Getting started with blended, a presentation for NMSU
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Through an examination of the ten basic questions of blended course redesign, participants will reconceive their traditional face-to-face courses for blended teaching and learning. Participants will follow backwards design principles to design a course module, and will learn techniques for integrating face-to-face and online work, and apply them to their own courses. For experienced teachers, this workshop provides a new approach to design a course in order to overcome "course and a half" syndrome and better manage your workload. Friday, November 14th, 8:30am-11:30am
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Getting started with blended, a presentation for NMSU
- 1. Getting started with blended Tanya Joosten University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee tjoosten@uwm.edu @tjoosten slideshare.net/tjoosten
- 2. Overview
- 3. Process
- 4. Step 1: What is blended? What is blended? How is it different from face-to-face? Online? others? What are the similarities and differences with flipped? NMSU14.wikispaces.com
- 6. A scholarly definition At the 2005 Sloan-C Workshop on Blended Learning, the following was adopted by the participants and will serve as the accepted definition of blended learning for this paper: 1. Courses that integrate online with traditional face-to- face class activities in a planned, pedagogically valuable manner; and 2. Where a portion (institutionally defined) of face-to- face time is replaced by online activity [2]. (Picciano, 2006, p. 97).
- 10. Web-enhanced 0 - 20% Blended 21 - 99% Online 100% Blended 1 21 - 50% Online with commensurate reduction in seat time Blended 3 81 - 99% Online with commensurate reduction in seat time Blended 2 51 - 80% Online with commensurate reduction in seat time An institutional definition
- 11. Redefining blended • F2F Online • Low tech High tech • Active Passive learning • Integration Separaaration
- 12. A definition for students
- 13. Step 2: How is it different? What considerations do you have when transforming your course to blended? Specifically, What elements of your course design and your delivery will potentially change? NMSU14.wikispaces.com
- 15. Content
- 16. Interactivity
- 17. Assessment
- 18. • Ten questions • Designing learning modules • Online vs. F2F - Integration • Decision rubric for content choices • Learning objects Content • Progressive/summative • Before, during, and after • Self evaluation • Peer evaluation • Student evaluation Course Evaluation • Rubrics • CATs • Templates • Traditional formats Assessment • Synchronous/asynchronous • Establishing voice • Discussion forums • Small groups Interactivity • Managing expectations • Time management • Technology support Helping Your Students • Staying organized • Managing workload • Avoiding course and a half Course Management Course Redesign Transitioning to blended teaching Considerations
- 19. The 10 questions Review the 10 questions, NMSU14.wikispaces.com Consider which question you find most important, intriguing, problematic, or surprising? Pair with a partner, share which question you identified and your response in considering the question in your own course design. Share with rest of us one highlight from your discussion
- 21. Five issues in “perfecting” • “Course and a half” syndrome • Re-examining course goals and objectives • Building presence, enhancing connectivity, and building community • Community building • Managing your time and staying organized
- 22. Step 3: How to make it What considerations do you have when transforming your course to blended? Specifically, What elements of your course design and your delivery will potentially change?
