One of my main reasons for taking this course was to learn more about blended learning and how it might be similar and yet different from online or distance education. What I have discovered is that many of the same issues such as learner engagement, alignment and quality control exist and many of the same methods to designing instruction are shared as well. Something that I sensed from earlier readings was the ease at which blended learning can be implemented in a traditional face to face setting, certainly when compared to realizing either online or distance education. This is especially so in educational institutions where more and more classrooms support connectivity and more and more students have connected devices outside of class. The course has simply confirmed this.
But it certainly seems apparent that designing blended learning instruction so that it is effective is no small challenge either. The course has given me at least an introduction to some of blended learning's current issues and challenges (measures of effectiveness and quality). It has also given me a deeper practical understanding of what is involved in realizing blended learning (via the adapting of a course that I am teaching now to blended learning). I think it has also given me greater confidence to assume a leadership role in following up on the recommendation that I made in my online and distance education feasibility study - namely to promote blended learning design because it is much more viable for the University College to do so.
I would also like to pursue blended learning design further. This became apparent after my recent reading of Arney's e-book "Go Blended" (n.d.). In it, Arney suggests that blended learning needs to be more than a way to promote effective technology integration in traditional education, that it has the capacity to realize what seems like something of a "Holy Grail" in education - differentiated or personalized instruction.
reviewwhat has been accomplished via DIY assignments
reviewwhat has been accomplished via weekly reflective writing
review Portfolio examples
complete portfolio
read Portfolio assignment
Purpose / Objective
The objective of the portfolio is to demonstrate you have mastered
the concepts to design a blended learning course. The portfolio
requirements are six core criteria based demonstrated through course
design artifacts and accompanying reflection statements. We highly
recommend you use the DIY projects in the BlendKit2016 course as the basis for the course design artifacts to be included in your portfolio.
If you are curious about those who will be reviewing your portfolio submission, please see the List of Portfolio Reviewers.
Method
For your course portfolio you should submit the following items:
1. Reflection Statement
Create, and submit as an artifact one substantive written reflection statement.
This statement should contain sections addressing each criterion in the rubric.
Course Expectations (clear start; online v. f2f; communication protocols; required materials)
Learning Objectives (course-level; unit-level; balance of higher order & lower order; student-friendly wording)
Learning Activities/Content (activities aligned with
outcomes; student-to-student; student-to-instructor; student-to-content;
content aligned with activities; content aligned with outcomes; media
content functional)
Learning Assessment (variety; impact on final grade; scoring criteria; grading communications; balance in/formal)
Taken as a whole, your reflection statement should describe the
overall organization of your course and make evident the connections
between face-to-face and online components, interaction, activities and
assessment.
Make sure your statement “connects the dots” between the course
components and any documents you submit to represent your course. Refer
to specific documents in your written narrative. Please don’t leave the
“connections” to our imaginations!
While your course design artifacts should stand on their own as much
as possible, the written reflection is your opportunity to reveal
anything about your design thinking that is not evident in your
documents.
2. Course Design Artifacts
Attach documents that represent the blended course you are designing
and that fulfill the criteria in the rubric. (You may submit multiple
files.)
Some items we might expect to see are your syllabus, course content, activities, and assessment plans.
If at all possible, your documents should be complete enough to
stand on their own in fulfilling the rubric criteria. However, you will
supplement them with the written statements in your reflection.
Again, you will find the BlendKit2016 DIY tasks (Links to an external site.) helpful
in creating your course design artifacts for this portfolio, and we
suggest strongly that you work on these tasks throughout the course so
that you will have less new work to do during the portfolio
submission/review period.
Portfolio Submission Directions, Template File, and Sample Submissions
Save your artifact files with a clear naming convention.
Specific file names should be used when addressing the file in your in your Reflection Statement.
Template/Checklist File(click to open) - This file is an optional resource to guide you through the expectations and grading protocol for the portfolio.
The
Week 5 DIY activity essentially asked me to assess what I still need to do to
make my proposed Blended Learning Course operational. Now I'm actually
currently teaching the Course and thus I'm really not in any position to apply
much of what it is that I'm proposing just yet. This may seem a bit of a cop
out but in fact, I have found applying the whole exercise to work on a course
that I'm currently teaching most instructive and may do the same with other
courses in the future. Now to get to the actual "doing" of
this, I found both checklists provided by Blendkit2016 designers to be
comprehensive and most helpful. Much of what I have listed is in large
part from these but in some instances is adapted or perhaps interpreted
slightly different by me.
