Blended Learning in a Faculty Learning Community

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Blended Learning in a Faculty Learning Community
Educause 2005 Conference
Norm Vaughan, PhD D. Randy Garrison,
PhD Learning Commons, University of
Calgary nvaughan_at_ucalgary.ca
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Overview

• Faculty development issues related to educational
  technology integration
• Faculty learning community on blended learning
• Lessons learned

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Reflecting on Faculty Development
Examples
Processes

Faculty DevelopmentPrograms
Issues
Advantages
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Faculty Development Issues

• Program examples?
• Program issues?

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Issues with previous faculty development
initiatives related to educational technology

• One off workshops faculty come to a workshop
  get excited about using educational technology
  but then go back to their offices and do not have
  the time to put their new ideas into practice
• Educational technology project development work
  (semester or academic year) - lack of opportunity
  for faculty to share their ideas and concerns
  with others who are also going through the same
  development process
• Educational technology institutes positive in a
  sense that there is time to clearly link theory
  to practice (good mix of discussion and hands-on
  sessions), sense of community and sharing among
  participants disadvantage, the lack of follow
  up connections often prevents extensive
  implementation of the projects

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Faculty Learning Community (FLC)

• A FLC consists of a cross-disciplinary group of
  5 or more faculty members (8 to 12 is the
  recommended size) engaging in an active,
  collaborative, yearlong program with a curriculum
  about enhancing teaching and learning and with
  frequent seminars and activities that provide
  learning, development, interdisciplinarity, the
  scholarship of teaching and learning, and
  community building.
• (Cox, 2003, p.1)

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Challenges in Higher Education

• Lack of time to participate in face-to-face
  faculty development activities
• Perceived uptake of educational technology by
  faculty..BUT..concerns about workload are
  faculty layering the technology on top of
  everything theyve always done and continue to
  do?

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Blended Learning

• The thoughtful integration of face-to-face
  classroom (spontaneous verbal discourse) and
  Internet based (reflective text-based discourse)
  learning opportunities
• An opportunity to enhance the campus experience
  and extend learning through the use of Internet
  information and communication
• Traditional classroom contact hours are
  restructured to accommodate the properties of
  online learning and appropriate activities

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Blended Learning

• 80 of all American higher education institutions
  and 93 of doctoral institutions offer hybrid or
  blended learning courses (Arabasz Baker, 2003)
• 85 of faculty surveyed in British higher
  education institutions believe learning
  technologies are improving access to education
  and 94 think that a mix of online and
  classroom-based teaching is more effective than
  classroom teaching alone (Marquis, 2004)

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Faculty Learning Community on Blended Learning

• The Three P Drivers
• Purpose The successful redesign and
  implementation of undergraduate credit courses in
  a blended learning format
• Process series of biweekly face-to-face
  sessions (discussion and computer lab) combined
  with facilitated online activities between
  sessions
• Product intended outcome of the community is
  that all members will have a fully functional
  Blackboard course site, combined with the
  necessary teaching and educational technology
  skills and experience, to support a blended mode
  of course delivery
• Funding Provincial Grant (Access Fund)

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FLC on Blended Learning Program Outcomes
Curriculum Design
Teaching Strategies
Teaching excellence and innovation in support
of student learning
Educational Technology Integration
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FLC on Blended Learning Program Outcomes

• Curriculum Design
• A curriculum redesign plan of an existing credit
  undergraduate course for blended learning. This
  plan involves the
• Formulation of a blended course vision and
  learning outcomes
• Development of a course syllabus
• Creation of assignments based on the identified
  learning outcomes

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FLC on Blended Learning Program Outcomes

• Teaching Strategies
• The acquisition of effective face-to-face and
  online teaching skills strategies such as
• Facilitating online discussions
• Stimulating online communication
• Managing group work
• Assessing online work
• Directing students to appropriate support
  personal and/or resource documentation for time
  management and study skills

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FLC on Blended Learning Program Outcomes

• Educational Technology Integration
• The acquisition of educational technology skills
• such as
• Managing a Blackboard course web site
• Trouble shooting basic student technology issues

