers (893 logins and 780 respondents)
Sorting	Grouping ideas thematically (how people think)	Staff members with educational expertise from various departments (87 respondents)
Rating	Prioritising ideas (what people value)	Students and teachers (278 respondents to the first question, 196 respondents to the second question)
Sorting analysis	Multidimensional scaling (MDS) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) to represent the group’s perceptions in visual formats (point map, cluster map)	Researchers
Rating analysis	Determining the importance and feasibility of statements	Researchers
Interpreting results	Making sense of the data by conducting additional analyses (Go Zone) and holding discussions with policymakers	Researchers

Table 1.

Overview of the activities per phase of the GCM.

The whole project took about a year starting with formulating the focus prompt and ending with the research report.

4. Results

This section presents the results on an aggregated level. For a more detailed description of the results, please consult the work of Goes-Daniëls and Van der Klink [27].

4.1 The brainstorm phase: generating statements

During the brainstorming session, a total of 893 logins were recorded, out of which 780 participants engaged with the program. Brainstorming by students and teachers led to the generation of 547 statements, which were subsequently exported to an Excel file. These statements were then evaluated by two researchers who divided them into three categories: (1). relevant and useful, (2). suggesting some relevance but not closely related to the focus prompt, and (3). irrelevant and lack of usefulness. The pool of relevant and useful statements (331 in total) needed a reduction to a maximum of 100 statements to maintain participant engagement and ensure an adequate response rate for the sorting and rating activities. To achieve this, one researcher assigned keywords to each statement, which were then reviewed and verified by the other researcher. In cases where differences of opinion arose, discussions took place, leading to a consensus on keyword allocation. Subsequently, all statements were checked for duplicates within each keyword, and those duplications were eliminated. This process resulted in a final list of 84 statements eligible for sorting and rating.

4.2 Clustering the statements

Figure 1 shows the point map of the sorting of the 84 statements. Statements the participants more often placed together in a pile are closer to each other.

Figure 1.

Point map of the 84 statements.

The data analysis of the sorting step involved multi-dimensional scaling (MDS). This technique places each statement as a unique ‘point’ on a map. This point map represents each statement as a separate point on a two-dimensional (X, Y) space. MDS produces a statistic called ‘stress index’ (with values ranging from 0 to 1) to indicate the extent to which the concept map reflects the raw sorting as represented by a binary similarity matrix. The stress value for the MDS solution (goodness of fit) was 27, which is fairly acceptable in terms of reliability of the results [28].

Next, a hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to support the decision regarding an optimal number of clusters of statements. The software provides suggestions for different cluster solutions. In general, there is neither a right nor a wrong number of clusters but rather a solution that the researchers interpreted as logically and sensible. The optimal number of clusters depends on the coherence of statements belonging to a particular cluster. This can be judged by scores on the ‘bridging factor’ (values ranging from 0 to 1). The value of the bridging factor represents the extent to which statements within the cluster are sorted with nearby statements. A lower bridging value means a statement within the cluster is more often sorted with nearby statements, while a higher bridging value indicates the statement is sorted with statements that are further away [20].

This analysis resulted into seven clusters with acceptable bridging values (BF): Didactics (BF = 0.09), Use of technology (BF = 0.18), Planning and scheduling (BF = 0.26), Efficiency (BF = 0.25), Involvement (BF = 0.20), Interaction (BF = 0.71) and Preconditions (BF = 0.36). The software suggested terms (labels) for the identified clusters and the researchers altered the labels slightly to make them more understandable for a varied audience (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

The final cluster map of 7 clusters and their labels.

4.3 Rating the statements

All students and teachers were invited to rate the 84 statements again, first in terms of their importance (278 responses) and then on feasibility (196 responses). These statements were rated on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (low) to 5 (high). For the entire group of respondents and the entire group of 84 statements, the mean score was 3.74 for importance and 3.58 for feasibility, respectively. Inspection of the scores for both sub-groups revealed that teachers and students did not differ significantly. The mean scores for the entire group of respondents of the clusters are displayed in Table 2.