- 23. Transforming your course Flickr cc sir_mervs
- 24. Redesigning your course using the 10 questions Tanya Joosten Learning Technology Center Department of Communication University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
- 25. Course details • Original course design – Organizational Communication, COM MUN310 – Original Design: Night classes, 3 hours app. • Course Transformation – Goal: To more effectively use valuable f2f time – Means: Focus on task requirements and medium selection – Experience teaching fully online and fully f2f – New Design: Reduced class time, 45% online, 55% F2F
- 26. Sample Module Wednesday Sunday Week 1 F2F Class -Agenda posted -Reading available online -Individual project task due Week 2 Online Class -Discussion post due -Discussion responses due Week 3 -Complete Weekly Quiz prior to class F2F Class -Targeted discussion from quiz results and discussion forum -Group project task due
- 27. What goes online? • Content Delivery – Acquire basic content (lecture and reading) – Assess understanding of basic content (discussion forums, rubrics, and quizzes)
- 28. Lecture formats
- 31. Content
- 32. What goes online? • Content Delivery – Acquire basic content (lecture and reading) – Assess understanding of basic content (discussion forums, rubrics, and quizzes)
- 34. Sample quiz
- 35. Sample online agenda • Thursday, Agenda Posted • Tuesday, Reading and Lecture • Tuesday, Initial Discussion Post • Wednesday, Response Post • Thursday, Quiz (prior to class)
- 36. What goes face-to-face? • Decreases students’ equivocality and uncertainty • Allow for instant feedback for understanding • Provide opportunity for higher order learning • Presentations of group work done outside of class
- 37. What goes online? • Building Learning Community – Online discussion questions – Group experiential learning activities (virtual labs)
- 38. What goes online? • Summative Assessment – Assess achievement of learning objectives for course (midterm and final exams)
- 39. What goes online? Content Delivery Acquire basic content (lecture and reading) Assess understanding of basic content (discussion forums, rubrics, and quizzes) Building Learning Community Online discussion questions Group activities Summative Assessment Assess achievement of learning objectives for course
- 40. Sample Module Wednesday Sunday Week 1 F2F Class -Agenda posted -Reading available online -Individual project task due Week 2 Online Class -Discussion post due -Discussion responses due Week 3 -Complete Weekly Quiz prior to class F2F Class -Targeted discussion from quiz results and discussion forum -Group project task due
- 41. What goes face-to-face? Decreases students’ equivocality and uncertainty Allow for instant feedback for understanding Provide opportunity for higher order learning Presentations of group work done outside of class
- 44. Keys to a successful transformation • TIP 1: Avoid course and a half • TIP 2: Promote online learning community • Tip 3: Plan for integration. • Tip 4: Don’t feel that you have to follow the traditional f2f scheduling format. • Tip 5: Assess both mediums, online and f2f. • Tip 6: Manage student expectations
- 46. Content delivery What is the task? What type of delivery is “best”? What technology is available to me? What skills do I have?
- 47. Lecture formats
- 48. Sample text only lecture
- 50. What lecture format did you prefer? Why? I preferred the standard ppt w/ notes because that was the easiest for me to access from my home computer and was the easiest to print out. I chose ppt form as don't need to be online all the time. And I can study the slides whenever i want to. It also has the option of outlines, which helps in studying.
- 51. More comments I can go at my own pace and re-read things I need to, otherwise skim things I don't need certain depth on. so you had to listen to the powerpoints and sometimes people just didn’t have the time, but could read them thoroughly and reference them better…we are online classes because we don’t have the time or access to sit through a lecture on a computer. But we could all work reading a really good powerpoint through into our schedules.
- 56. Tips on developing activities Focus on Building Learning Community integrating collaborative activities and asynchronous discussion forums Backward Design What should students know, understand, and be able to do? What will I accept as evidence of student understanding and proficiency? What activities will allow students to achieve this?
- 59. Backward Design •Introduced by Wiggins and McTighe in Understanding by Design (2005) •Instructors begin with learning goals and outcomes rather than activities •Effective in online and blended courses because students need more structure
- 60. Key Questions in Backward Design • What do you want your students to do (not just know)? • What evidence will you accept that they have accomplished that? • What learning activities will produce this evidence or documentation?
- 61. Why Use Backward Design? • Practice-oriented instead of abstract theory • Learning objectives linked to verifiable outcomes • Fosters an online peer learning community
- 62. What’s in a Learning Module? • A chunk of content • A learning activity • A mode of assessing student work
- 63. Planning using backwards design Identify Desired Results (DO): Be able to analyze and critique decision making processes Acceptable Evidence: Accurate written application of theory from the content given a decision making situation in determining what was effective and what was ineffective in the decision making process. Learning Experience: Students view video clips from Apollo 13 Students post analysis that integrates concepts from reading and lecture
- 64. Apollo 13
- 65. Step 3: How do we make it happen?
Notas do Editor
- Institutions need to find appropriate definitions of blended (and online) that facilitate the nature of the organization culture in order to facilitate acceptance of this innovative pedagogical model, assure consistent data collection and communicate effective with faculty/students. Additionally, traditional definitions of blended need to be re-visited since the emergence of new pedagogies and emerging technologies create paradigm shifts.
- Allen, Seamen, and Garrett (2007) define blended courses and programs as having between 30 percent and 79 percent of the course content delivered online.
