Using Blended Principles to Bridge the Gap between Online and On-Campus Courses

2015 ◽  
pp. 1185-1197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panagiota Gounari ◽  
Apostolos Koutropoulos
Keyword(s):  
Blended Learning ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Institutional Support ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
College Campuses ◽  
Blended Courses ◽  
Massive Online Open Courses ◽  
Open Courses ◽  
Blended Course

Blended learning, and its relative HyFlex (Hybrid Flexible), are garnering up a lot of attention these days from both academics and administrators on college campuses. Organizations like the Sloan Consortium offer training in Blended Course Design; free Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) such as BlendKit provide ways for educators to start thinking about and begin implementation of blended course design. Despite the pedagogical benefits, not all institutions are equipped to handle blended courses, instructors are not ready to jump on the blended bandwagon if there is no institutional support, and on-campus students are not very comfortable with it yet. One proposed way to ease the transition into blended learning is to combine two sections of the same course, one running online, and one running on-campus. In this chapter, the authors describe a pedagogical trial in which they adopted this proposal as a way, based on HyFlex principles, to get students thinking about the benefits of blending two sections, thus bringing in some benefits of blended learning, while retaining the “safety net” that some students feel they need when they sign up for on-campus courses.

Using Blended Principles to Bridge the Gap between Online and On-Campus Courses

2014 ◽  
pp. 178-190
Author(s):  
Panagiota Gounari ◽  
Apostolos Koutropoulos
Keyword(s):  
Blended Learning ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Institutional Support ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
College Campuses ◽  
Blended Courses ◽  
Massive Online Open Courses ◽  
Open Courses ◽  
Blended Course

Blended learning, and its relative HyFlex (Hybrid Flexible), are garnering up a lot of attention these days from both academics and administrators on college campuses. Organizations like the Sloan Consortium offer training in Blended Course Design; free Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) such as BlendKit provide ways for educators to start thinking about and begin implementation of blended course design. Despite the pedagogical benefits, not all institutions are equipped to handle blended courses, instructors are not ready to jump on the blended bandwagon if there is no institutional support, and on-campus students are not very comfortable with it yet. One proposed way to ease the transition into blended learning is to combine two sections of the same course, one running online, and one running on-campus. In this chapter, the authors describe a pedagogical trial in which they adopted this proposal as a way, based on HyFlex principles, to get students thinking about the benefits of blending two sections, thus bringing in some benefits of blended learning, while retaining the “safety net” that some students feel they need when they sign up for on-campus courses.

Blended for Student Engagement and Retention

2015 ◽  
pp. 818-835
Author(s):  
Ishmael I. Munene ◽  
Flower Darby ◽  
John J. Doherty
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Northern Arizona ◽  
Blended Courses ◽  
Learner Centered ◽  
Northern Arizona University ◽  
Face To Face Instruction ◽  
Blended Course

Facetiously described as the “third generation” of distance learning, blended learning is now the new kid on the block in the deployment of technology to support teaching and learning. Its versatility as a pedagogical strategy for creating learner-centered instruction lies in the capacity to exploit the potentials of both the traditional face-to-face instruction and online learning modality in order to provide students with multiple pathways of learning. Yet, developing a blended course to take advantage of these duo capabilities is a monumental challenge for faculty. This chapter presents an analysis of approaches and models employed by faculty at Northern Arizona University to develop and deliver two blended courses as part of the institution's strategy of using technology to enhance undergraduate student engagement and retention. The analysis shows that a multimodal approach that infuses technologies and media and a proactive institutional policy in favor of blended learning, coupled with strategic faculty development, provides the best pathway to developing robust blended courses that are truly learner-centered.

Blended Course Design

2015 ◽  
pp. 488-512
Author(s):  
Patricia McGee
Keyword(s):  
Course Design ◽  
Delivery Mode ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
Interpretive Analysis ◽  
Blended Courses ◽  
Education Coursework ◽  
Hybrid Course Design ◽  
Blended Course

Blended or hybrid course design is generally considered to involve a combination of online and classroom activities. However defining blended courses solely based on delivery mode suggests there is nothing more to a blended course than where students meet and how they use technology. Ultimately there is a risk that blended courses defined in this way will not utilize effective strategies that have proven to improve learning for students. This study investigates pedagogical strategies or designs that have reported success in higher education coursework as published in articles that address blended pedagogy. A qualitative meta-interpretive analysis identified eight themes: definitions of blended design, meetings for the learner, online priority, technology with a purpose, focused e-interactions, active learning, distribution of time, pedagogical chunking, and outliers and omissions.