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Fall Semester - Sessions

• Focus on Course Redesign
• Identifying key learning outcomes
• Designing integrated face-to-face and online
  learning activities
• Developing a course assessment strategy
• Creating a learning centered course syllabus and
  redesign plan
• Developing a course module prototype
• Leveraging the use of digital learning object
  repositories
• Faculty outcomes completed course redesign
  plan, course syllabus (objectives, assignments,
  assessment plan, grading criteria) and a
  functional Blackboard shell with one prototype
  module

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Winter Semester - Sessions

• Focus on Course Development Teaching Strategies
• Developing your own digital learning objects
• Advanced Blackboard Tools
• Facilitating online learning
• Integrating face-to-face and online activities
• Learner support strategies
• Piloting and course evaluation strategies
• Faculty outcomes - a redesigned course, a
  Blackboard web site, and the necessary teaching
  educational technology strategies and skills to
  create a successful blended learning environment
  for their students

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Community of Inquiry Framework
Social Presence The ability of participants in a
community of inquiry to project themselves
socially and emotionally as real people
(i.e., their full personality), through the
medium of communication being used.
Cognitive Presence The extent to which learners
are able to construct and confirm meaning
through sustained reflection and discourse in a
critical community of inquiry.
Teaching Presence The design, facilitation and
direction of cognitive and social processes for
the purpose of realizing personally meaningful
and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes.
Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000)
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Inquiry Process within a Blended FLC
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Supporting a blended community of inquiry

• How can digital technologies be used to support
  an inquiry process within a blended faculty
  development context?
• Think
• Pair
• Share

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Using digital technologies to support a blended
inquiry cycle

• Ideas

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Using digital technologies to support a blended
inquiry cycle

• Before face-to-face (FTF) session
• During FTF session
• After FTF session
• Preparing for the next FTF session

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Blended FLC Model
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Stage One Before a Face-to-Face
(FTF) Session
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Pre-readings
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Self-assessment quizzes (knowledge probes)
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Examples of digital tools to support
inquiry-based learning

• Before FTF Session
• Communication
• Announcements section of your course web site
• Group email feature
• Posting or linking to pre-reading assignments
• U of C Library - Electronic Indexes and Abstracts
  http//www.ucalgary.ca/library/gateway/indabs.html
  
• Digital learning objects
• Learning Object Repositorieshttp//www.mtroyal.ab
  .ca/adc/adc_learningobjects.htm
• Self assessment quizzes
• Test manager tools
• Anonymous surveys
• Survey manager tools

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Stage Two During a FTF Session
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Quiz survey feedback
Display quiz survey results
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Digital learning objects/resources
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Displaying assignments/faculty work
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Examples of digital tools to support
inquiry-based learning

• During FTF Session
• Displaying quiz or survey results
• Online grade book results (for anonymous surveys)
• Overheads of information printed out from the
  Blackboard online grade book
• Displaying digital learning objects and resources
  
• Objects uploaded to the course web site and links
  to external learning object and resource sites
  (e.g. animations, video clips, PowerPoint
  presentations)
• CAREO www.careo.org
• Displaying assignments and faculty work
• Assignment folders within course site which
  contain the assignment handout, tutorial,
  resources and examples of past faculty work

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Stage Three Between the FTF Sessions
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Anonymous end of session survey
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Online discussion forums
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Project support and development
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Links to projects
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Examples of digital tools to support
inquiry-based learning

• After FTF Session
• Anonymous feedback surveys
• Communication
• Announcements section of course site for faculty
  to do list
• Group email feature for the faculty to do list
• Individual email feature for individual faculty
  questions or clarification (try to put common
  questions into a Frequently Asked Questions
  discussion forum)
• Online discussion forums to facilitate faculty
  moderated discussions
• Virtual classroom tools for synchronous sharing
  sessions among faculty-student groups
• Individual and Group Project Work
• Assignment folders within course site which
  contains the assignment handout, tutorial,
  resources and examples of past faculty work
• Groups work area within learning management
  systems which contain communication tools (email,
  discussion forum, virtual chat) and a digital
  drop box for sharing documents
• Opportunities for further exploration
• External links section within Blackboard for
  enrichment resources