- Institutions need to find appropriate definitions of blended (and online) that facilitate the nature of the organization culture in order to facilitate acceptance of this innovative pedagogical model, assure consistent data collection and communicate effective with faculty/students. Additionally, traditional definitions of blended need to be re-visited since the emergence of new pedagogies and emerging technologies create paradigm shifts.
- Active learning, student-center Engaged learning Research driven effective practices NICOLE For each delivery mode, there are pedagogical considerations to be made with regard to content delivery, interactivity, and assessment. The UWMLTC faculty development program and pedagogical consultations with our team guide instructors in making decisions about these considerations. Content Yes - text+images, current, video clips (under 10 minutes) Avoid video lectures, don’t spend to much time on audio lectures either Interactivity Create opportunities for participation, community, collaboration, and connectedness through online class discussions, group discusionss, team projects, team synchronous meetings Assessment Frequent low-stakes feedback, opportunity to fail, make corrections to learning Avoid catastrophic assessment Provide audio feedback, if appropriate Provide varied forms of assessments from cognitive, behaviors, affective domains
- Text plus images (Mean study) Rich, current (Web clips, videos, see Ginkgotree study)
- Social presence, group activities, thought-provoking discussion boards, interactive Introductions and Icebreakers Support and Sharing Scholarship Discussions Group Projects Feedback
- Frequent and low stakes Avoid Catastrophic Assessment Valid assessments http://assessment.uconn.edu/primer/taxonomies1.html
- Tie into what talk about with Content, Interactivity, and Assessment. Are faculty development program teaches faculty to design and delivery courses based on our definition of what a good blended or online course is around Content, Interactivity, and Assessment. In addition to that, we help them with course administration issues by addressing how they can support their students, manage their time and course, evaluating their course. This diagram reviews on a single screen all of the program features that have been described above. It is scarcely comprehensive, however, as we offer the program we discover changes and additions that are required. An example that provides case in point is the development of alternative modes of blended learning that focus on large enrollment courses. This has been a recent area of examination for which we have now produced a special module.
- Institutions need to find appropriate definitions of blended (and online) that facilitate the nature of the organization culture in order to facilitate acceptance of this innovative pedagogical model, assure consistent data collection and communicate effective with faculty/students. Additionally, traditional definitions of blended need to be re-visited since the emergence of new pedagogies and emerging technologies create paradigm shifts.
- To give you an idea of the course, my course is an upper level communication course that is taken primarily by communication majors, but it also fulfills a requirement for other programs, such as the organizational administration major in our College Connection program. The majority of my students are graduating seniors with a few juniors in the course as well. Now, when implementing any educational technology or model of teaching, I usually look to meet a need in the course. The problem with my f2f course was that it was a night course. My students would come to class unprepared. They hadn’t read the chapter or the articles. Sometimes they didn’t know what the topic was because they just hadn’t had time to get to the course reading or any of the preliminary assignment. Also, they were exhausted. Many of them had worked a long day, hadn’t had dinner, and wanted to go home to see their family. I needed to look for a way to make the f2f time more meaning and have my students come to the f2f prepared. So, my goal in transforming my class using a blended model was to better prepare my students for the f2f portion of the course by using online activities prior to the class and to better use their valuable f2f time for higher order learning, so that they could get home to their family and dinner and we could reach higher levels of learning rather than spending f2f time on didactic information. Sometimes when my students would come to class we would have to crack open the book and just go over the basic information in the chapter and I didn’t want to spend the f2f time doing that. Question 7 discusses the division of time between the face-to-face portion and the online portion of your course. I reduced our class time from 6-9:30, which is what it normally was, to 6-8 each week, so about 45% of the course was online. Now, this was a natural division that came based on my course design and deciding what could be accomplished online. So, this wasn’t a predetermined percentage. It was a natural division based on the course redesign. The first thing I thought about when designing my course using the blended or hybrid model was what was I going to do accomplish online and what was I going to accomplish f2f, which is the 2nd of the 10 questions.
- So, to recap, this is what a typical week looked like for my students. They received the agenda for the following week when they left class. They had the weekend to complete the reading and listen to the lecture with the initial discussion post being due on Tuesday at the latest. Then, they had to respond to at least on classmate no later than Wednesday, and they had to take a quiz prior to coming to class on Thursday.