However, I thought there was one major omission. Noticeably absent was any
focus on learning more about students - to build some sort of a general
student profile. By this I mean knowing more about students background,
motivation etc. in effect building a sort of student profile. This information
would be beneficial in guiding me in the design of instruction. To make this
more clear, the absence of such information increases the risk of me making
potentially incorrect or false assumptions about my students when designing my
blended learning instruction The more that I can know about my students, the
more likely I am to be successful in designing materials, and interactions that
are meaningful and purposeful for them. This is certainly not feasible to do
for each student, but is important enough to help support student interest and
motivation in such course design. Such an exercise also ensures that students
are at the focus of my instructional design and not actually "just"
administration or management. This would apply for any course whether it be in
a face to face, fully online or blended setting.
I noticed that there is still a tremendous amount of work remaining to help
make this happen, especially on the "online aspect". Notable here is
the need to create and design online resources that will be engaging for
students yet also producing meaningful data on students such that I can learn
just what students have been learned. This is an area - learning analytics -
that I would actually relish looking at in more depth. The exercise also draws
to my attention the need to really carefully review the alignment of all
modules with learning outcomes to "increase the chances" of their
efficacy and effectiveness. Background
Will target my current POTB COL 140 course at Zayed University for blended learning.
POTB attempts to take the current regular COL 140 - English Composition 1
Course that is given over a regular 15 week period and to compress it
into 7 weeks. This puts significant pressure on students (and me the
instructor) to cover the same material / syllabus but over a
much shortened time frame. The use
of blended learning strategies may permit students to engage with course
concepts more frequently, in a manner that is more engaging, and at a
time and place more convenient to them (outside of class).
Interactive strategies (tools) that I am likely to use
real time collaborative document / lesson plan (etherpad - example, Google doc)
interactive video + reading comprehension, sentence writing (Edpuzzle - example)
vocabulary development (combination of Google form - to collect student written definitions; Quizlet - taking student written definitions to author a Quizlet); test via Blackboard Quizzes (using Question pools)
Our final week’s development tasks are deceptively simple. In a
nutshell, you’re going to finish developing your blended learning course
and get ready to teach it. This is not something you
are likely to accomplish in one week! However, you can certainly make a
personal to-do list of items you decide that you need to complete prior
to the beginning of your course. To that end, we’ve provided a couple of
tools to help you get started:
Blended Course Implementation Checklist [pdf file; size=101kb]
This is actually three checklists in one! Divided into Before the
Course, During the Course, and After the Course sections, these to-do
items should be a good starting point for you to create your own set of
action items. While the items provided are based upon lessons learned
from many blended learning courses, only you can decide the items that
are important to you.
Blended Course (Self-Assessment)/Peer Review Form [pdf file; size=1.3MB]
There is no substitute for collegial dialogue with other instructors to
get ideas to improve one’s teaching, regardless of modality. However, we
offer this review form to you to share with a trusted colleague in the
hope that it may facilitate such a helpful conversation. Most of the
criteria included focus upon course design, but one additional section
is provided on items that can only be observed once the course is
underway. We suggest that you invite your trusted colleague to visit
both the face-to-face and online portions of your blended course at some
point during the academic term. You might also find it helpful to use
this form as the basis for a self-assessment prior to teaching your
first blended learning course. The form may be completed electronically
or printed for completion by hand.
Reflections
This took an incredible amount of time to complete - much more time then I ever anticipated. What made it difficult? The nature of the course that I'm hoping to adapt for Blended Learning. The course is COL 140 POTB (part of Term B). Essentially it is taking the regular COL 140 and trying to accomplish all of the same objectives but in half the time. What I find myself trying to do is find ways to maximize student / teacher contact time (not lecturing) so that I meet the needs of students both in and outside of class and in a short time. This means shifting more activities to be done individually for completion "outside of class" and then using this work for follow up discussion as a class or in small groups while "in class".
Complicating things is the nature of the assignments in the Course and course objectives. Focus is on Summary Paragraph writing for one part of it. Here the focus is on in-depth comprehension of a reading, in-text citations, identifying the topic and main ideas, and paraphrasing to improve comprehension.
