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Nebulous combinations of face-to-face and online learning are increasingly common across Australian higher education contexts. This paper reports on part of a redesign project of an undergraduate education subject at a regional university. The aim of the redesign was to enhance e-learning and blended learning environments. An approach that maps the evaluation research activities to the design and development cycle of e-learning tools and learning tasks was adopted (Phillips et al., 2012). The research took a participatory format involving ongoing reflective exchange with pre-service teachers with the aim of transforming practice. The article presents the context of e-learning, blended learning and drivers of curriculum renewal in teacher education at a regional institution and discusses the phases of the redesign project which adopted an action research approach. Finally the paper discusses the implications of the redesign for informing future practice and in approaching elearning and blended learning curriculum design.

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Sociology has a long history of engagement with social justice issues, and through concepts like the 'sociological imagination' we equip our students with the ability to think through, and ideally work to change, inequities. This engagement is under threat, however, from recent changes in the higher education sector that have shifted the focus from learning experiences to qualifications. There is little room within accreditation frameworks for social justice as an educational goal. This paper will place these discussions of engagement and social justice as key outcomes of a sociology degree within the broader context of the changing higher education sector, and will explore how we teach students to use their sociological imaginations outside of the classroom. We recognise that this is a messy process, involving ambiguous learning spaces, sometimes conflicting institutional versions of 'engagement' and unforseen outcomes. Nevertheless, 'engaged' sociology should encourage students to exercise their sociological imaginations and their own capacity to act as agents of social change.

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