Cluster label	Number of statements grouped in this cluster	Mean score for importance	Mean score for feasibility
1 Didactics	18	3.79	3.64
2 Use of technology	8	3.65	3.88
3 Planning and scheduling	6	3.89	3.74
4 Involvement	7	3.47	3.33
5 Efficiency	17	3.44	3.63
6 Interaction	10	3.93	3.38
7 Preconditions	18	3.96	3.53

Table 2.

Mean scores for importance and feasibility per cluster*.

The number of statements per cluster varied between 6 (planning and scheduling) and 18 (didactics and preconditions). The mean scores indicated that the clusters were considered to be rather or slightly important. The mean scores ranged from 3.44 to 3.96. This also applies to the mean scores for feasibility, which ranged from 3.33 to 3.88.

Below are brief descriptions of the statements in each cluster.

Didactics had quite comparable scores on importance and feasibility. In total, 18 statements were grouped in this cluster. They expressed ideas about the need to encourage active learning activities during online meetings and the recording and distribution of online lectures.

Use of technology had the highest score for feasibility and a slightly lower score for importance. This indicates the respondents expect a rather smooth implementation of the ideas in this cluster. The eight statements address the need to improve the use of the communication environment (MS Teams) and the learning environment (Moodle).

Planning and scheduling had a high score for importance and an almost equally high score for feasibility. This indicates that implementation is regarded as fairly promising. This cluster consists of six statements that generally refer to the additional consequences of organising, planning and scheduling online activities.

Compared to the other clusters, involvement had a somewhat lower score for importance and the lowest score for feasibility. This indicates that implementing the ideas in this cluster may involve some difficulties. The seven statements in this cluster refer to ideas for encouraging students’ commitment to online education. Examples are the needs to increase small group activities and combine online and face-to-face activities in a well-thought-out manner.

Efficiency received the lowest score for importance but a somewhat higher score for feasibility. The 17 statements in this cluster refer to the advantages of online education (e.g. saving time and expenses related to travelling to campus, increased opportunities to invite foreign guest speakers for lectures).

Interaction had a high score for importance and a lower score for feasibility. That indicates that implementing the ideas in this cluster may require substantial effort. The 10 statements in this cluster all refer to ideas that underpin the necessity of frequent interaction between students themselves and between students and teaching staff. The ideas about interaction did not necessarily express a desire for online interaction; they also referred to a desire for scheduling conventional face-to-face meetings.

Preconditions had the highest score for importance combined with a lower score for feasibility. This may imply that implementing the ideas was rated as somewhat less promising. This cluster consisted of 18 statements about ideas related to creating clarity about how to behave in online settings, uniformity in rules and procedures, and the need to support students and teachers in increasing their digital competencies.

4.4 Prioritising statements for policy purposes

To support the further development of an online learning policy, a Go Zone plot was created. It shows the relationship between the importance and feasibility per statement [29]. The division into quadrants is based on the mean scores for importance (3.74) and feasibility (3.58). This illustrates which statements the respondents considered most important and most feasible. The top right quadrant of Figure 3 also displays the statements considered most important and most feasible.

Figure 3.

Go zone plot of the relationship between importance and feasibility for the entire group of respondents.

Since there was no significant difference in the scores students and teachers assigned for importance and feasibility, the Go Zone plot for the entire group of respondents is displayed in Figure 3.

In total, 29 statements are grouped into the top right quadrant of Figure 3, meaning the respondents (teachers and students) considered these 29 ideas to be the most important and most feasible. The 29 statements were not equally distributed across the seven clusters. For example, none of the statements from the efficiency cluster were present in these 29 statements. About a third of the 29 statements belonged to the didactics cluster, and seven were in the preconditions cluster. Table 3 shows the division of statements across clusters and provides examples of statements.

