Flexibility and structure using the example of a course featuring a blended-learning design

In higher education discourse, the use of new technologies for designing learning processes is a core topic, which is associated with the demand for learning flexibility and the opening of universities to non-traditional students. This paper presents aspects of blended learning based on a course at the beginning of a bachelor's degree in a distance-learning study programme. In this context, it shows how flexibility in learning can be fostered and, at the same time, how the challenges stemming from a lack of integration and communication, as well as possible shortcomings in students’ self-organisation abilities, can be overcome through a purposeful allocation of structural elements.