Conversation Design in the Electronic Discussion Age

2008 ◽  
pp. 91-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory MacKinnon
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Collaborative Inquiry ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Blended Courses ◽  
Inquiry Approach ◽  
Conversation Theory ◽  
Blended Course

The goal of the chapter to examine a way in which Pask’ s conversation theory (CT) can be used as a theoretical framework for designing blended courses using a collaborative inquiry approach for teaching and learning in campus-based university. This chapter comprises three parts that explains a) the constructs of CT, and their relations in regard to online collaborative inquiry, b) the four principles derived from the constructs of CT and the possible use of these principles to design a blended course, and c) how the effects of these constructs can be used to assess the effectiveness of this CT based blended course design. This chapter is concluded with the discussion and implications for course design, and future research on CT.

scholarly journals Comparing the Factors That Predict Completion and Grades Among For-Credit and Open/MOOC Students in Online Learning

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ma. Victoria Almeda ◽  
Joshua Zuech ◽  
Ryan S. Baker ◽  
Chris Utz ◽  
Greg Higgins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Student Groups ◽  
Course Success ◽  
Learning Platform ◽  
Massive Online Open Courses ◽  
New Students ◽  
Open Courses

Online education continues to become an increasingly prominent part of higher education, but many students struggle in distance courses. For this reasonFor this reason, there has been considerable interest in predicting which students will succeed in online courses , achieving poor grades or dropping out prior to course completionn). Effective intervention depends on understanding which students are at-risk in terms of actionable factors, and behavior within an online course is one key potential factor for intervention. In recent years, many have suggested that Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) are a particularly useful place to conduct research into behavior and interventions, given both their size and the relatively low consequences/costs of experimentation. However, it is not yet clear whether the same factors are associated with student success in open courses such as MOOCs as in for-credit course -- an important consideration before transferring research results between these two contexts. While there has been considerable research in each context, differences between course design and population limit our ability to know how broadly findings generalize; differences between studies may have nothing to do with whether students are taking a course for-credit or as a MOOC. Do , this body of literature has been split into two-subcategories: research on success in MOOCs and research on success in For-credit courses. Few studies Few studies have attempted tohave attempted to understand how students and their learning experiences differ between these contexts, bypassing an opportunity to synthesize findings across different student populations who engage in online education. Do bypassing an opportunity to synthesize findings across different populations who engage in online education. To address this issue, we Do learners behave the same way in MOOCs and for-credit courses? AAre the implications for learning different, even for the exact same behaviors? In this paper, we study these issues through developing models that predict student course success from online interactions, in an online learning platform that caters to both distinct student groups (i.e., students who enroll on a for-credit or a non-credit basis). Our findings indicate that our models perform well enough to predict students’ course grades for new students across both of our populations. Furthermore, models trained on one of the two populations were able to generalize to new students in the other student population. We find that features related to comments were good predictors of student grade for both groups. Models generated from this research can now be used by instructors and course designers to identify at-risk students both for-credit and MOOC learners, towards providing both groups with better support.

The Meaning of Quality in Online/Blended Courses to American and Malaysian Administrators, Faculty, and Students

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Esther Smidt ◽  
Cecilia Yin Mei Cheong ◽  
Emily Dachroeden ◽  
Timothy Kochem
Keyword(s):  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Research Question ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public University ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Blended Courses ◽  
Blended Course ◽  
Quality Features

This article compares two studies, investigating administrator, faculty, and student perceptions of quality in online/blended courses conducted in two different contexts, namely (1) two midsize public universities in the United States, and (2) a college in a public university in Malaysia. The research question explored in both studies was: What is the meaning of “quality” in an online/blended course to administrators, faculty, and students? Survey data from the three constituents in both contexts were obtained. Qualitative data analysis revealed the top 7-8 quality features of each context as ranked by number of references. The results revealed similarities and differences in the rankings of the quality features between constituents and between contexts. Similarities suggested that different constituents had different priorities with regards to quality features while differences appeared to be based on where each institution was on their distance education trajectory. These findings should be considered and reflected on in online course design, teaching strategies, and student support.