- As I thought about my learning objectives, which would be better achieved online, and which would be best achieved face-to-face, I wanted my students to have a basic knowledge of the concepts and theories. I wanted them to start to be able to apply the theories in a given context and to critical analyze the theories and the phenomena. My students online work consisted of completing the assigned reading from the text, listening to or reading a lecture module, participating in a discussion that facilitates application of the course content, and completing a quiz on the course content before coming to the f2f session. Now, I will explain each of those learning activities in a bit more detail. In order for my students to have a basic knowledge of the concepts and theories, they needed to read and understand the chapter and the course content to some extent. Therefore, I assigned my students to complete their reading independently, which is the normal standard for most of us. However, I also assigned online lectures for the students to read or listen to. This lecture material was supplemental to the reading. I decided to no longer be the sage on the stage. I knew from teaching fully online that my students did not need to be f2f in order to understand my lecture material. It would be a better use of time if they could receive this didactic information prior to coming to class. Now, in determining to put the reading and lectures online, I had to focus on the task the students were completing and the learning objectives I wanted them to achieve. The content (in the reading and the lectures) was simple to understand for the most part, so I felt delivering it in a text-based form was acceptable. There were times when I felt the content was complex or ambiguous to students that I delivered it in the f2f or I used rich media, such as video clips, in order to convey the information.
- This is what my students see when they come to a unit. They have an agenda that tell them what reading they are supposed to complete and what the lecture topic is. As you can see here, my students are given 3 options for receiving the lecture material. They can download the PowerPoint file to their desktop and print the notes, they can view the PowerPoint and notes text online in their browser, or they can listen to the lecture and view the PowerPoint slides using a product called Breeze Presenter or Adobe Present. Most of my students prefer to simply print the notes and read them or they print the notes and highlight them as they listen to the lecture. But, they were given the lecture in alternative formats to whatever met their learning style.
- This is a sample text lecture. This was created right in PowerPoint. It is pretty low tech, which means it was easy to create and it is easy to support. I simply typed my lecture text in the notes box in PowerPoint and covered it to html. Students have little problems viewing these since .
- This is a sample of what the audio lecture look like. This again was created right in PowerPoint. I recorded voice narrations right in PowerPoint. I then used a product called Adobe Present or Breeze Presenter to create this flash-based interface. This is slightly more advanced than the text only, but it was still pretty easy for me to do. It does take some time to record the audio and to just get used to talking to a computer. But, because it runs in the browser, Internet Explorer, it is pretty easy for the students to listen to as well. They do not need any additional software. However, if they ever run into problems with the audio, their speakers, or bandwithd, they can always read the text version.
- Text plus images (Mean study) Rich, current (Web clips, videos, see Ginkgotree study)
- So, I talked about the first aspect of my course that was delivered in the online portion, which was the reading and lecture material, the basic content that they were going to acquire. Now, in addition to just having them read and listen to the lectures, I wanted to make sure that they completed those things, so I wanted to assess their understanding of the basic content in the online portion of the class before they came to the f2f. Many times in my f2f, I had a hard time gauging what my students did and did *not* understand. As question 3 outlines, blended teaching is not just a matter of transferring a portion of your traditional course to the Web. Instead it involves developing challenging and engaging online learning activities that complement your face-to-face activities. What types of learning activities do you think you will be using for the online portion of your course? After having them read and listen to the lecture, I use online discussion forums and quizzes to assess what information students did not understand and what was unclear to them. The discussion activities are for students to demonstrate what they have learned from the reading and apply the knowledge to given contexts. Also, students can use the discussion areas to get clarification from classmates or myself on misinterpretations or questions they have as well prior to taking the quiz. It is also an area where students can demonstrate their skills as a critical analyzer - break down the ideas, analyze the parts, and argue the scholar. In addition to the discussions, the quizzes are used to test students’ knowledge of reading and lecture, basic concepts and principles. The quizzes let me know that students completed reviewing the reading and lecture material and have a basic understanding of course concepts and ideas. I also used the quizzes to target weaknesses in their learning. I then use the information in the discussion forums and quizzes to guide our discussion in the f2f.
- Discussions help identify the concepts that students are struggling in their application in certain contexts. Here is an excerpt from a discussion that took place online where the students discuss not understanding systematic soldiering, a theoretical concept.