The other focus is on learning about and practicing to write paragraphs in different rhetorical modes. While many of the same skills required to complete summary paragraph are needed here as well (paraphrasing, comprehension), the real focus is on organizing ideas, and using compare and contrast syntax. So as a result, each of these "parts" acts as a module yet it may not be possible for students to complete these modules one after the other but instead they may be required to complete them concurrently. Thus the example that I have completed ONLY represents one module - compare and contrast paragraph - which students would be expected to complete concurrently with the summary paragraph. One saving grace is that teaching / learning about the summary writing paragraph part would only really need to be taught once and then repeated .. thus reinforcing the process. This would make it easier to complement the rhetorical paragraph Assignments.
Background
Will target my current POTB COL 140 course at Zayed University for blended learning.
POTB attempts to take the current regular COL 140 - English Composition 1
Course that is given over a regular 15 week period and to compress it
into 7 weeks. This puts significant pressure on students (and me the
instructor) to cover the same material / syllabus but over a
much shortened time frame. The use
of blended learning strategies may permit students to engage with course
concepts more frequently, in a manner that is more engaging, and at a
time and place more convenient to them (outside of class).
Interactive strategies (tools) that I am likely to use
real time collaborative document / lesson plan (etherpad - example, Google doc)
interactive video + reading comprehension, sentence writing (Edpuzzle - example)
vocabulary development (combination of Google form - to collect student written definitions; Quizlet - taking student written definitions to author a Quizlet)
Goal - to articulate your strategies for a well-integrated (face-to-face +
online) blended course and to produce modules (i.e., HTML pages that
present content, provide access to assignment instructions you created
last week, or both) for uploading to the online portion of your blended
learning course.
Create Module Pages (Links to an external site.)
[pdf file; size=758kb] - This document provides step-by-step
instructions for creating your module pages and includes an example
module. The following files will be useful to you in completing the
steps contained in the above document:
Module Template (Links to an external site.)
[docx file; size=12kb] - To get you started on your module, this is a
template page you may use to create your module document. Feel free to
modify this page to fit your course needs.
Good exercise.. Demanded a detailed review of assignments. I had to rationalize their nature, sequence, and design ... especially as to how they built upon one another and addressed the learning objectives as stated in my course blueprint and module design sequence. To do this correctly, would require a great deal more time then I was in a position to give. The iterative nature of this activity that the Blendkit 2016 - Chapter 3 materials eludes, certainly becomes evident. I have also come to realize just how rich and powerful the interactive video strategy that I have only recently discovered and implemented is going to be. This assignment opened my eyes to this. It also forced a more detailed examination about how it can best be administered.
Note that I can also see tremendous value in using webbased screencasts to show students (especially second language learners) how to get started on a project or assignment - whether that is in a face to face or online context. The multi modal nature of them plus the 24/7 access to them helps make instructions so much more clear to students and at a time and place of their convenience. As a result, I have begun to experiment with recording any "how to" (demonstrations) that I have done in class. I have also the luxury of seeing when and how frequently they are being used. Student response to them is almost always excellent too.
I also wanted to note the pragmatic side of using objective based quizzes. They certainly have the capacity to lighten an instructor's marking load albeit typically for low level cognitive skills (though the examples presented in the Effective Assessment Examples article seem to suggest that this not always be the case - worth a follow up). But what I find such quizzes are especially useful for is how they better support trial and error than when done via an in the class activity. However, I've also come to learn the need to design these in such a way that they do NOT support random guessing. I have found that I can do this by only giving students access to a final score of a quiz .. so they are not clear as to which questions they got incorrect. The quiz also needs to be based on a battery of questions thus giving students a chance to redo the quiz but with little likelihood of getting the same questions. It should also be set up to support a minimal mastery rate (e.g. 80%). I have found that the strategy promotes frequent use of an online quiz and as a result, the quiz in effect becomes more than an instrument for collecting scores, but a learning activity in itself.
Background
Will target my current POTB COL 140 course at Zayed University for blended learning.
