Blended Courses:

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Blended Courses

• How to have the best of both worlds in higher
  education
• By Susan C. Slowey

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Best of both worlds?

• One of the current trends in higher education is
  the hybrid or blended course. While these courses
  utilize both traditional and non-traditional
  teaching methodologies, these courses can offer
  students the best of both worlds if they are
  carefully planned and executed.

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What is a blended course?

• What is your definition of a blended course?

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What is a blended course?
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Other definitions

• A hybrid course is a blend of face-to-face
  instruction with online learning. In a hybrid
  course, a significant part of the course learning
  is online and as a result, the amount of
  classroom seat-time is reduced.California State
  University Long Beach

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Other definitions

• "Hybrid" is the name commonly used nationwide to
  describe courses that combine face-to-face
  classroom instruction with computer-based
  learning. Hybrid courses move a significant part
  of course learning online and, as a result,
  reduce the amount of classroom seat
  time.University of Wisconsin Hybrid Course Project

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Why choose blended courses?

• New teaching opportunities Faculty can choose a
  variety of teaching methods that may not be best
  suited to the traditional classroom.
• Teachers have the flexibility to combine
  collaborative learning, independent learning with
  bits of traditional lectures to create a new
  learning environment.

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Why choose blended courses?

• Increased student engagement
• Instructors report that they feel more connected
  with their students and are able to get to know
  them better since they communicate both online
  and face-to-face.

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Why choose blended courses?

• Increased student engagement
• Blended course environments have the potential to
  increase and extend instructor-student and
  student-student connectivity and to build
  relationships even more so than in traditional or
  online courses.

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Why choose blended courses?

• Increased student engagement
• Discussions started in class are continued online
  and online interaction often carries over into
  the traditional face-to-face classes.

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Why choose blended courses?

• Increased student engagement
• Integration of out-of-class activities with
  in-class activities allows more effective use of
  traditional class time.

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Why choose blended courses?

• Increased student engagement
• Students who rarely take part in class
  discussions are more likely to participate online.

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Why choose blended courses?

• Instructors report that students write better
  papers, performed better on exams, produced
  higher quality projects, and were capable of more
  meaningful discussions on course material when
  reflecting online.

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Why choose blended courses?

• Pedagogical changes may lead a faculty member to
  switch from lectures to a learner-centered based
  course.

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Why choose blended courses?

• Students like the idea of blended courses because
  they have the flexibility of an online course
  that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
  WITH the added bonus of face-to-face contact with
  their instructor.

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How do blended courses differ?

• Teaching a blended course can be challenging,
  since it requires acquiring different teaching
  skills, redesigning a course to take into account
  new teaching and learning opportunities, managing
  the course content both online and in-class, and
  preparing students to work in a blended format.

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Rethinking Course Design

• To teach 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. Instructors must make the
  transition from lectures and presentation to a
  more student-centered active learning.

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Adopting a New Approach to Teaching

• Instructors need to learn how to facilitate
  online discussions and small group activities,
  and re-examine traditional methods of assessment
  of student work to take into account the new
  learning environment.

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Managing the Dual Learning Environment

• The blended environment also adds additional
  scheduling and communication challenges as
  courses meet both online and face-to-face.
  Instructors must also take care not to overload
  themselves and their students.

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Preparing Students

• Instructors must be prepared to help students
  understand their active role in the blended,
  assist students in keeping their work on time and
  on track, and be prepared to offer strategies for
  trouble-shooting new course technologies.

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Sample Course

• For several semesters I have taught World Geog
  (Geog 1303), Cultural Geog (Geog 1302) and
  Economic Geog (Geog 2312) in the blended format.
• I honestly found that Cultural and Economic Geog
  were ideally suited for the blended format while
  World Geog provided to be fairly difficult to
  teach this way.

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Sample Course

• For the purposed of this presentation, I want to
  briefly describe how the Cultural Geography, Geog
  1302 course was set up.

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Sample Course Geog 1302

• Each week the students are to read over a chapter
  and take an online chapter quiz before attending
  the class. These quizzes are graded and make up
  a portion of the students total grade.

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Sample Course Geog 1302

• To ensure that the students emphasize the correct
  material while reading the chapter, chapter
  outlines and key terms are posted online.

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Sample Course Geog 1302

• Class meetings include a brief introduction to
  the key cultural concept discussed in the chapter
  
• Following the brief introduction of the topic,
  students are asked to discuss key topics

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Sample Course Geog 1302

• After class discussion, the class may break into
  groups to further analyze key concepts and apply
  them to real world situations. All group work is
  graded.

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Sample Course Geog 1302

• Instead of working in groups every period,
  students may also see DVDs to illustrate example
  of culture. Additional materials are available
  online to help review the DVDs.

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Sample Class Geog 1302

• At the end of class, students will be asked to
  turn in and report on their findings. The class
  may continue discussions as necessary at this
  time or continue the discussions online.
• The final moments of the class are spent wrapping
  up the class meeting and reinforcing the key
  concept of the day.

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Sample Course Geog 1302

• Student exams I have tested in class, online
  and in the Learning Center. How you test is
  really a personal decision.

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Sample Course Geog 1302

• Student grades The student is graded over
• Major Exams
• Assignments--done online or available online and
  worked on out of class
• Online chapter quizzes
• Groups work
• Final Exam

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Sample Course Geog 1302

• Student comments
• Overall, students liked the blended course
• Some felt it was too much work and they were not
  disciplined enough to earn a high grade
• Most students comment on how much more they
  learned on their own than they had in other
  college courses

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Blended or not blended?

• Deciding whether to teach a blended course is not
  an easy decision. Just because you meet the
  class once a week does not mean these course are
  less work. They can be much more involved than
  traditional lecture courses.

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Tips for preparing a blended course

• Examine your course. Is the course content lend
  itself to a variety of teaching styles?
• Not all courses are ideally suited for this
  environment. Science lectures might work but
  labs will still need to be taught in the
  traditional form.

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Tips for preparing a blended course

• You will need to decide what students need to
  accomplish in the course. Examine the master
  course syllabus for the student learning outcomes
  for your course
• Decide what learning objectives are best taught
  in the classroom and what objectives can be
  taught online.

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Tips for preparing a blended course

• Design online activities that will engage and
  challenge your students
• The online portion should not be just your
  lecture notes and old power points

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Tips for preparing a blended course

• Decide on how you will grade the online portion
  of the course. Keep in mind that they are
  supposed to complete half of the course online.

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Tips for preparing a blended course

• Flexibility--if something works then are you
  doing fine. If the classroom time isnt working
  out as effectively as you hoped, change things
  around. If the students cannot complete all of
  the online work before the next class, rework the
  online material.

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Tips for preparing a blended course

• Keep in mind, these courses are learner-centered.
  This is a hard concept to remember when creating
  your blended course. Traditional lectures do not
  work well in these courses.

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References

• Much of the material is from the University of
  Wisconsins Hybrid Course Home Page. It is one
  of the base online websites discussing blended
  courses.
• http//www4.uwm.edu/ltc/hybrid/index.cfm