scholarly journals WIP: Student and Faculty Experience with Blended Learning in a First-Year Chemistry for Engineers Course

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eline Boghaert ◽  
Jason Grove
Author(s):  
David L. Neumann ◽  
Michelle M. Neumann ◽  
Michelle Hood

<span>The discipline of statistics seems well suited to the integration of technology in a lecture as a means to enhance student learning and engagement. Technology can be used to simulate statistical concepts, create interactive learning exercises, and illustrate real world applications of statistics. The present study aimed to better understand the use of such applications during lectures from the student's perspective. The technology used included multimedia, computer-based simulations, animations, and statistical software. Interviews were conducted on a stratified random sample of 38 students in a first year statistics course. The results showed three global effects on student learning and engagement: showed the practical application of statistics, helped with understanding statistics, and addressed negative attitudes towards statistics. The results are examined from within a blended learning framework and the benefits and drawbacks to the integration of technology during lectures are discussed.</span>


Author(s):  
Ruth Geer

This chapter describes an investigation of strategies for fostering higher order cognition in a blended learning environment. The exploration, which utilised a qualitative case study approach, highlights the critical nature of effective instructional design. The study extends the educator’s understanding of the complexities of online and blended learning environments through an analysis of the discourse of computer-mediated communication in a first year teacher education course. The investigation resulted in the development of a pedagogical framework which outlines the relationship between pedagogies, technologies and their related learning outcomes. Critical indicators, which are potentially important as strategies and early warning signs of “students at risk”, become evident in the analysis. This research had led to notions of imprinting and cognitive tracks which can be used to inform strategies for teaching and learning using a blended approach.


Author(s):  
Samuel Olmos Peña ◽  
Magally Martinez-Reyes ◽  
Anabelem Soberanes-Martín

Traditional teaching has been changing with the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Blended learning is a new approach that enriches the education of students in order to improve their performance in their different subjects. Mathematics learning is a subject matter that is particularly difficult for students. The present chapter targets the application of a cybernetic model for blended learning in the teaching of mathematics, that is, the elements of communication and control are incorporated into this learning paradigm. It applies to first-year students of mathematics at the university level in the area of engineering. The results show an improvement in tests applied to students before and after the inclusion of activities with technological applications.


2018 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-32
Author(s):  
Elise M. Tobin ◽  
Sean Colley

The Twilight School at Danbury High School in Connecticut helps students who are in danger of failing their freshman year to get back on track. In its first year, the program offered special credit-bearing after-school courses in biology and English to students who failed those classes in their first semester. The smaller class sizes and informal atmosphere engaged the students and enabled the DHS educators who taught these courses to experiment with new-to-them instructional techniques, such as blended learning, some of which were later rolled out schoolwide. Of the 75 students who completed the course, 64 earned credits that helped them advance to their sophomore year.


Author(s):  
Chitra Nagaraj ◽  
Shyamala Bhadravathi Yadurappa ◽  
Lakshmi Trikkur Anantharaman ◽  
Yogitha Ravindranath ◽  
Nachiket Shankar

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Yeung ◽  
Sadhana Raju ◽  
Manjula D. Sharma

<p>While blended learning has been around for sometime, the interplay between lecture recordings, lecture attendance and grades needs further examination particularly for large cohorts of over 1000 students in 500 seat lecture theatres.  This paper reports on such an investigation with a cohort of 1450 first year psychology students’ who indicated whether they frequently attended lectures or not. The division helped ascertain differences and similarities in preferences for utilising online recordings.  Overall, non-frequent attendees were more likely not to use lecture recordings (48.1%) to make up a missed lecture than frequent attendees (34.3%). Surprisingly, in the last week of semester, 29% of students reported not yet accessing lecture recordings. Students had the intention to use lecture recordings as they envisaged these to be helpful for learning and commented that they would be adversely affected if recordings were not available. In fact, students are passionate about lecture recordings. Analytics show that after lecture 7, each lecture recording attracted 600 or less unique visits (hits) supporting the finding that most students make strategic use of learning resources available within the blended learning environment.</p>


This study aims to determine the predictive factors for effective teaching in blended learning contexts. A Blended Learning Evaluation Scale was devised. The participants were 145 first-year students studying for education degrees using a blended learning model. An exploratory factorial analysis revealed five factors for establishing a good model of blended teaching and learning: student expectations on their learning subjects, the use of web 2.0 tools, feedback from teachers, collaborative work among fellow classmates, and the social relations among students themselves and with their professors.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 51-68
Author(s):  
M. Mahruf C. Shohel ◽  
Rosemary Cann ◽  
Stephen Atherton

Student engagement is the core of the teaching and learning practice in higher education. This exploratory action research project was designed to enhance teaching and learning using a blended learning approach to increase student engagement prior, during, and after lecture and seminar sessions of a module run for first-year undergraduate students. Within an academic semester, three action research cycles were carried out to collect data and redesign the classroom practice. Different data collection techniques were used along with Microsoft OneNote Class Notebook. This article presents three case studies of individual students to demonstrate how the digital workspace helped to develop the practice of participatory teaching and learning during a first-year undergraduate module. This study indicates that listening to students' voices through a blended learning approach helped to increase student engagement, thus increasing student participation in shaping and redesigning teaching and learning to engage them within the classroom and beyond.


Author(s):  
Jason Grove ◽  
Eline Boghaer

Chemistry for Engineers is an introductory chemistry course taken by most engineering students at Waterloo during their first term. Over the past two years online content was developed to facilitate the implementation of blended learning. The motivation for this was: i) to create time for more valuable instructor–student interactions, allowing the instructor to reinforce challenging concepts, focus on problem-solving strategies and lead experiential learning activities, and, ii) to allow students to explore content at their own pace, thereby accommodating the diversity of students’ high-school chemistry preparation. Our study aims to compare and contrast student experience, satisfaction and performance between a blended learning and traditional lecture model of instruction through data from surveys and grades


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