Developing my blended learning course was both exciting and humbling. I began with a clear vision: to design an engaging, flexible experience that balanced face-to-face interaction with digital opportunities for independent learning. What I did not anticipate were the challenges, both technical and pedagogical, that shaped my understanding of course design in ways no textbook could.

One of the most difficult aspects was determining how much learning should occur online versus during classroom sessions. Early in the design process, I leaned heavily on independent modules, assuming learners would appreciate the flexibility. However, some students struggled to stay engaged without direct guidance, while others felt in-person time was repetitive because they had already worked through much of the content online. In hindsight, I needed to be more intentional about what belonged in each format, ensuring that face-to-face sessions were used for active learning and collaboration rather than content repetition.

Another challenge was overestimating learners’ digital fluency. I assumed participants would be comfortable navigating the learning platform and digital tools, but that assumption quickly fell apart when several students spent more time troubleshooting technology than engaging with the material. Next time, I would provide an orientation module, or even a live walkthrough, to ensure everyone feels confident accessing content and submitting assignments before the course begins.

Time was also a significant challenge in both development and facilitation. While blended learning can appear efficient on paper, designing it well proved to be time-intensive. Creating interactive online lessons, curating multimedia resources, and aligning them with in-person activities required far more hours than I budgeted. In the future, I would build in more planning time upfront and rely on templates or design tools to streamline course creation without sacrificing quality.

If I were to redesign this blended course, I would map each learning objective to a delivery format to avoid redundancy, embed short interactive check-ins in online modules to track understanding before class sessions, offer learners a clear technology orientation with ongoing support, and schedule structured feedback opportunities to make iterative improvements while the course is still running.

I also reflected on how the design would need to shift if the audience were different. For example, veteran teachers might prefer more asynchronous learning to accommodate busy schedules, while younger or less experienced learners might need more guided, synchronous instruction.

Ultimately, the process of developing this blended course revealed that designing effective instruction is as much about understanding the learners as it is about mastering the content. Next time, I will pay more attention to my audience, their needs, and the best format for them. With that as my guide, I can make smarter decisions about content delivery, pacing, and support.