FIRST STEPS TOWARDS A BLENDED PRE-SESSIONAL: CHALLENGES AND REFLECTIONS
INTRODUCTION
International student numbers in the UK have increased dramatically in the last decade. Latest Higher Education Standards Agency (HESA, 2020) figures show this trend is continuing, particularly in terms of non-EU students. Many universities have internationalisation strategies, emphasising their internationalism in mission statements and marketing material (Schartner & Cho, 2017). Pre-sessional courses play a key role in the realisation of these strategies, preparing international students for UK study. Increasing numbers of students brings challenges such as increased demand for teaching and classroom resources. In addition, to adequately prepare students for the challenges of UK study, pre-sessional courses must develop transferable skills such as autonomy, collaboration and digital literacy. Although today’s university students
may be digital natives (Prensky, 2001), they may not have knowledge or competence in using digital resources in a learning environment (Li & Ranieri, 2010). In response to these practical and pedagogical challenges, and to ensure sustainable future growth, universities are beginning to experiment with digital delivery on their pre-sessional courses. This reduces the pressure on classroom and teaching resources and can also lead to more efficient use of classroom time (Davies, 2015). This paper describes our attempt to develop a blended pre-sessional programme, integrating digital and in-class delivery. It outlines the principles behind our approach, some challenges and includes a preliminary evaluation of the blended programme. Digitisation of pre-sessionals is a relatively new phenomenon, and it is hoped this paper will have relevance to EAP practitioners considering digital solutions.