POTB attempts to take the current regular COL 140 - English Composition 1
Course that is given over a regular 15 week period and to compress it
into 7 weeks. This puts significant pressure on students (and me the
instructor) to cover the same material / syllabus but over a
much shortened time frame. The use
of blended learning strategies may permit students to engage with course
concepts more frequently, in a manner that is more engaging, and at a
time and place more convenient to them (outside of class).
Interactive strategies (tools) that I am likely to use
real time collaborative document / lesson plan (etherpad - example, Google doc)
interactive video + reading comprehension, sentence writing (Edpuzzle - example)
vocabulary development (combination of Google form - to collect student written definitions; Quizlet - taking student written definitions to author a Quizlet)
Create Assignment Instructions [pdf
file; size=102kb]For each graded assignment through which you will
assess student learning, use this process to create written assignment
instructions to share with students.
Configure Online Quizzes [pdf
file; size=78kb]Online quizzes are one of the most common assessment
methods employed in blended courses. If you decide to employ online
quizzes in your blended course, use this checklist to work through the
logistics of setting up your online quizzes.
Revise Course Blueprint, Syllabus, and other course documents as
appropriate.As you work through the logistics associated with your
online quizzes and other graded assignments/assessments, you may find
that you want to adjust your original plans as articulated in your
earlier documents. Revising them will allow you to stay focused on
designing one, consistent whole.
Reflections
It's not entirely clear to me if the "Module Interaction Worksheet" is to be completed separately or is to be used to inform the refinement / revision of the "Detailed Module / Course Schedule". I've chosen to do the later because I found it more useful. I've also included the course expectations doc and the weekly schedule. All very useful. The module interaction worksheet forced me to make a detailed review of how the various interactions that I hope to include would be tied directly to the course objectives and specific in-class activities. The basic premise in my design was to take what is a highly unusual course - essentially condensing a regular 15 week course into 7 weeks. I've looked at Blended learning as a way to extend the classroom time, to increase the level of interaction students have with course concepts, and thus hopefully improve their chances of success. However, I confess that it would certainly be a demanding course and only those students who attended to all of these assignments would benefit from it.
Background
Will target my current POTB COL 140 course at Zayed University for blended learning.
POTB attempts to take the current regular COL 140 - English Composition 1
Course that is given over a regular 15 week period and to compress it
into 7 weeks. This puts significant pressure on students (and me the
instructor) to cover the same material / syllabus but over a
much shortened time frame. The use
of blended learning strategies may permit students to engage with course
concepts more frequently, in a manner that is more engaging, and at a
time and place more convenient to them (outside of class).
Interactive strategies (tools) that I am likely to use
interactive video + reading comprehension, sentence writing (Edpuzzle)
Creating Course Document Drafts: Schedule, Syllabus, and Protocols: Instructions, examples, and templates [pdf file; size=144kb]
Draft these course documents with an eye toward how interaction will
take place throughout your course. Within the instructions are example
course documents and links to blank templates for creating your own
pre-web course documents.
Module Interaction Worksheet: [Word doc; size=33kb]
While the course documents above will reflect your intentions for
interaction in general, this worksheet will allow you to think through
the interactions in one module (e.g., one week). You may continue the
process for as many modules/weeks as you like.
Reflections - Where is the student in all of this?
While
I enjoyed the practical nature of the exercise and I am sure to benefit
from it (I'm seriously looking at ways to adapt the current COL 140 -
POTB course that I teach for blended learning) I did not feel that it was near enough to help ground and conceptualize a blended
learning course. Why? Because I could not help but note how one of the
most important elements to conceptualizing any course - creating a detailed student profile - was absent. I thought this was a significant
omission. Just by doing this, I feel we ensure that whatever we design is
focused on the student and increases the likelihood that our efforts
are driven by student need. Failing this .. it risks becoming an
intellectual exercise.
Plan for completing Week 1 - DIY
read Week 1 - DIY assignments
review reading
review my notes
review examples
complete Week 1 - DIY assignments
read Week 1 - DIY assignments
Course Blueprint: Blank template with instructions [Download docx; Download doc] Makes evident the existing design of your course along with any gaps.
Think of the Blueprint as a working draft. Use it to guide your
thinking about other development tasks in the weeks ahead.
Mix Map: Blank template with instructions [Word doc; size=45kb] Completed sample [pdf file; size=24kb] Allows you to begin making decisions about what will happen face-to-face
v. online v. in-between in your blended learning course. There are
countless approaches to leveraging the component modalities. Just beware
of developing two parallel courses!
