Evaluation of quality is difficult for an online class and nearly impossible for a blended course. There are so many moving pieces to the puzzle. Typical rubrics are a snapshot in time of how the course is put together. This does pose a challenge for blended courses because the quality of the course can improve or degrade depending on the instructor and the students. If the instructor is highly engaged the students may be more engaged. If something happens to the instructor to make him or her less attentive the students may pick up on that and become disengaged. If the school's basketball team makes it into the Final Four, it may distract students while they are in the middle of their studies or the instructor while he or she is preparing for the next face-to-face meeting. There could be some judgement at the end of the course, but only the instructor and students have been through the entire class and each has his or her own bias as to course quality.
I like the author's suggestion about the instructor completing a journal throughout the semester and jotting down goals and the results of those goals to determine if they were realistic for the next time through the class. It is easy to forget between semesters how much time was spent in grading a certain activity and how much time to allot for the same or similar activities in future semesters.
Friday, April 3, 2015
Week 4 - Blended Content and Assignments
"How can specific technologies help you...pitch integration to students in your blended course?" (Kelvin Thompson, Ed.D.(editor). BlendKit Reader v2 (Kindle Locations 1027-1028). Kindle Edition.) When I first read this I was not sure what the authors meant, but I think it is referring to getting students to buy into the fact that the online components of the class have value and are an integral piece of the class, not just an opportunity for the instructor to not show up in the classroom.
Consistency between the face-to-face components and the online components of a blended course is a challenge. I believe one of the factors is that it is often difficult to know in advance exactly how much of the content will be covered in the face-to-face sessions because there are so many variables to consider and so many things that could go wrong that would require some extra time for assignments, etc.
I really appreciated "Table 2. Learning activity types with technology-integration ideas" (Kelvin Thompson, Ed.D.(editor). BlendKit Reader v2 (Kindle Location 1111). Kindle Edition. ) that shows a variety of learning activities that could be implemented. This would be a great resource for faculty who are trying to get to a certain objective, but who aren't sure what kinds of activities might be possible for students to do.
I was not previously aware of the National Center for Accessible Media, so that is something I plan to check out in further detail with future projects.
Consistency between the face-to-face components and the online components of a blended course is a challenge. I believe one of the factors is that it is often difficult to know in advance exactly how much of the content will be covered in the face-to-face sessions because there are so many variables to consider and so many things that could go wrong that would require some extra time for assignments, etc.
I really appreciated "Table 2. Learning activity types with technology-integration ideas" (Kelvin Thompson, Ed.D.(editor). BlendKit Reader v2 (Kindle Location 1111). Kindle Edition. ) that shows a variety of learning activities that could be implemented. This would be a great resource for faculty who are trying to get to a certain objective, but who aren't sure what kinds of activities might be possible for students to do.
I was not previously aware of the National Center for Accessible Media, so that is something I plan to check out in further detail with future projects.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Week 3 - Blended Assessments of Learning
Assessments of learning are either formal (resulting in a score that impacts the student's grade) or informal (to guide the learning activities). In online courses quizzes and exams and their validity is always a hotly debated subject, there is really not much difference in the blended learning realm.
Quizzes or exams that are automatically graded and "easy" for the instructor have a tendency to elicit cheating. Subjective analysis of assessments are more time consuming for the instructor, but are typically more difficult for students to cheat on.
I like the idea of a one sentence summary where students must be concise in explaining the who, what, where, why, when, how of the given unit. In addition to being done easily in an online discussion board, it could be easily sent as a Tweet at the end of a live class session. The summaries would be quite quick to read through (for a moderately sized class of less than 40 students) and would give the instructor a sense of the overall understanding of the concepts amongst students.
Much of the other content of this chapter (Chapter 3 of the BlendKit Reader) was not new to me. It is still good information, just not earth-shattering in my world.
Quizzes or exams that are automatically graded and "easy" for the instructor have a tendency to elicit cheating. Subjective analysis of assessments are more time consuming for the instructor, but are typically more difficult for students to cheat on.
I like the idea of a one sentence summary where students must be concise in explaining the who, what, where, why, when, how of the given unit. In addition to being done easily in an online discussion board, it could be easily sent as a Tweet at the end of a live class session. The summaries would be quite quick to read through (for a moderately sized class of less than 40 students) and would give the instructor a sense of the overall understanding of the concepts amongst students.
Much of the other content of this chapter (Chapter 3 of the BlendKit Reader) was not new to me. It is still good information, just not earth-shattering in my world.
Week 2 - Blended Interactions
Chapter 2 in the BlendKit Reader talks about the necessity of expert interactions with a student as part of the learning experience. I don't remember where I heard it first (somewhere in my teaching practicum coursework, probably) that good teachers teach students how to think like a professional in the field of study—great science teachers teach students to think like a scientist, English teachers teach students to think like a writer, etc. As I think about the teachers in my life that I consider to have had the most impact on my life, that idea holds true. Interactions between a student and an expert teacher are key to the learning experience.
