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Blended by Design: Designing and Developing a Blended

CourseJennifer Strickland, PhD, jennifer.strickland@pvmail.maricopa.edu

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5-Minute University

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Program OverviewFormat

Hands-on, curriculum (re)design work

Team/individual work Binder resources http://ablendedmaricopa.

pbworks.com/ Evaluations & Assessments

Topics

Day 1: Blended learning overview and redesign

Day 2: Community & Quality

Day 3: Blended & Instructional Technology

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Learning Objectives Define blended learning in

higher education. Evaluate a blended

course’s strengths and weaknesses.

Design a module for blended delivery utilizing a blended module design tool.

Develop a plan for designing a blended course or redesigning an existing course as a blended course.

Explain the value of community in the blended course.

Identify quality assurance principles and practices in a blended environment.

Review and select instructional technology options for delivering blended courses.

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Today's Agenda Overview and

Introduction to workshop & resources

What is Blended and what does a blended course look like?

Benefits of a blended course

National & Local Data regarding Blended Learning

Course redesign strategies

Bloom’s Taxonomy and Six Innovative Course Redesign Practices

Mapping your course

Close

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Who are we? Facilitator Participants

Break into pairs What is your “signature”

teaching technique? Share

Day 1:An Overview of

Blended Learning and

Redesign

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Face-to-FaceCourse

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Getting from A to B

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What is blended learning?

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The 10 Blended Questions

As a Guide Throughout

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Motivation…

A way to meet Net Gen student expectations Attractive alternative

to Face2Face instruction

A good match for the Net Gen’s visual, exploratory, participative learning preferences

Usually more work to design (at least at the beginning), but improved student engagement and achievement

The best of both worlds

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The Optimal ModelTeaching Opportunities

Allows for many diverse solutions to course problems

Enables the incorporation of new types of interactive and independent learning activities

Variety of online and in-class teaching strategies

Learn technologies while you learn your material

Student Engagement

Potential to increase and extend instructor-student and student-student connectivity

Discussions started in class may be continued online

Students who rarely take part in class discussions are more likely to participate online

Integration of out-of- and in-class activities allows more effective use of traditional class time

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Faculty report that students…

Learned more Wrote better papers Performed better on exams Produced higher quality

projects Were capable of more

meaningful discussions on course material

Were better able to master concepts and apply what they have learned

Developed higher-order skills of critical thinking, problem-solving, and the ability to apply theoretical models to real-world data

Source: University of Central Florida Data, 2007

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National data reportsThe Sloan Consortium

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The Sloan-C Definition

What is Sloan-C? Blended learning courses combine online and

classroom learning activities and resources in an optimal way to improve student learning outcomes and to address important institutional issues.

Classroom attendance (“seat time”) is reduced.

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More on definitions…

What you call it is not important; but a defined and consistent model is

Blended learning as an optimized pedagogical approach, rather than an arbitrary time division between online and F2F

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New Skills: Rethinking Course Design

To develop a successful blended course instructors must Re-examine their course goals and

objectives, Design online learning activities to

meet these goals and objectives, and

Effectively integrate the online activities with the face-to face meetings

Make transition from lectures and presentation to a more student-centered active learning

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New Skills: Rethinking the Course

Facilitate online discussions and small group activities

New forms of assessment of student

Scheduling and communication challenges as courses meet online and face-to-face

Work overload for faculty and students

Students need understand their active role in the learning environment

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Potential PitfallsFundamental change in teaching and

learning Not just about the “delivery”Time to redesignChanges in campus policiesReliance on technology“Course and a half” syndromeTraining and support

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Why (re)design into blended?

Ensures your design facilitates your course Engage students in dynamic and vital communities Students take more responsibility for content and

learning Students learn through active participation and

inquiry

Assessing the Role of Teaching Presence from the Learner Perspective Dr. Randy Garrison, Dr. Norm Vaughan. Available at Blended Learning and Course Redesign in Higher Education &http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI07159.pdf.

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6 – 5 - 4

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6 Innovative Redesign Practices

Creating "Small" Within "Large" Undergraduate Learning Assistants (ULAs) Freshmen Don’t Do Optional Modularization New Instructional Roles Avoiding “Either/Or” Choices

http://www.thencat.org/PlanRes/Innov_CrRedPractices.htm

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5 Principles of Successful Course Redesign

1. Redesign the whole course.2. Encourage active learning.3. Provide students with

individualized assistance.4. Build in ongoing assessment

and prompt feedback.5. Ensure sufficient time on task

and monitor student progress.http://thencat.org/PlanRes/R2R_PrinCR.htm

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4 Basic Redesign Steps

1. Identify course content for a module

2. Write learning objectives and develop instructional modules

3. Select course (re) design strategies: determining which strategy is most appropriate for your course

4. Integrate course content activities in classroom and online environments: determining what is best suited in either the online or classroom environment

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Why Objectives? Clear statement of

what students will be able to do when they are finished with an instructional component

Focuses on student performance

Provides structure: beginning, middle, and end

What are the core concepts your students must learn for each module? What do they need

to know? What do they need

to be able to do? What will they

know as a result of my instruction?

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Support Objectives by

Integrating learning technologies Classroom technologies Emerging technologies Online resources

Developing diverse assessment techniques

Infusing active learning, interaction, and peer engagement

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Why Modules? Easier to find course content Support consistency Allows students to focus on content rather

than form Content becomes manageable Prevents information overload “7 +/-2 rule”

Source: Blending In, March 2007

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Meeting Objectives

Source: Blending In, March 2007

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Course Organization Dates Topic Readings Section Unit Module

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The Organization Course content broken

down into “chunks” Course structure in a

repetitive manner allowing for easy navigation

Content organized in conceptually related blocks

Consistent, logical, clear, common sense, apply past experience, let the content set the chunks

Source: Blending In, March 2007

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Bloom’s Taxonomy

Focus on learner

Focus on measure of learning

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Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy

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What can be done in the F2F classroom?

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What can be done in the online classroom?

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What is the relationship between these two?

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Mapping Your Course Handout: Mapping your Course Map out your face-2-face course from the

syllabus and/or other course documents Identify the chunks in your course via the

topics or learning objectives in your syllabus Select one chunk to work with during the

week