- Here is an example of a quiz and an example of the quiz statistics. The quiz allows you to target the concepts that students did not understand from the reading and lecture.
- So, to recap, this is what a typical week looked like for my students. They received the agenda for the following week when they left class. They had the weekend to complete the reading and listen to the lecture with the initial discussion post being due on Tuesday at the latest. Then, they had to respond to at least on classmate no later than Wednesday, and they had to take a quiz prior to coming to class on Thursday.
- Question number 5 discusses: How will the face-to-face and time out of class components be integrated into a single course? In other words, how will the work done in each component feed back into and support the other? Students come to class already having read chapters and/or articles; discussed these readings and lecture; and, taken a quiz on the material, so they are very familiar with the material, so the face-to-face sessions are more interactive being that everyone has some background knowledge. Areas that are unclear are evident to the students and myself from the discussions and quizzes. So, when examining what should go f2f, we want to integrate activities that require a rich communication medium. We want to use the f2f time for information that needs all cues available (verbal, nonverbal) to facilitate the meaning. Communicating face-to-face allows us to decrease students’ equivocality and uncertainty about course content. For example, we can clear up any misconceptions of reading and/or lecture material, which we identified in the online discussions or quizzes. As we saw in the previous post, systematic soldiering was difficult for students to understand. We can develop structured discussions on these misconceptions and/or other complex constructs present in the reading and lecture. Also, face-to-face communication allows for instant feedback for understanding. For example, when you introduce of new assignment or a change in class requirements, students may have questions that require immediate feedback for clarity. By students already coming to class with an thorough knowledge of content, it provides the opportunity for higher order learning. Student can discuss the content in more depth. Case studies, video analysis, simulations, role-playing in-class provides students with an opportunity to apply what they have learned in real-life situations. This capacity for higher order learning increased greatly in a blended course. Finally, f2f sessions can also be used as a forum for groups to present their work that they completed outside of class and online.
- Beyond the weekly grind, so to speak, there are some other things that are taking place online. Online discussions are more important to the course than simply an area where students can discuss the course content. Several years ago, I stumbled on the importance of building learning community and peer networks in my classes. Some students felt disconnected from their peers and their instructor in distance education classes, which lead to lower satisfaction and sometimes led to students drop the course. Other students who are first generation college students or minority students do not have these peer networks when entering college, so studies report that these students are likely to do poorly when they are unable to develop peer networks or learning community. In order to make sure that my students were connected to each and myself being that part of the course is online and to make sure our students have the relationships needed to succeed, I focused on building mechanisms in my course that would develop learning community. The mechanisms I used were online asynchronous discussion forums and group activities. Many times students in the f2f class, may chose to remain anonymous and not ask questions because they don’t want to look “stupid;” however, by having online discussions students have a sense of anonymity and can ask questions more openly. Also, the online discussions will facilitate relationships. Students tend to find peers with whom they can have a scholarly debate and are like minded. Students tend to get to know each other better in the online discussions than they may in the f2f class because of the lack of social cues. Group activities work in similar ways. Students are working in groups throughout the semester. Therefore, if they have a procedural or content question that they do not feel comfortable asking me, the instructor, they can ask one of their peers that they have build this network with through their group activities. In addition to group activities building online community, they provide students with an opportunity for experiential learning through mediated communication technologies. Many students will take positions where they will participate in team work and have to effectively collaborate through e-mail, discussions forums, and other technologies. Having them participate in group work online will better prepare them for their work life. Also, by putting group work online, the group process becomes apparent in the discussion posts. You can track their progress, offer timely advice and information, and identify social loafers. Previously, when you taught f2f, you couldn’t track a group’s progress as closely. It was sort of the black box phenomena. You gave them the instructions and then the process was invisible to you. You hoped they developed a product that was acceptable and met your expectations.
- Finally, I moved my midterm and final exams online. The course management system randomly pulls exam items for each exam generated. It also grades the exams and provides feedback. This greatly helps me manage my workload, and again, saves us time in the f2f class.
