BLENDING IN Designing and Teaching Blended Courses WHAT

BLENDING IN Designing and Teaching Blended Courses

WHAT IS BLENDED LEARNING? • Some learning happens online in a format where the student has control over the path and pace at which they engage with content. • Some learning happens in an instructor-led classroom. • Online and in-person learning is complementary, creating a truly integrated learning environment.

BLENDED COURSES AT UNK • Official designation is and course where no more than 1/3 of the semester contact hours are face-toface or synchronous online • Face-to-face sessions should be scheduled before the course is added to the schedule. • Departments receive benefits with blended courses just as with online.

DIFFERENTIATING BLENDED LEARNING Structure Pedagogy • Where is the course taught? • How is the course taught? • Location dictates learning • Location is less relevant • Lecture-based • Not dependent on lecture • Instructor led • Student led • Passive learning • Active learning • Traditional courses • Blended courses

ACTIVE LEARNING Engaging students now with 50% more learning objectives!

WHAT IS ACTIVE LEARNING? • Any process that requires more than passive accumulation of information. • It need not be group work to be active learning. • Both internal and external engagement are important aspects of the active learning space.

ACTIVE LEARNING PRINCIPLES • Purposive: the relevance of the task with the students’ concerns • Reflective: students’ reflection on the meaning of what is learned • Negotiated: negotiation of goals and methods of learning between students and teachers • Critical: students appreciate different ways and means of learning the content • Complex: students compare learning tasks with complexities existing in real leif and making reflective analysis • Situation Driven: the need of the situation is considered in order to establish learning tasks • Engaged: real life tasks are reflected in the activities conducted for learning Barnes, Douglas R. Active learning. Leeds, UK. Leeds University TVEI Support Project. 1989.

OBLIGATORY BLOOM’S TAXONOMY CHART • The skills you are asking your students to use should be applied to the correct level. • Engagement and collaboration requires higher order thinking. • This can be achieved with active and collaborative learning. • The goal should be to integrate these types of activities in some way.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES MATTER • Focus on student performance • Aim at the terminal behavior • Include one learning outcome per objective • Objectives should be quantifiable and measureable • Action verbs (explain, analyze, defend, etc. )

LEARNING OBJECTIVE EXAMPLE • Introductory stem (time or condition, not required) • Action verb • Outcome (result focus) • Example: By the end of this session, attendees will be able to create quantifiable learning objectives.

WORK BREAK – LEARNING OBJECTIVES • Take 5 minutes • Choose one content area from one of your courses • Write an active learning objective for the chosen content • Share with your table and critique

UNDERSTANDING YOUR STUDENTS Who wants to learn from us?

WORK BREAK SO, WHO ARE OUR STUDENTS? • Take 5 minutes • List who are our students today • List the challenges you face • Share with your table

A FEW THINGS TO ADD TO IT… • First in their families to attend college • Learning disabilities • Low income (25%) • Experienced trauma • Mental health challenges • Experienced toxic stress • Attended schools that were not exemplars of excellence

GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES • Gen X* (1961 -1980) – “born to be independent” • Gen Y** (1981 - 1995) – “comfortable working in teams” • Gen Z **(1995 – 2010) – “raised on technology” – the new college student generation * Digital immigrants – created (did not used much) the technology we enjoy today ** digital natives understand the use of technology inside and outside classroom – they might need technology to engage fully

THERE IS NO SINGLE STUDENT PROFILE • Different interests • Backgrounds • Talents • Motivations • Goals • Different relationship with technology

“Students do not need a teacher, they have ‘google’”

WHAT DO STUDENTS NEED? • Validates students’ diversity • Encourage students’ strengths • Motivate students’ needs • Nurture a sense of community

WHAT DO FACULTY NEED? • Flexibility • Different Pedagogy • Learning Strategies • Support team • Other instructors – support team • e. Campus / Instructional Designers • Help Desk • Resources

CREATING THE FRAMEWORK Blending courses for fun and profit…okay, maybe just fun.

BEGIN WITH THE END • Design blended courses with the final outcome in mind. • Build backward to establish the proper sequence of learning and activity. • Establish the main goals of the course/content area. • Note: Rigor vs. Busy Work.

PLANNING STRATEGY (ONE OR MANY) • Learning objective • In vs. Out • In Class • Out of Class • Assessment Just as with an online class, planning is the key to success in blended education.

CONNECTED WORLD, CONNECTED EDUCATION • One key to success in a blended course is to connect activities. • Make sure that your prep work connects to the in-class work. • Disparate learning will cause cognitive dissonance issues. • This strategy also helps to ensure preparedness for the in-class sessions.