Will target my current POTB COL 140 course at Zayed University.
Background
POTB attempts to take the current regular COL 140 - English Composition 1 Course that is given over a regular 15 week period and compresses it into 7 weeks. This puts significant pressure on students (and me the instructor) to cover almost the same material / syllabus but over the much shortened time frame.
Requirements
Background of students
how did they get to POTB?
what are their interests / abilities?
food, fashion, shopping, family, weddings, travel
why / how can blended learning help - examine and note benefits
relevant benefits in applying blended learning to POTB are
to compensate for limited classroom spacetime, as well as a way to think differently about encouraging faculty collaboration.
as well as a way to think differently about encouraging faculty collaboration.
to infuse new engagement opportunities into established courses
offer students the conveniences of online learning combined with the social and
instructional interactions that may not lend themselves to online
delivery (e.g., lab sections or proctored assessments)
Blended learning is not simply adding an online component to a face-to-face course.
needs to be well integrated with the face to face component
make learning more interactive (more opportunities to "do" stuff .. and get feedback)
Questions to Ponder (before reading) After reading
Key take aways? Blended learning quality - says who?
What about online learning standards? Do they apply?
So what to do?
journal one's work
use formative and summative feedback on your efforts
invite peer review
and traditional ways to measure effectiveness?
Engage in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
References
Questions to Ponder (before reading)
How will you know whether your blended learning course is sound
prior to teaching it? How will you know whether your teaching of the
course was effective once it has concluded?
I would prefer to know more about the general nature / background of my students first - especially their interests, competencies. With these, I have a clearer idea as to how I might be able to fully motivate them. I am also fully aware how even with this, I'm forced to make some assumptions that will need to be checked once the Course has started. That translates into frequent surveys and/ or focus groups. Everything else that is part of planning a course is informed by this. This typically starts with a look at desired learning outcomes (typically driven by course stakeholders) and then the available learning resources (limitations on classroom access, timings, frequency). With these clarified, work can begin on designing instructional methods.
With which of your trusted colleagues might you discuss effective
teaching of blended learning courses? Is there someone you might ask to
review your course materials prior to teaching your blended course? How
will you make it easy for this colleague to provide helpful feedback?
Who would I trust to give me an effective review of my blended learning courses? Ideally this would happen with others who also have an understanding of what is involved in designing blended learning courses. I can realize much of this by making transparent much of the design work listed above - perhaps through Google docs of some sort of online portfolio.
How are “quality” and “success” in blended learning operationally
defined by those whose opinions matter to you? Has your institution
adopted standards to guide formal/informal evaluation?
Good question. How do we typically measure quality and success in any learning venture? Ultimately that can be seen in the scope and richness of the learning artifacts that learners produce as a result of the course methods .. and then a look at how well these align with the course's learning outcomes. The operative word here is "effectiveness" and then the problematic nature of measuring that effectiveness. It should actually be easier to do with blended learning now that more and more of the processes used can be made transparent to others.
Which articulations of quality from existing course standards and
course review forms might prove helpful to you and your colleagues as
you prepare to teach blended learning courses?
Not to elude the question but Quality is typically being measured in terms of "effectiveness" and "efficacy" and the discovering of both involves examining all of the variables that went into the design of the Course plus the learning artefacts .. but most important of all
"Did it change anything for the learner?"
How is that last point measured? Feedback from the learners. How to get quality feedback from learners? Surveys, an examination of the learning artifacts, focus groups. Also important will be alignment - checking to see that what we "teach" is driven by the desired "learning outcomes" .. and that this has been learned by the student as demonstrated by the "learning artifacts".
After reading
Key take aways? Blended Learning Quality - says who?
