Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Course Redesign Ideas for Blended Model

Useful Websites with Course Redesign Ideas

5 comments:

Leslie said...

In my opinion, fueled by teaching in all kinds of face, online, and blended classes over the years, is that it is really important for the instructors to have enough lead time in development to carefully consider what elements of their class will be most effective in each delivery mode, and how those elements will connect across media. The first time I delivered an online class, it took forever to build because of the learning curve, but each subsequent development became smoother. Then the first blended class made me really rethink my andragogy (which I think is a better term for nontraditional postsecondary learners, btw, although I'm open to discussion on that also). I estimate it took three times as much out-of-class time to do a blended class as a face class of the same material, and that was for someone who already taught online. It's a resource investment to calculate in as we move forward, in both planning the timeline and assuring training and tech support availability. I know I benefitted enormously many times from the excellent help of Ruth's staff while designing in eCollege.
Leslie

Douglas said...

I've posted this in another section, but I would argue that there is no particular reason to make all of our terms the same length. At our site, the Coachella Valley Campus, we are looking at keeping our sessions nine weeks long except for summer. There we would split it into two summer intersessions. Basically, this accomplishes the same thing as the previous proposals, except that it allows us to teach nine weeks for those courses that require nine weeks and shorten those courses that can be shortened during the summer.

Sandee Bonura said...

bonura@chapman.edu

Sandee Bonura said...

I agree with Leslie,It does take way more time out-of-class time to do a blended class as a face class of the same material!!

ONe year, I taught a class that was online and one that was blended at the same time. What a difference when I got to actually "eyeball" a student. A picture is always worth a thousand words. So, blended was far more richer for me in that area.

Problem I encountered:

**I never collected any paperwork in person, and everything was uploaded by the student onto the site. Some students were engaged in class, but never did the online quizzes, etc.,

In retrospect, I would have liked to have administered the quizzes in person and some of the homework to ensure a student was actually doing the work HIMSELF or HERSELF. Because after meeting a particular student, and earing her oral grammatical errors, I questioned the "amazing" quality of her technically submitted work. No way did she do that. Not on this planet. And, it was not plagiarized, so who was doing her work?

So, the key I believe is to have multiple sorts of assessments and require some in person.

Sandee Bonura

Anonymous said...

I fully support the blended model. It allows the opportunity to use technology in conjunction with our face to face classes. My informal survey of students indicates they are ready for this chanage.