A Skype-Buddy Model for Blended Learning

Universities are challenged with providing quality educational experiences that meet students’ needs for engagement and collaboration. The availability of computer-mediated communication tools provides opportunities for such needs to be met as well as allows students the opportunity to complete higher education degree requirements in virtual environments This chapter discusses how Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) was used in a unique Skype-Buddy system to provide virtual face-to-face participation in traditional doctoral classrooms. Students’ and professors’ satisfaction, benefits, challenges, and surprises in this system are examined. Results and recommendations from this study are applicable in undergraduate and secondary level classrooms.

Key Factors for Maximizing the Effectiveness of Blended E-Learning

The chapter focuses on the main factors, which should be met in order to maximize the effectiveness of a blended e-learning program for adult learners. The factors discussed in this chapter are derived from the perspectives of the learners, scientific staff, administrative staff, and the technical staff engaged in the distance learning process. Specifically, these factors have emerged through the internal evaluation of a national program, Design and Implementation of Distance Learning Programs, implemented in Greece via the Distance Adult Education Center for Lifelong Learning. Findings on the strengths and weaknesses of the program as well as suggestions for implementation of future related programs are also discussed in the chapter. The findings indicate that harmonization of program content and the educational process with the principles of adult education both in face-to-face and online environment has a positive effect on the educational outcome of the program. In addition, the appropriate use of the communication tools in the Learning Management System (LMS) is very important for the effectiveness of the program.

Blended Learning Support for Undergraduate Students’ Research and Writing Skills Development

In this exploratory study, a subject librarian and a writing instructor investigated the potential of designing blended learning around research paper assignments in the context of two foundational courses in the Faculty of Human Ecology at the University of Manitoba, Canada. The objective was to explore alternative, more embedded learning support for undergraduate students. The significance of blended learning support was situated in the broader literature of the teaching and learning practices in higher education. In this case study, descriptions of blended learning support for facilitating student learning, and of the main barrier to its implementation are provided. Based on what was learned in the exploratory study, the chapter provides working guidelines for designing and developing blended learning support, mainly drawing from Butler and Cartier’s (2004) research on academic engagement.

A Blended Course to Teach Graphical Programming Using LabVIEW

In this chapter, the authors introduce a blended learning approach where LabVIEW, an e-learning environment, was integrated into a traditional graphical programming course for engineering students to teach advanced topics and to increase the programming skills of the students. In this course, the students were required to design projects using technology. The students designed small projects and frequently accessed the e-learning system to build real-world applications. The projects that students designed stimulated them to use the e-learning system. The impact of blended learning was evaluated on the basis of student surveys and certification test results. Experimental studies show that blended learning produced higher results in the students’ self-assessment and certification test.

Innovations in Blended-Learning

This research was born out of a necessity to accommodate students with learning disabilities who study English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at the Ashkelon Academic College in Israel. It was aimed at examining whether a convergence of traditional teaching and computer technology complemented by e-learning could assist students with Learning Disabilities (LD) to bypass their initial disadvantages when it came to studying English. Groups of LD students selected for study were given five regular and two guided reading tests to explore whether the use of blended learning improved the reading comprehension abilities of students in the sample group.

Fantasy Workshop

Fantasy Workshop is a project focused on the active use of a Learning Management System (LMS), itslearning, in teaching and learning in a K-12 blended environment. As teachers in this study, the authors used an LMS as a learning platform in their 6th grade literature class. The focus for the class was creative writing and learning about Fantasy, a fiction genre. The aim of the project was to enable all students, not only those students who love to read and write, to learn about the Fantasy genre in a way that would build on their previous knowledge and interests. In addition, the project was aimed at facilitating students’ writing processes in such a way that was meaningful and motivating for all students. Most importantly, as teachers, the authors used this project to establish an effective blended environment that worked for teaching and learning in the 6th grade classroom.

Blending Face-to-Face and Technology

Flipped or inverted learning is a type of blended learning that involves the use of educational technology to switch or flip what is traditionally done in the classroom with what is done as homework. With the flipped model, lectures are often recorded for students to watch at home while traditional homework, or projects that involve application, are done in the classroom with the teacher available as a guide and resource. Like any new teaching method, with the flipped learning model there is a need for the instructor to evaluate its use and determine whether changes will be required with each implementation. In this chapter, an overview of the history of the flipped model is presented. In addition, an outline of methods like universal design that can be implemented for learning in flipped classrooms is provided.

Blended Learning

Blended learning provides an opportunity to rethink the ways in which instructors and learners use face-to-face and online distance learning modalities. Sometimes, this opportunity is missed and the resulting blended course is no more than a mechanical mix that serves pragmatic purposes but fails to reshape learning. This chapter rethinks the structure and dynamics of blended learning experiences and considers what it might mean to use different teaching/learning modalities. It explores the possibilities, challenges, and design of blended learning from a perspective of variation theory. It also reviews strategies to make explicit the differences in structure and dynamics of face-to-face and online distance environments that are encountered by the learner and suggests the benefits and limitations of such strategies.

The Flipped Approach

Learning is an important part of the development of a child into a productive member of society. However, in today’s society much of the pressure of learning is not put on the student, but rather the teacher. In order to promote adults as lifelong learners who can go out and help solve problems in this world, the focus of learning in the classroom needs to be on the students. A flipped classroom rather than a traditional classroom approach may help with this endeavor. Students gain many benefits from the flipped classroom where they can watch lectures at home that pass important concepts along to the students. This gives students more time in class with the teacher to perform guided inquiries, labs, problem sets, or extra practice on a content area. The effectiveness of student achievement, growth, lifelong learning ability, and opinion of integrating a flipped classroom into a secondary education classroom are examined in this chapter.

A Blended Approach to Canadian First Nations Education

This chapter describes a research study that investigated how a blended approach to Canadian First Nations education could be used to foster student engagement and success. The study examined the SCcyber E-Learning Community program through the lens of the Seven Principles of Effective Teaching (Chickering & Gamson, 1999). Data was collected via an online survey, interviews, and site visits. The study participants indicated that the deliberate and intentional integration of mentors at local learning centers with online teachers, who provide synchronous tutorials through the use of a Web-based learning management system and conferencing tool, was the key to academic success.