Still early innings on blended learning. By that I mean, there seems to be so little research on blended learning in general and especially on how to measure quality and effectiveness. Very problematic to try and identify what constitutes the best combination of online and face to face interactions. The same could be said for any instructional design - traditional face to face included. The article suggests that this may be partly due to the almost complete absence of any standards. (No surprise to learn) Attempts have been made to suggest what contributes to "quality" blended learning. Noted here is
rigorous learning assessment Picciano and Dzuiban, 2007)
responsiveness of learner characteristics (Skibba et al, 2014)
student engagement (Vaughan et al, 2014)
high quality faculty development (Dzuiban, Hartman and Mehaffy, 2014)
Important to note that the major issue with any set of standards is the risk of them becoming prescriptive. I think Thompson makes a real valid follow up point here when he notes that there may be a tendency for any standards that do exist, to be taken up and applied indiscriminantly by educators. Perhaps in their zeal to apply something to elevate the quality of their blended learning work, they are just grateful to find anything and thus may not take the time to critically evaluate such standards - especially in the current status (history) of BL. Yet it is clear that we need to be critical of any such standards in the current "exploratory" phase of blended learning. Key questions? How were any such standards arrived at? By whom? In what context?
What about online learning standards? Do they apply?
Because online learning has been subjected to much more scrutiny in comparison with blended learning, what research has been done here may hold some answers. Big surprise here was to read how such standards have emerged not from traditional educators but from for-profit companies. Perhaps this is motivated by the power of standards to attract the attention of educators and thus help market / promote their product (e.g. Blackboard's Exemplary Course Program). These are usually presented in the form of a checklist (e.g. CSU Chico's Rubric for Online Instruction, and Illinois Quality Online Course Initiative)
So what to do?
Journal ones own work.
Observe your work and attempt to identify your own standards. Check and evaluate. Experience is the best judge of this..
Use formative and summative feedback on your efforts
This involves soliciting students for feedback on any / all of your designed interventions as to student perceptions of their purpose and effectiveness - during the course or after a course ends.
Invite a peer to review your work
Invite one's Blended Learning peers (wherever to find these?) to
engage with my own review of my work and to critically challenge it. Invite peers to review resources, activities, assessment strategies, course structure and communication strategies. Essentially what I am hearing
here is the need to mobilize a community of practice that is focused on
"blended learning" where such communities become the incubator to
sharing ideas, and over time, help identify best practices. Perhaps
they also ascend to the lofty heights of creating a set of "minimum
guidelines" or even standards that most blended learning educators could
support.
And traditional ways to measure teaching effectiveness?
A teacher's effectiveness continues to be measured in how they make a difference to students and their quest to succeed. Factors that have been identified here include
organization of the course
knowledge of course material
ability to communicate clearly with students
frequency and quality of feedback to students
Engage in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Good quote.
Those of us involved with blended design will need to adopt the attitude of learners, examining our practices and seeking continually to improve based upon the most current information available. Perhaps this is done in dialogue with trusted colleagues. - Thompson
Hirtz, S., & Harper, D. G. (2008). Education for a Digital World: Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe. Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver and BC Campus, Canada. Retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/52
Picciano, A. G., Dziuban, C. D., & Graham, C. R. (2013). Implementation of Blended Learning for the Improvement of Student Learning. In Blended Learning: Research Perspectives. Routledge.
Thompson, K. (2005a). Constructing educational criticism of online courses: A model for implementation by practitioners. Retrieved from http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0000657
In what experiences (direct or vicarious) will you have students
participate during your blended learning course? In what ways do you see
these experiences as part of the assessment process? Which experiences
will result in student work that you score?
First of all ... what do we mean by direct or vicarious experiences? Direct seems to suggest that the student listen, digest and respond to a question with a direct (predictable or desirable response)... while vicarious suggests that the student do much the same but with a less predictable, more creative outcome (no less desired). The focus here in on experience. I would ideally seek to have students demonstrate an understanding of something through "direct" response and eventually encourage them to become more discriminatory in the use of a "concept" or "idea" with a more "vicarious" experience (one more authentic). The "direct" response would lend itself more to Formative assessment .. while the later would lend itself to being more Summative.
How will you present content to students in the blended learning
course you are designing? Will students encounter content only in one
modality (e.g., face-to-face only), or will you devise an approach in
which content is introduced in one modality and elaborated upon in the
other? What will this look like?
I've cheated a bit this time. Based on my interpretation of the readings, I should be presenting the course in modules and standardizing the way that I present each module (e.g. headings and subheadings) so that the student comes to know what is expected in each. I should like to design these so that online activities complement face to face activities and vice versa so students also become familiar with these processes and can then focus just on the tasks at hand (and not be burdened with having to learn a new approach or sequence). Would expect to invite students to view online an introduction to a concept .. perhaps reflect on it, then have them come to class where these ideas are presented in more detailed, then invite students to practice these concepts both in class and online (graduated in difficulty) and then as an instructor observe student online efforts to pinpoint general problems that can be discussed in class but then also work with problems individual students may be having.
