Curriculum and Standards principal education officer Mark Sivills and Don College advanced skills teacher Josh Dean were named as recipients of 2016-17 Hardie Fellowships this week.

The fellowship will allow the pair to travel to the United States to research how best practice in blended learning and formative assessment can enhance online learning experiences for students and teachers.

This has the potential to increase retention and attainment rates.

Mr Dean said he was extremely honoured to receive the fellowship. 

“One thing that I’m keen to look at further is how we can build on things like connectedness and collaboration,” he said.

Mr Sivills said the pair would investigate different combinations of blended learning, such as synchronous and asynchronous learning, and a mixture of fully online learning and classroom learning. 

“Through the virtual learning environments that we develop through curriculum services, we have a combination of blended learning with key principles of formative assessment embedded into them,” he said. 

“Our work next year is going to build on and enhance that so that in coming years, all Tasmanian learners will have access to high quality online environments supported by evidence-based pedagogy.”