- The first thing I thought about when designing my course using the blended or hybrid model was what was I going to do accomplish online and what was I going to accomplish f2f. The problem with my f2f course was that it was a night course. My students would come to class unprepared. They hadn’t read the chapters or articles. They usually didn’t even know what the topic was. Also, they were exhausted. Many of them had worked a long day, hadn’t had dinner, and wanted to go home to see their family. By transforming my class using a blended model I was able to prepare my students for the f2f portion of the course by using online activities prior to class, and I was able to better use their f2f time, so that they could get home to their family and dinner. Beyond delivery basic content online, I use online discussion forums and quizzes to assess what information students did not understand. I also use online discussion, not only to assess what students understood from the reading and lecture, but I use them to build online learning community amongst students.
- So, to recap, this is what a typical week looked like for my students. They received the agenda for the following week when they left class. They had the weekend to complete the reading and listen to the lecture with the initial discussion post being due on Tuesday at the latest. Then, they had to respond to at least on classmate no later than Wednesday, and they had to take a quiz prior to coming to class on Thursday.
- Question number 5 discusses: How will the face-to-face and time out of class components be integrated into a single course? In other words, how will the work done in each component feed back into and support the other? Students come to class already having read chapters and/or articles; discussed these readings and lecture; and, taken a quiz on the material, so they are very familiar with the material, so the face-to-face sessions are more interactive being that everyone has some background knowledge. Areas that are unclear are evident to the students and myself from the discussions and quizzes. So, when examining what should go f2f, we want to integrate activities that require a rich communication medium. We want to use the f2f time for information that needs all cues available (verbal, nonverbal) to facilitate the meaning. Communicating face-to-face allows us to decrease students’ equivocality and uncertainty about course content. For example, we can clear up any misconceptions of reading and/or lecture material, which we identified in the online discussions or quizzes. As we saw in the previous post, systematic soldiering was difficult for students to understand. We can develop structured discussions on these misconceptions and/or other complex constructs present in the reading and lecture. Also, face-to-face communication allows for instant feedback for understanding. For example, when you introduce of new assignment or a change in class requirements, students may have questions that require immediate feedback for clarity. By students already coming to class with an thorough knowledge of content, it provides the opportunity for higher order learning. Student can discuss the content in more depth. Case studies, video analysis, simulations, role-playing in-class provides students with an opportunity to apply what they have learned in real-life situations. This capacity for higher order learning increased greatly in a blended course. Finally, f2f sessions can also be used as a forum for groups to present their work that they completed outside of class and online.
- Here is an example of a quiz and an example of the quiz statistics. The quiz allows you to target the concepts that students did not understand from the reading and lecture.
- I have a few tips to help you with your course redesign based on my own challenges that I encountered. TIP 1: Avoid course and a half Use Backward Design from McTeague and Wiggins from the beginning of your planning rather than as an afterthought to make sure yor are connecting each learning activity to a learning objective. If an activity overlaps another or does not link to a learning objective, get rid of it. The first time I taught the blended course, I realized that I had overloaded it with activities. My students were completing a “course and a half.” Many faculty whom we interviewed for our book chapter reported they had a similar experience even though we told them in the faculty development workshop this could happen in their redesign process. Do not “pack on” activities to make your course more rigorous. Do not keep your current f2f course and simply “add on” some online activities. Are your learning objectives being met based on the activities you are having them complete? Referring to questions 1 and 10 will assist you in rethinking your learning objectives and planning to avoid course and a half. 1.) What do you want students to know when they have finished taking your blended course? 10.) There is a tendency for faculty to require students to do more work in a blended course than they normally would complete in a purely traditional course. What are you going to do to ensure that you have not created a course and one-half? How will you evaluate the student workload as compared to a traditional class? TIP 2: Promote online learning community I cannot mention this enough. In developing your learning activities, consider ways that you can focus on creating opportunities for interaction and collaboration amongst the students and implement the use of asynchronous discussion for completion of the activity. Groups and discussion forums are two primary ways to provide a means for students to build these peer networks. Also, consider how your learning activities can be engaging for students. The research indicates that peer networks are directly linked to the success of first generation college students and minority college students. Also, students are more satisfied when they feel they are “a part” of something. For example, many students come into the college setting without having knowledge of the