Instructional Design for Class-Based and Computer-Mediated Learning

2009 ◽  
pp. 244-264
Author(s):  
Richard Walker ◽  
Walter Baets
Keyword(s):  
Blended Learning ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Net Generation ◽  
Mediated Learning ◽  
Instructional Approach ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Student Centred Learning ◽  
Blended Course

Blended learning occupies a prominent place within higher education teaching strategies, yet there is no clear definition for what we mean by this term as an instructional approach. In this chapter, we present a working definition for blended learning that is based around a learner-centred framework, and outline three instructional models for blended course design in support of student-centred learning. We have applied these models to a series of course experiments that were undertaken at two international business schools: Nyenrode Business University (The Netherlands) and Euromed Marseille École de Management (France). Common to each course design was the use of e-tools to solicit and share knowledge for the out-of-class phase of student learning. We discuss the reception of these models by students and their relevance to Net Generation learners in promoting socially active learning through collaboration and experience sharing. Drawing together the lessons learned from these experiments, we present an instructional framework for course designers, focusing on the key phases in the delivery of a blended course and the accompanying instructional responsibilities that underpin this instructional approach.

Using Flipped Classroom Components in Blended Courses to Maximize Student Learning

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Heinerichs ◽  
Gina Pazzaglia ◽  
Mary Beth Gilboy
Keyword(s):  
Student Learning ◽  
Athletic Training ◽  
Flipped Classroom ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Educational Approach ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Blended Courses ◽  
Consistent Basis ◽  
Bloom Taxonomy ◽  
Blended Course

Context: The flipped classroom is an educational approach that has become popular in higher education because it is student centered. Objective: To provide a rationale for a specific way of approaching the flipped classroom using a blended course design and resources necessary to help instructors be successful. Main Outcome Measure(s): Three class components are important to the flipped classroom: before-, during-, and after-classroom sessions. Each is important in helping instructors deliver content in ways that will engage students to use all levels of the Bloom taxonomy on a consistent basis. Implementing each component using a blended course delivery will allow faculty to meet the students where they are in their learning as well as maximize class time. Conclusions: Athletic training educators can successfully use flipped classroom principles in blended courses to create student-centered classes. Educators should strategically think about the course objectives and activities for each of the 3 components. Being deliberate in this approach will ensure the educator is both an expert and a facilitator helping students achieve all levels of the Bloom taxonomy to maximize student learning.

Logic as a Blended Course

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-156
Author(s):  
Alex Koo ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Course Design ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Order Logic ◽  
Online Video ◽  
Iterative Approach ◽  
Hybrid Courses ◽  
Effective Learning ◽  
First Order ◽  
Blended Courses ◽  
Blended Course

I present Modern Symbolic Logic, an introductory philosophy course in first-order logic, as a blended course. A blended course integrates online video learning with in-class activities, out of class supports, and deliverables into a cohesive and mutually supporting package. Blended courses are an enhancement on hybrid courses, which focus on online video learning but not on the additional supports needed for an effective learning experience. This paper has two central aims. The first is to present a blended course in action in order to address a need in the literature for detailed reports of blended classes. The second is to advance an iterative approach to blended course design that significantly lowers the bar of entry for instructions hoping to create a blended course.

scholarly journals Design of a blended learning environment: Considerations and implementation issues

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuray Gedik ◽  
Ercan Kiraz ◽  
M. Yasar Ozden
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Time Management ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Design Development ◽  
Implementation Processes ◽  
Design Considerations ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Blended Course

<p>This study identified critical issues in the design of a blended learning environment by examining basic design considerations and implementation issues. Following a design-based research approach with the phenomenological tradition of qualitative research, the study investigated instructor experiences relating to the design, development, and implementation processes of a blended course. The results reveal that the design considerations centred on the pedagogical approach, course organization, materials preparation, interactions, and the instructor's and students' roles. The affordances of the implementation included the arousal of the students' interest and participation, flexibility, time conservation, the ability to track student progress, and the improvement of interaction, collaboration, and communication opportunities. The challenges were increased workload, course and time management, overlaps, and the creation of harmony between the face-to-face and online environments. The overall results show that the critical issues involved context, the pedagogical framework, instructor competency, and technical issues in the blended course design.</p><p> </p>

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