Cluster	Nr
Didactics	2	Recording instructions so students can hear and study them again.
	59	In preparation for a meeting or class, give students a recording of the lesson/instruction, so there is more room for interaction during the subsequent meeting/class.
	69	Share a clear time schedule about when something will be discussed so students can prepare as well as possible.
	75	Schedule breaks between online classes. These should be real breaks instead of time meant to be used to work on an assignment, etc.
Use of technology	14	Make more use of screen sharing in MS Teams.
	22	Share documents on screen.
Planning and scheduling	48	Plan individual online conversations between teachers and students.
	64	Record lectures so lecturers can watch themselves and reflect on this.
	68	Place meetings with students on the (Outlook) calendar so they only have to click on it to participate.
	74	Schedule feedback about lessons and question hours online so students who live far from campus need not travel unnecessarily (e.g. for a 10-minute event).
Commitment	46	Small-group education makes students more active.
Efficiency		None of these statements were rated both important and feasible
Interaction	6	Increase online contact between the graduation supervisor, student and client.
	78	Learning is a social event, so there must be regular contact between students.
	79	Teaching is a social event, so there must be regular contact between students and teachers.
Preconditions	39	Make clear rules about attendance.
	43	Make agreements about online communication between students and lecturers.
	53	Inform students and teachers about new developments more quickly.
	55	Use student and teacher evaluation points to shape future online education.
	61	Inform students and teachers well about how to achieve security and privacy in Teams.

Table 3.

Examples of the most important and feasible statements per cluster (total 29 statements).

5. Conclusions

The pandemic created a situation in which students and teachers were engaged in online education (though mostly involuntarily). Before the pandemic, there had been few large-scale applications of online education (with the possible exception of distance education programmes that had already used online education for many years). Although the pandemic created numerous and severe problems, it also created a potential to bring change to existing educational practices in vocational and professional education. Our study was designed to collect insights about how our teachers and students perceived the advantages of online education experienced during the pandemic and the affordances they considered worthwhile to implement permanently afterwards. This study contributes to the further development of well-thought-out actions to improve and enhance the applications of online learning in vocational and professional education.

The set-up of this study allowed the collection of affordances from the participants themselves. The GCM approach we applied seeks and embrace the knowledge, experiences and opinions of those who are most related to or affected by an issue [21]; in our study, these were the students and teachers at our own university. They were invited to generate statements and rate those statements on their importance and feasibility. In addition, staff members (e.g. policymakers, educational consultants and educational researchers from the university) were invited individually to divide the statements into related piles and assign labels that described the content of the piles they proposed. The findings allow to draw three conclusions which will be presented hereafter.

First, we conclude that the findings indicate seven clusters of statements that all refer to themes worthwhile for further developing online learning and teaching after the pandemic. These clusters of statements refer to very different aspects, such as didactical issues and the possibilities for interaction and commitment that online education offers. Moreover, the clusters point to aspects with a conditional nature, such as planning and scheduling issues and the need for proper preconditions. The Go Zone plot in our study led to additional insights that support policymakers in determining the priorities for developing the first and next steps as part of an institutional approach in professional and vocational education. Second, considering the nature of the statements, we conclude that the majority refer to very practical ideas. Third, what the statements have in common is that they do not express the need for very advanced and full-scale online education. Instead, they provide a supportive base for further enhancing and improving online learning and teaching as part of blended education.

6. Discussion

The conclusions drawn in our study are supported by the quality of the research conducted. A key aspect of the quality of a Group Concept Mapping study is the number of participants per phase. Rosas and Kane [28] suggested a minimum range of 20–35 participants per phase. Our study included significantly larger participant groups (see Table 1), ensuring that the study’s quality in this regard was adequately maintained. The clustering of statements resulted in the identification of seven distinct clusters, each representing a different theme. The different themes are in line with the work of Porter et al. [30], who emphasised the need for an institutional approach to blended education, going beyond course-level development. Such an approach requires strategic planning, structural changes, and adequate support at the university or college level. The nature of the statements may have been influenced by the timing of the data collection. The study was conducted during the midst of the pandemic, when teachers were grappling with the transition from classroom-based lessons to online activities. It is highly likely that the statements were influenced by the daily experiences of both students and teachers. This transition can be characterised as substitution, where the content and pedagogical approaches remained unchanged, but the modality shifted from the classroom to the online environment. This aligns with the perspective of [9], that characterised the online education during the pandemic as a form of emergency remote teaching. We presume that as students and teachers become more proficient, leading to the implementation of advanced types of online learning and teaching, their perceptions regarding the benefits of online education will also be influenced.