LESSON PLANNING TEMPLATE • Lesson Topic • Lesson Objective(s) • Out-of-Class Activities • Readiness Assessment • In-Class Activities • Assessment • Resources/Items/Planning Needed to Execute

LEAVE THE LECTURE BEHIND, BUT… • Blended learning sessions should not be used as lecture opportunities. • These should be active learning times with focus on group work. • Recorded traditional-style lectures should be avoided too. • Chunking video materials is preferable.

EMBRACE THE OUTSIDE EXPERTISE • Don’t reinvent the wheel. • Don’t be afraid to use content that exists already. • These should be integrated with your own materials/videos. • Offer choice whenever possible for a universal design experience.

CHALLENGES TO BLENDED LEARNING • Student Buy-In • Accountability • Student Readiness • Available Facilities • Accessibility

IN-CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES We put the fun in fundamentals!

PLANNING FOR FACE-TO-FACE • For synchronous and face-to-face sessions, focus on no more than 1 learning objective for each 15 minute time period. • Students will not carry much more than a few important points away from a session. • Use the active learning sessions to reinforce the most important concepts/objectives.

BLENDED LEARNING ACTIVITIES Concept Maps Polling • Assignment asks students to visually map concepts to expose connections. • Ask students to answer an openended question. • Students may work individually or in small groups. • Quick and easy way of gaining insight in to opinions. • Discussion should be facilitated afterward. • Technology can be used or simply ask for a show of hands. • Do not ask questions with a correct answer.

BLENDED LEARNING ACTIVITIES Minute Papers Think/Pair/Share • Give students a few minutes to write a response to these questions. • Students are asked to solve a problem or answer a question. • What is the most important thing you learned? • Start with individuals thinking. • What question(s) still remain? • Pair off to discuss ideas and solutions to the proposed issue. • This may be used as a pre- or postclass evaluator. • Discussion focuses learning and reinforces concepts.

BLENDED LEARNING ACTIVITIES Round Robin Game/Quiz • Small groups are tasked with solving a problem/answering a question. • Use pre-set rules from games to engage students in friendly competition. • Results are left as they progress to other tables. • Ensuing groups edit or add to those ideas left behind. • This enables debate of concepts. • Simple games are easy to convert to discipline specific content. • Gamification steps further in to this area with complex games.

BLENDED LEARNING ACTIVITIES Role Play Fishbowl • One of the most common types of active learning activities. • A small group of students debates a topic while the rest of the class observes and takes notes. • Assign different roles to students and have them work out a solution to a problem. • A critical component to this activity is reflective discussion after the conclusion. • Once the debate is over, the rest of the class engages in discussion about the outcome/concepts presented.

BLENDED LEARNING ACTIVITIES Sorting Debate • One good way to have them up and moving in the classroom. • Encourage critical thinking. • Assign different “scenarios” on each table. • Help them connect with the world around them through sorting “scenarios” and connecting to their reality. • Small groups or teams takes a point of view. • Can include out-of-the class preparation or be completed entirely online.

BLENDED LEARNING ACTIVITIES Create a Quiz Case Studies • Students become familiar with the chapter/content • Many students learn better from examples and case studies gives them the opportunity to work on • Place them in groups to create and propose 10 different quiz questions. • Questions can be answered by the entire class or placed in your LMS • Problem solving • Decision making in complex situations • Ambiguities

BLENDED LEARNING ACTIVITIES Jigsaw Best Example Contest • Students are divided in to groups with a given topic to research. After they become expert on their topic they are dispersed in to new groups and they rotate teaching the entire group what they learned. • Students are asked to give examples rather than definitions. • With examples students are able to show an understanding of theory. • Students vote or rate on the examples presented.

BLENDED LEARNING ACTIVITIES Cell Phones Know and Need to Know • Students/groups are responsible to capture a picture related to the content presented. • Give to individual students a few minutes to write what they know and what they need to know about a topic. • Upload in to the LMS. • Put students on groups to compare their lists and learn form each other. • Explain the reason for their choice. • Create a video, capture the moment.

BLENDED LEARNING ACTIVITIES Speed Dating Study Session Build a Model • Have student prepare a question or information about a topic. • Give students the opportunity to create or build and show something. • Divide them in to groups and give them 2 minutes to share their information. • Use clay to create a brain. • When time is over, mix the groups. • Great way to review a lot of material in a short period of time. • Build a prototype to sell. • Build models of molecules. • Options are endless.

WORK BREAK – IN-CLASS ACTIVITY • Take 5 minutes • Pick one of the previous activities (or choose one of your own) • Your activity should tie to your learning objective • Think about the basics of the activity • Share with your table

QUESTIONS?

THANK YOU Steven Mc. Gahan Olimpia Leite-Trambly Colleges of Fine Arts and Humanities and Natural and Social Sciences College of Business and Technology mcgahansj@unk. edu leitetrambod@unk. edu