Friday, March 4, 2016

Week 2 - reading reactions (before / after reading)

Questions to Ponder (before reading the text)

  • Is there value in student-to-student and student-to-instructor interaction in all courses regardless of discipline?
      •  Likely .. especially on the topic of how relevant or authentic or important a given topic is in a course of study to the student. 
  • What role does interaction play in courses in which the emphasis is on declarative knowledge (e.g., introductory “survey” courses at the lower-division undergraduate level) or, similarly, in courses that cultivate procedural knowledge (e.g., technical courses requiring the working of problem sets)?
      • If by interaction we mean interaction with other students then I can see the importance of a student testing their meaning and understanding of what it is they've read or recently learned by applying those concepts to real life experiences, sharing those with their classmates and inviting others to share theirs and/or comment on one another's (invites chances to test and negotiate meaning, they are also involved in the "new" discourse of the topic too)  
  • As you consider designing a blended learning course, what kinds of interactions can you envision occurring face-to-face, and how might you use the online environment for interactions? What opportunities are there for you to explore different instructional strategies in the blended course than you have in the past?
    • What kind of interactions typically occur in a face to face situation? 
      • Q&A
      • short question and answer 
      • small group discussion and checking for understanding 
    • New opportunities in a blended course? 
      • Perhaps opportunities to "delay" the exchange, invite the student to have more time to reflect on their own point of view or understanding of something before they articulate it or share it with their peers. Face to face typically rewards those who can articulate themselves quickly while discouraging or drowning out those who are slower to answer .. yet are often no less capable of articulating a solid answer once they are given time to do so.
  • What factors might limit the feasibility of robust interaction face-to-face or online?
    • factors that might limit the robust interaction
      • cultural, social or political sensitivity 
      • student perception that if they open up .. it might be into an unsafe or unsupportive environment  
      • lack of "netiquette", fear of being flamed or bullied 

Monday, February 29, 2016

Week 1 - my notes from webinar

The Week 1 Webinar

with Dr. Glenda Gunter (edtech integration) & Dr. Beth Young (BL English instruction)


How has BL changed just in the past 10 years?

Dramatically .. much more social than it once was. New technologies such as Google Hangout are  making it easier to do so. As a result, online assignments can be made social.

Biggest challenges in BL?

Academic Integrity  (in other words - how to minimize cheating?)

  • Suggestion made by both speakers that perhaps academic integrity is no greater an issue with online assignments then it is with a face to face assignment. Solutions to managing it included creating question pools to help realize randomized Quizzes.

Deciding what to include (temptation to include too much)

  • Suggestion made to be critical about what is most important to include to cover course objectives. 

Making courses too intense (to overlook demands on student time to complete assignments)

  • Similar to "deciding what to include" there is a need to critically think about just how much time it will take for students to complete a given assignment. Choose assignments that make the most strategic sense for the student to learn with and/or demonstrate learning yet are not excessive in their demand for time.
From my own studies, we should encourage the design of assessment items so that they invite a student to incorporate material that has been covered in the course into the creation of something that helps them demonstrate their understanding / application of it .. Better yet design assessment so that it can be personalized so that it is meaningful to the student - make the assessment not just a vehicle for measuring how much they have learned but a valued learning opportunity for the student too

Common BL problems

  • not reviewing the curriculum ahead of time 
    • solution? need to be thinking in advance about which assignments best suit being flipped / done online and those that best suit being done face to face 
  • lack of organization about what is an online or face to face assignment and when it is due
    • solution? generate a course calendar and code assignments as either O (online) or F (face to face) so that it is clear to a student when an assignment is due and in what form it will take
  • confusion over feedback ... when is the feedback for an O (online) or F (face to face) assignment 
    • solution? make sure feedback is given in the same manner / mode as the assignment was originally presented  (e.g. O assignment = O feedback) 

Top tips

  • identify assignments that need significant explanation ... and be sure to make those face to face so it is easier for students to understand and ask clarification questions  
  • do things that cannot be done online or are best done in a face to face setting
  • do things that cannot be done in a face to face setting or are best done online 

 

Should the instructor give the students a time frame for when he/she will be online?

Difficult to define... but it is important to be aware of where students are at in the program and where one can anticipate students having problems. Suggestion made to set up some online office hours but from the experience of at least one presenter, these are not often used. Instead, one strategy that has worked is the set up of a virtual coffee shop .... to invite students to ask questions between one another. These should be monitored by the instructor and if student understanding appears to be "way off ".. then the instructor can catch it.. and then indirectly address the itme via a post in a regular discussion board (not in the virtual coffee shop itself).


Key resource 
BlendKit UCF. (2016). BlendKit2016 Session 01: Understanding Blended Learning. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DaOPX_8Ud8