On "Blended" Learning and the Benefits for Surveying Education, Professional development and "Life-Long Learning"

There is a significant trend in Surveying professional education towards "blended" or "hybrid" learning that involves a mix of face-to-face learning and online learning. We are also seeing similar development in training and continuing professional development. While blended learning is challenging to implement it offers many benefits and, when carefully developed, provides a range of learning options that suit many student learning styles and approaches. A key characteristic is that digital learning or training materials can be shared and easily adapted for use in many contexts.
A recent example of this is the GLTN project on building a structured knowledge base in support of responsible land administration - Responsible Land Administration Teaching Essentials. The project included six modules addressing various aspects responsible land administration and is now freely available in Beta version for any organisation to adapt and include in their curriculum, or training or CPD program. This adaptation may include, for example, the development of local case studies to help illustrate the global principles outlined. In this paper we discuss the development of blended learning in academia, training institutions
and professional institutions. The paper draws on the experiences of the authors and existing literature to review and discuss the trends in blended learning and consider how this may be of benefits to learners in academic institutions, as well as for training within the surveyor sector, and the benefits for professional development programs. Finally, we consider ways that academic institutions, training organisations, industry and professional bodies can work together to derive efficiencies and combined benefits of blended learning resources.