Looking for Pedagogy in Blended Course Design (there are some additional resources here)
Patricia McGee, Univ of Texas & San Antonio
Digital Learning Design Program,UT
Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) webinar
Agenda:
- Introduction
- Best Practices for Design
- Pedagogical Practices
- Preparing Students
Meta-analysis: Best practices – published literature about course design for blended learning; encoded repeated items. Found the same language used, even when sources were not references. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks
Pedagogical Reports – looking at the literature about what students (mostly) and faculty (not much done) do in the blended env’t.
Design Based Research – Members of the team gather data & make changes to the program as it unfolds. (possible connection to Summer Academy); Blended & Online Learners
Content Analysis of Blended Models – found 27 different models so far.
Hybrid vs Blended learning definitions: for her – hybrid is like a car, switching between 2 modes, not much integration; blended (for her) means that there is a deliberate connection between them.
Common definition of blended – combined elements of f2f & online courses; provides substantial portion (30-70%) of content online, typically relying on discussions within a planned & pedagogically driven design. Her definition of pedagogy is to lead the learner. (discussion of appeal & challenges of blended learning)
Workforce blended/hybrid models – more varied than higher ed. Higher Ed models:
Hyflex model (Beatty); http://www.drbrianbeatty.com/wordpress/; one course, students choose to meet partially online or not (options A – attend all classes in person (excused from some online activities, e.g. discussions), B – commit to come to 1 f2f/month, C – all online) stick with that model for the semester. All students participate in all the activities/assignments they need to do complete the course. Graduate level. Fewer of their students do the fully online, they expect everything to be asynchronous online & that’s how she does it. Difference in performance? Classroom students tend to procrastinate, blended ones seem to drop out. She has them sign up on a Google doc (no contract), she includes instructions for each choice. Limited to 30 students. Univ of Toronto (Simone Laughton) – using this with a class of over 700 students with no significant difference in outcomes.
Multimodal model – Picciano, 2009; Components: Content, Social/emotional, Dialectic/questioning, Synthesis/evaluation, Collaboration/student generated content, Reflection. Blending with purpose: The multimodal model. Journal of the Research Center for Educational Technology, 5(1). Kent, OH: Kent State University
Community of Inquiry model – Vaughan & Garrison, 2009; Integrating Social, Cognitive, Teaching Presences; http://communitiesofinquiry.com/blhighered
General resource: International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE): https://www.iste.org/
Best Practices: Wicked Problems – no specific alternative solution, difficult to tell when it is solved, complex in nature, may have political, professional dimensions, no right/wrong (more like better/worse solution)
Course Re-Design – avoids building a course & a half, typically requires three to six months (200-350 total hours), objectives written from the student perspective are best, f2f meetings should require active participation. One summary of time expectations: http://digitalcampus.umn.edu/faculty/plan/time-cost.html
Typically there is no direct translation from one env’t to another (i.e. classroom conversation is not the same as online discussion), need to think about why we’re doing each thing. Alignment – nice table: objective|activity|location|assignment|assessment. Peer Review – need to have someone else look at what you’re doing (e.g. Quality Matters is one approach)
Bergtrom, G (2011). Content vs learning: An old dichotomy in science courses, Journal of Asychronous Learning Networks, 15(1). 33-44. http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/jaln_main
Make a Blend: Online tutorial > online discussion > classroom project > peer critique > online test/authentic assessments
Varied approaches are needed: formal (teacher-directed) & informal (learner-centered)
Course Implementation – communicate expectations clearly (Syllabus handout), focus on learner accountability, periodically evaluate course
Pedagogical Practices (in contrast to the best practices we just reviewed) – focus on activity to determine the blend, f2f is the priority, pedagogical template vs routine activity. Dominant online activities: Discussion, content presentations, assignment/assessement, group work.
3 ways that people organize active learning:
- Product – focus on practice through isolated or progressive activities; creating parts of the whole
- Process – assignments & activities support that document learner’s mastery
- Project – step by step with benchmarks (doesn’t have to end in a product), demonstrates mastery
Layering: Structural Dimensions (where learning occurs & how it is connected) > Dynamical Dimension (shift from technology to learning that occurs over time)
Case-based layering (Glazer, 2010), Game-based methods (Shang, Jong, Lee & Lee, 2008, p. 34), Online processing, Streamlining (Fuketh, 2009) (Activity during break – Blended Cases handout (we don’t have the handout…))
Smarter Measures: http://www.smartermeasure.com/ (fee based, web-based, 124-item assessment which measures a learner’s readiness for succeeding in an online and/or technology rich learning program)
How to prepare your students for online learning, how to know if they are prepared?
