No, you cannot expect students to be self-directed. It is your job as a teacher to start a learning process where at the end they are able to learn for themselves without further instructions. Blended learning can help and give them tools to get to this point, but the specific mixture, the relation between instruction and self-direction is something you as a teacher has to balance.

Yes, training/developing self direction is important especially towards the development of self determination. Deci and Ryan (1985) defined self-determination in their self determination theory as: 

“the capacity to choose and to have those choices, rather than reinforcement contingencies, drives, or any other forces or pressures, to be the determinants of one's actions.  But self-determination is more than a capacity, it is also a need.  We have posited a basic, innate propensity to be self- determining that leads organisms to engage in interesting behaviors.”

SDT suggests that intrinsic motivation is essential for a person to be self directed and a person's motivation could be located anywhere on a continuum from amotivation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, integrated regulation and intrinsic motivation. Therefore, it could be observed that there is a possibility that a person's motivation varies and needs effort to be sustained.

This is where the teaching will play a role. Training a person on the techniques and habits that can develop and sustain intrinsic motivation would be helpful in self-directed learning.

No, you cannot expect students to be self-directed. It is your job as a teacher to start a learning process where at the end they are able to learn for themselves without further instructions. Blended learning can help and give them tools to get to this point, but the specific mixture, the relation between instruction and self-direction is something you as a teacher has to balance.

We were discussing this very same issue at a training last week. The consensus was that we needed three main approaches to ensure that blended learning worked:

1. we needed to teach our students how to work with the technology (self-efficacy)

2. we needed to ensure that communication between lecturer and students was effective and so model the type of participation which was required

3. we needed to have a Code of Conduct/Practice setting out clear expectations

Fundamentally, the issue is that of creating a virtual reality which is challenging while supportive, and where all participating know what to expect as their contribution. I believe that self-determination might be something that a lecturer will want to develop or instil in their students, but it would depend on the type of students.

In my point of view, I will recommend Guided discovery learning method ,giving the students the opportunity for discovery learning. Guided discovery learning combines pointing the way to understanding or problem-solving by a guide with the discovery of facts, relationships, and solutions by students themselves, as they explore, manipulate objects, discuss, or perform experiments, drawing upon their own experience and existing knowledge. Guided Discovery Learning Dr. Robert A. Lavine

The role of the teacher at this point is to guide the students so that they don't go of the track . This method will help students to develop thinking ability through group interaction and develop their own understanding .

yes