Blended learning as the basis for software design

Abstract

As the disparity between educational standards and reality outside engineering educational institutions is increasing, it is imperative that new methods of teaching and learning be developed. Tackling this dilemma, blended (or hybrid) learning is a way through which instructors may use various forms of delivery to enhance their students' learning. This paper describes an online application used to bridge teaching English as a foreign language and project oriented programming to IT students. This study was based on an experiment which engaged IT students in developing new software created in purpose to support teaching English as a foreign language to the same students. The paper includes the brief theoretical background dealing with efficiency of blended learning methods; practical part mainly focuses on the description of the application, its development and its implementation in the studying process. The software and the ways it was used during teaching were positively evaluated by students.