There is also some need for student-directed learning so that students have an opportunity to discover on their own and fuel the fire of their intrinsic motivation.
John Seely Brown's atelier model of learning (an artist's studio model) reminds me of the benefits offered to classrooms by a flipped teaching model where students are allowed to work at their own pace and the instructor serves as a facilitator to point out "innovative approaches" and encourage students to do their very best work. I like this, partly, because there is an obvious opportunity for the instructor to learn something new, as well.
Curtis Bonk's idea of Concierge Learning doesn't particularly sound like a good approach for me personally, but I can see how some instructors could use this method quite effectively. With so much information readily available it would be fairly easy to allow students to explore information they can find and provide some minimal guidance as to better and best sources of information.
Blended learning is the best of both worlds: expert directed learning with an opportunity for students to choose their own path of how they will take the next step. There can be lots of flexibility because the learning environment goes from a 1:many situation to a 1:1 situation.
The chapter also suggests to include an opportunity for students to introduce themselves on a discussion board at the beginning of class. We have used this technique in online courses and it has proven to assist in creating a "community" of learners and gives students an opportunity to learn the tools without also stressing about content for the first postings.
Students expressing their opinions on a discussion board can be very effective because it allows the students the opportunity to think about and carefully draft their opinion...if they want to do so. (I have seen plenty of discussion board postings where students just rushed through the posting to get it done and it was obvious that they were not any more engaged online then they might have been in the classroom.)
I like the concept of helping students to be comfortable expressing themselves in an online forum by carefully selecting meaningful assignments, being clear about the expectations, and providing quality samples of student work.
There is also some need for student-directed learning so that students have an opportunity to discover on their own and fuel the fire of their intrinsic motivation.
John Seely Brown's atelier model of learning (an artist's studio model) reminds me of the benefits offered to classrooms by a flipped teaching model where students are allowed to work at their own pace and the instructor serves as a facilitator to point out "innovative approaches" and encourage students to do their very best work. I like this, partly, because there is an obvious opportunity for the instructor to learn something new, as well.
Curtis Bonk's idea of Concierge Learning doesn't particularly sound like a good approach for me personally, but I can see how some instructors could use this method quite effectively. With so much information readily available it would be fairly easy to allow students to explore information they can find and provide some minimal guidance as to better and best sources of information.
Blended learning is the best of both worlds: expert directed learning with an opportunity for students to choose their own path of how they will take the next step. There can be lots of flexibility because the learning environment goes from a 1:many situation to a 1:1 situation.
The chapter also suggests to include an opportunity for students to introduce themselves on a discussion board at the beginning of class. We have used this technique in online courses and it has proven to assist in creating a "community" of learners and gives students an opportunity to learn the tools without also stressing about content for the first postings.
Students expressing their opinions on a discussion board can be very effective because it allows the students the opportunity to think about and carefully draft their opinion...if they want to do so. (I have seen plenty of discussion board postings where students just rushed through the posting to get it done and it was obvious that they were not any more engaged online then they might have been in the classroom.)
I like the concept of helping students to be comfortable expressing themselves in an online forum by carefully selecting meaningful assignments, being clear about the expectations, and providing quality samples of student work.
Monday, March 2, 2015
Week 1 - Understanding Blended Learning
Blended learning is a method of teaching that incorporates face-to-face (or live broadcast) and online course components. A well-planned blended learning course will take advantage of the best components of each teaching medium.
Face-to-face or live broadcast delivery allows students and instructors to interact with each other and to change the direction of a course based on the knowledge and experience of all persons involved. The learning experiences can be adapted to meet the needs or interests of the students.
Online course delivery allows participants to interact on a schedule convenient to each and allows for thoughtful responses that can be enhanced by outside resources and time to process the information. Students who are shy in a live classroom setting might be more willing to participate in an online environment. While students who generally talk a lot during class, may not be as likely to drive the conversation in an online environment.
We have a number of instructors at Utah State University who are developing courses to be delivered in a blended format. As I meet with them to help them plan their courses I am pleased to see them considering which activities would be better done in a live class versus an online class session, matching those activities to course objectives. Their intention is to prepare well thought out learning experiences for students to help students build on current constructs of knowledge and pursue new depth and potential.
Face-to-face or live broadcast delivery allows students and instructors to interact with each other and to change the direction of a course based on the knowledge and experience of all persons involved. The learning experiences can be adapted to meet the needs or interests of the students.
Online course delivery allows participants to interact on a schedule convenient to each and allows for thoughtful responses that can be enhanced by outside resources and time to process the information. Students who are shy in a live classroom setting might be more willing to participate in an online environment. While students who generally talk a lot during class, may not be as likely to drive the conversation in an online environment.
We have a number of instructors at Utah State University who are developing courses to be delivered in a blended format. As I meet with them to help them plan their courses I am pleased to see them considering which activities would be better done in a live class versus an online class session, matching those activities to course objectives. Their intention is to prepare well thought out learning experiences for students to help students build on current constructs of knowledge and pursue new depth and potential.
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