college experience or the” ins-and-outs” since their parents did not attend college. Giving them the opportunity to build these networks through class activities gives them linkages to important information and partners in learning that can assist them in succeeding. Students in the online medium can become disengaged if all they are doing is reading and taking exams. The blended model lends itself to active learning online. The online medium offers new opportunities to engage them by using interactive content, providing active learning, integrating rich media, and using frequent, low stakes assessment. Have students interact with the content by having them pull information from web sites or other online resources into their online discussions (something you can’t have them do in the f2f). There are also digital activities that they can complete online like crossword puzzles, flash cards, and other digital games (e.g., Study Mate, Hot Potato) that allows them to learn basic concepts in an engaging manner. Video clips from YouTube or your own video collection can provide them with a better understanding of course concepts and can be loaded into the course management system for easy access. Since you are meeting f2f less, providing students engaging ways to learn online increases their learning and their satisfaction. Questions 3 and 4 of the 10 questions will assist you in getting thinking about your activities. Remember, focus on building online learning community and engaging activities. 3.) Blended teaching is not just a matter of transferring a portion of your traditional course to the Web. Instead it involves developing challenging and engaging online learning activities that complement your face-to-face activities. What types of learning activities do you think you will be using for the online portion of your course? 4.) Online asynchronous discussion is often an important part of blended courses. What new learning opportunities will arise as a result of using asynchronous discussion? What challenges do you anticipate in using online discussions? How would you address these? Tip 3: Plan for integration. How will the online tie into the f2f and vice versa? There was a disconnect the first time I taught the course. Integration was something that I thought would come naturally. If you don’t integrate the two mediums, students feel that one is less important than the other. For instance, I had planned that the online prepared my students by giving them a foundational knowledge of the content, so we could perform higher order learning in the f2f. The content area of the online and the f2f were the same. However, I did not plan any specific integration activities to tie the two together. My students felt that the online portion was “busy” work and could not understand how it tied into what we were doing in the f2f. The next semester, I brought online quiz results into the f2f and use them to structure our f2f discussion. It allowed me to provide “just in time” teaching and target their weakness in learning. I also pulled discussion posts that I thought indicated there was a weakness in learning that we needed to address or that highlighted key points. By bringing online discussion posts and online quiz results into the f2f class, the students felt that both environments were connected and equally important. Question 5 of the 10 questions specifically addresses integration 5.) How will the face-to-face and time out of class components be integrated into a single course? In other words, how will the work done in each component feed back into and support the other? Tip 4: Don’t feel that you have to follow the traditional f2f scheduling format. You don’t have to still meet every class period for a reduced time or even meet every week. Where do the content and activities lend themselves to meet f2f? In my traditional, f2f course, we met one night a week for several hours. The first time I taught my blended course, I thought that I should still meet every class period, but just for a reduced time period. I realized that it didn’t provide the flexibility students needed because they still had to spend the same amount of time and cost driving and parking. The next semester, we only met on half of the days we were scheduled to. The students and myself were much happier with the schedule. Also, the time in between the f2f meetings allowed more time to complete work online. It seemed more relaxed and less stressful. It helped me better manage my workload and stay organized and my students felt the same. In another course, we didn’t meet for several weeks in the beginning while we worked on learning several foundational theories online, then we picked back up with the f2f meetings for the practical and experiential portion of the course. Question 7 gets one thinking about how this will look for his or her hybrid or blended course. Question 7 states, how will you divide the percent of time between the face-to-face portion and the online portion of your course? How will you schedule the percent of time between the face-to-face and online portion of your course, i.e. one two hour face-to-face followed by one two hour online session each week? Tip 5: Assess both mediums, online and f2f. How are you assessing the f2f work? Is it more than attendance? The first time I taught the course, I implemented new low stakes grading for the active learning that was taking place online and had little assessment surrounding what was taking place in the f2f. My online assessment plan was very detailed focusing on online discussions, quizzes, group projects, exams, but the f2f portion was lacking greatly giving students the idea that the f2f was less important. Build f2f learning activities into your assessment plan (e.g., CATs, Case Studies, Simulations, etc). Question 8 of the 10 questions addresses this issue. 