In general, our findings suggest more moderate opportunities for educational change compared to the more transformative views expressed by [14], that consider the pandemic as a catalyst for significant educational change. Our study highlights the potential for a blended approach to teaching and learning, combining both classroom-based and online modalities, with the classroom retaining its prominent role as the primary mode of instruction.

7. Limitations

While we conducted our study among students and teachers at a single university of applied sciences, caution should be taken when generalising the findings. However, it is worth noting that during the pandemic the daily experiences of teachers and students of various institutes across Europe and beyond exhibited striking similarities [3, 11, 12]. Given that the collected statements were deeply rooted in their daily experiences, we assume that our findings hold relevance for other institutes in the field of vocational and professional education as well. One of the main advantages of Group Concept Mapping is its ability to gather statements from large groups of participants. However, it is important to acknowledge that there is no direct interaction between the researchers and the participants, as is the case with interviews, for example. Therefore, the thoughts, beliefs, concerns, and considerations of the participants that influenced the formulation of the statements, or the reasoning behind the sorting and rating of the statements, remain unknown in the context of Group Concept Mapping. When the objective is to gather more comprehensive background information, it is advisable to employ other methods, such as interviews.

8. Recommendations

The different nature of the statements suggests the need to apply an integral approach at the institutional level for taking the next steps in developing online teaching and learning as part of blended education. An approach that includes strategy, structure and support [30]. The strategy focuses at the creation of an institutional definition of blended education, at the goals of blended education (e.g. enhanced pedagogy, increased access and flexibility, improved cost-effectiveness and resource use) and at the advocacy of blended education among management, administrators, teachers and other institutional personnel. The structure refers to the need for establishing the necessary technological infrastructure, the governance, and the systematic monitoring of the implementation to generate frequent feedback that enables evidence-informed further development of blended education. The support refers to the need for technical and pedagogical support, including the professional development of teachers and other stakeholders, including students, since their ability and/or motivation to participate in online education may vary.

It is important that the institutional approach includes a view on the desired ambition level of blended education. Van der Klink and Brand-Gruwel [31] argue that the levels of ambitions of colleges and universities to implement blended education may vary and they distinguish three levels, ranging from Low Impact Blend, Medium Impact Blend to High Impact Blend, respectively (see also [32]). Low Impact Blend refers to adding extra technology-based activities to an existing classroom-based course. Characteristic for Medium Impact Blend is the replacement of classroom-based teaching and learning by online activities. Finally, a High Impact Blend implies a full redesign of an existing classroom-based course. In general, most colleges and universities will presumably strive for a Medium Impact Blend. Though a Low Impact Blend requires less efforts, its benefits are modest as well. Moreover, there is a danger that the addition of activities may increase the workload of teachers and the study time of students [32]. In contrast, a Medium Impact Blend offers more benefits (e.g. more flexible course delivery) but requires also more investments to achieve the benefits. A Medium Impact Blend allows an incremental design in which teachers gradually replace course components, by experimenting with different approaches to learning and various tools.

It is very likely that the pandemic will eventually pave the way to a more prominent place of online learning in the repertoire of vocational and professional education. Based on our experiences in this study, we would like to recommend a careful and thoughtful approach to further developing online learning as part of a blended education. Blended education will definitely improve the flexibility of educational programmes to, for example, attract employees who want to upgrade their competencies or allow full-time students to combine their study with a job. But how high or modest our online ambitions may be, we always must remember to reflect the voices of teachers and (future) students in these ambitions. Here we would like to emphasise the need to involve students in our endeavours [33]. Students have the potential to inform the development of blended education in ways that other stakeholders could not. Therefore, methodologies that incorporate these voices, such as GCM, deserve our attention when it comes to designing and evaluating blended education.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Slavi Stoyanov of the Open University of the Netherlands for his support during the design of this study.