Will there be a consistent pattern to the presentation of content,
introduction of learning activities, student submission of assignments,
and instructor feedback (formal and informal) in your blended learning
course? How can you ensure that students experience your course as one
consistent whole rather than as two loosely connected learning
environments?
I think I've already answered this question in my response directly above. Yes by trying to standardize the presentation, types of engagement and methods of review, I breed familiarity and comfort in students thus focusing their attention less on technology and more on the concepts to be learned.
How can specific technologies help you present content, provide
meaningful experiences, and pitch integration to students in your
blended course? With your planned technology use, are you stretching
yourself, biting off more than you can chew, or just maintaining the
status quo?
I can choose technologies that help provide students with the appropriate type of interaction that I'm seeking from them and at a time, manner and place that is most appropriate for them too. Case in point, how to invite students to write more frequently and get feedback more frequently so that they can begin to master writing? I do so by inviting them to use tech tools in class that invite them to write anonymously yet still get feedback at the early stages of their writing.... and then gradually move towards making their work more public as they are expected to move to making their writing "more public".
My notes
Seems to be stating the obvious but online work needs to be relevant to in class work and/or experiences .. and it needs to be perceived as such by the learners. In other words, "integrate online with face to face, so there aren't two separate courses". To do otherwise, invites the question from learners "Why are we doing this?" The pay back? Student should be able to be more engaged in the learning practice .. learning activities are not add ons but actually reinforce earlier presented concepts.
But how? Article seems to stress the importance of using a basic framework and repeating the use of it so students become more familiar with it and actually come to expect it. Recommendation? Present materials or topics in a module form and even structure each module in a consistent organizational manner .. so the focus is on the content of the module rather than on the need to relearn the organizational structure of a module each time (e.g. how it all fits together)
I've seen all sorts of methods for this.. I've even used a few of my own. This one was (and still is) used for introducing a "learning tool" for promoting targeted integration into a teacher's practice.
Introduction
What is it? (description)
Why bother? (rationale)
What's in it for me? (benefits, theory)
How can I realize those? (methods)
Obstacles (managing problems)
What others have said? (testimonials)
Your thoughts? (invite sharing of experiences - successes / failures; reinforcing or re-defining best practices)
References
Another more simple but so elegant framework is this one (currently being used to help in the design of a badge earning ecosystem).
Learn (acquire knowledge / understanding of a topic)
Do (practice applying / mastering the topic within a safe circle of learners / supporters)
Share (sharing the mastery with others outside a circle of learners; sharing the experience with peers)
There is a mention of Dee Fink who seems to echo the above with
plan for student encounter with content (learning)
participate in active experiences (do)
share personal reflections / experience (share)
Then there was the topic of learning activities for active learning (chart below). I reflected on the work that I've doing in COL 140 and which of these activities may already be in place.
I noticed how I was already involving students in direct experience of writing and responding to a prompt in a Basic Composition course that I teach, through the use of Today's Meet(sentence, short response), Padlet (paragraph response), and EdPuzzle (listen, learn, reflect, respond on short answer). Also noted was how the mobile learning project in the same course offered much more freedom to experience and apply what the student had learned to realize a something much more engaging and potentially authentic.
I have noticed how consistent use of these tools makes it easier for students to respond .. especially as they become more comfortable not only with using the tool but in how I use it to benefit them.
Closing point
I found much of this week's content was already somewhat familiar to me but that was also somewhat reassuring. Some of the key concepts - consistently using a design framework, keeping f2f and online activities relevant and supportive of one another - were already evident to me. What was perhaps helpful was the need to clearly identify the interaction between student and teacher if one hoped to stimulate a desired outcome. For example, the need for the teacher to be clear about the type of feedback to give.... if we are expecting a certain response to a question from a student. It seems so obvious and yet it needs to be stated.
Hirtz, S., & Harper, D. G. (2008). Education for a Digital World: Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe. Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver and BC Campus, Canada. Retrieved from http://dspace.col.org/handle/11599/52