8.) How will you divide the course grading scheme between face-to-face and online activities? What means will you use to assess student work in each of these two components? Tip 6: Manage student expectations The first time I taught the course, student support was an afterthought. I quickly realized that unless I want to answer the same question 25 times over e-mail, I better identify the areas where my students need support. Remember, blended learning may be as new for your students as it is for you. They will have anxiety and uncertainty about the new mode of delivery of this course. Take some steps to reduce those feelings. Specifically, I focused on managing student expectations in regards to blended learning: What is blended learning? Why is blended learning beneficial? What are your responsibilities as an blended student? Also, I wanted to find ways to help students become familiar with the course and the technology. I provided them with help sheets, a scavenger hunt, and contact info for tech support. By providing these resources, I was better able to manage my time since I spent less time responding to e-mail. Questions 6 and 9 address supporting students. 6.) When working online, students frequently have problems scheduling their work and managing their time, and understanding the implications of the blended course module as related to learning. 9.)Students sometimes have difficulty acclimating to the course Web site and to other instructional technologies you may be using for face-to-face and online activities. --- I hope you find these tips useful and understand why the 10 questions are so important to a successful course transformation into the blended mode. TIP 1: Avoid course and a half TIP 2: Promote online learning community Tip 3: Plan for integration Tip 4: Don’t feel that you have to follow the traditional f2f scheduling format Tip 5: Assess both mediums, online and f2f Tip 6: Manage student expectations
- Tell communication story regarding “all cues available” Focus on the task – simple content, text only is fine -- more complex content, may need rich digital media (audio, video) Technology – software/hardware – can your home PC do video editing, nope – LTC resources Skills – do I know Microsoft Producer – can I learn it – how long will it take to learn it – who will teach me My journey 1.) started of with PowerPoints with text notes – like a transcript 2.) partially converted PowerPoints to audio PowerPoints – now had software and skill 3.) finished converting PowerPoints to audio PowerPoints – had more time 4.) converted to podcast lectures – automatic delivery (easier for some students)
- This is what my students see when they come to a unit. They have an agenda that tell them what reading they are supposed to complete and what the lecture topic is. As you can see here, my students are given 3 options for receiving the lecture material. They can download the PowerPoint file to their desktop and print the notes, they can view the PowerPoint and notes text online in their browser, or they can listen to the lecture and view the PowerPoint slides using a product called Breeze Presenter or Adobe Present. Most of my students prefer to simply print the notes and read them or they print the notes and highlight them as they listen to the lecture. But, they were given the lecture in alternative formats to whatever met their learning style.
- This is a sample text lecture. This was created right in PowerPoint. It is pretty low tech, which means it was easy to create and it is easy to support. I simply typed my lecture text in the notes box in PowerPoint and covered it to html. Students have little problems viewing these since .
- How do I keep them engaged and develop social presence? This is a sample of what the audio lecture look like. This again was created right in PowerPoint. I recorded voice narrations right in PowerPoint. I then used a product called Adobe Present or Breeze Presenter to create this flash-based interface. This is slightly more advanced than the text only, but it was still pretty easy for me to do. It does take some time to record the audio and to just get used to talking to a computer. But, because it runs in the browser, Internet Explorer, it is pretty easy for the students to listen to as well. They do not need any additional software. However, if they ever run into problems with the audio, their speakers, or bandwithd, they can always read the text version.
- This is a sample of what the audio lecture look like. This again was created right in PowerPoint. I recorded voice narrations right in PowerPoint. I then used a product called Adobe Present or Breeze Presenter to create this flash-based interface. This is slightly more advanced than the text only, but it was still pretty easy for me to do. It does take some time to record the audio and to just get used to talking to a computer. But, because it runs in the browser, Internet Explorer, it is pretty easy for the students to listen to as well. They do not need any additional software. However, if they ever run into problems with the audio, their speakers, or bandwithd, they can always read the text version.
- Was difficult at first to rethink the entire course to determine what would be effective online. Had weekly discussions and lectures as I did in the f2f, but didn’t feel the “connection.” Without the connection, I felt as if I was cheating my students and myself out of a quality online experience. I realized that I needed to redesign my learning activities and assessment plan to have that “connection” or online learning community. Found backward design model (McTeague and Wiggins) very useful in doing that. My journey: I re-examined my learning objectives – and focused on the online medium I identified what would be considered good documentation or evidence in an online environment that these objectives were achieved Then, I planned my learning activities – focusing on collaborative activities that utilized the asynchronous discussion forums (so I could “see” the progress when students fell off track, had misconceptions, and identify weakness in their learning – could not do this in f2f so well) -- resulting in peer networks to build an online learning community and increase students opportunity for success in this new medium
- Design a learning module