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Stage Four Next FTF Session
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Anonymous survey feedback
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Archive survey feedback
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Lessons Learned

• Focus of inquiry
• Triggering events
• Exploration
• Integration
• Resolution/application
• Leadership

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Focus of Inquiry

• Connection between ones teaching practice and
  student learning
• Potential for a transformational shift in
  approaches to teaching from disseminating
  information to creating learning environments
  where students construct their own knowledge
• Role of technology shift from the packaging and
  distribution of information (content) to being
  used as a tool set to enable students to
  collaboratively construct their own knowledge

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Triggering Event

• Redesign of an existing course making ones
  implicit assumptions about a course explicit
• Triggering of new ideas and perspectives about
  teaching and learning
• Support community members realize they are not
  alone in experiencing a particular issue or
  concern (importance of participation and shared
  understanding which leads to a sense of trust
  and risk taking within the group)
• Importance of community and face-to-face
  (physical) presence in this stage

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Exploration

• Importance of
• experiential learning opportunities being
  immersed in a blended learning environment as a
  student
• sharing experience with other teachers and
  students different discipline perspectives
• sharing of stories (power of narrative)
• online discussion forum to capture the sharing
• faculty mentors people with previous FLC
  experience

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Integration

• Importance of
• a project focus forces one to make tentative
  course redesign decisions (reification)
• faculty regularly presenting project artifacts
  and/or issues to the community in order to get
  feedback from other members and to help confirm
  their own understanding
• piloting portions of the projects with the
  student members of the community

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Resolution/Application

• Importance of
• intentionally engaging in a scholarship of
  teaching and learning process
• getting ethics approval (early) to formally
  evaluate the course redesign project
• collecting quantitative and qualitative data
  regarding student learning outcomes and perceived
  satisfaction related to the redesign
• dissemination of results beyond the community
  departmental, institutional and external
  presentations and publications

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Leadership

• Outside and inside the community
• essential ingredient due to the lack of formal
  accountability structure (participation is often
  on a volunteer basis)
• Outside the community (but within the
  organization)
• sponsorship and legitimacy is vital (also
  important for removing barriers and hierarchy)
• Inside the community
• nurturing is the key (ecology of leadership)
• need to develop a core group so that the
  nurturing role does not rest with just one person
• people taking on different responsibilities and
  roles within the community
• sign of maturity when others in the community are
  willing to take on the nurturing role (shared
  responsibility)

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Leadership

• Key Dimensions of a Community of Practice
  (Wenger, 2005)

Sponsorship
Domain
Nurturing
Participation
Community
Practice
Support
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Reflections

• What is your key take-away from this session?
• What doesnt make sense (muddiest point)?

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Questions, Comments, Discussion
PowerPoint Slides Available at http//www.ucalgar
y.ca/nvaughan/norm/presentations.htm
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Resources

• Arabasz, P., Baker, M. B. (2003). Evolving
  campus support models for e-learning courses.
  Educause Center for Applied Research.
  http//www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ecar_so/ers
  /ERS0303/EKF0303.pdf
• Cox, M.D. (2003). Faculty Learning Communities
  What Are They? . http//www.units.muohio.edu/flc/i
  ndex.shtml
• Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., Archer, W.
  Rourke, L (2004). Communities of Inquiry Web
  Site. http//communitiesofinquiry.com/
• Marquis, C. (2004). WebCT Survey Discovers A
  Blend of Online Learning and Classroom-Based
  Teaching Is The Most Effective Form Of Learning
  Today. WebCT.com. http//www.webct.com/service/Vie
  wContent?contentID19295938
• Novak, Greg (1999). Just-in-Time Teaching.
  http//webphysics.iupui.edu/jitt/what.html/
• Wenger, E. (2005). Communities of Practice Web
  Site. http//www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm