Designing Engaging Blended Courses: Strategies for Success

1. Blended by Design:Designing and Developing a Blended Course Veronica Diaz, PhD,veronica.diaz@domail.maricopa.edu Jennifer Strickland, PhD, jennifer.strickland@mcmail.maricopa.edu

2. Day 2Course redesign and engagement

3. Objectives • Continue with the module design process • Describe instructional design techniques used to organize content • Identify course activities suited to the online or classroom environment • Review some classroom technologies • Explore strategies and techniques to infuse student-student and instructor-student interaction and engagement

4. Why (re)design into blended? • Ensures your design facilitates your course • Engage students in dynamic and vital communities • Students take more responsibility for content and learning • Students learn through active participation and inquiry • Assessing the Role of Teaching Presence from the Learner Perspective Dr. Randy Garrison, Dr. Norm Vaughan. Available at Blended Learning and Course Redesign in Higher Education &http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI07159.pdf.

5. Mapping Your Course, Part II • Give us a quick overview of how your face to face course maps out • What do you think will “translate” most easily? • What do you think will be most difficult to “translate”?

6. 5 Principles of Successful Course Redesign • Redesign the whole course. • Encourage active learning. • Provide students with individualized assistance. • Build in ongoing assessment and prompt feedback. • Ensure sufficient time on task and monitor student progress. http://thencat.org/PlanRes/R2R_PrinCR.htm

7. 4 Basic Redesign Steps • Identify course content for a module • Write learning objectives and develop instructional modules • Select course (re) design strategies: determining which strategy is most appropriate for your course • Integrate course content activities in classroom and online environments: determining what is best suited in either the online or classroom environment

8. Why Objectives? • Clear statement of what students will be able to do when they are finished with an instructional component • Focuses on student performance • Provides structure: beginning, middle, and end • What are the core concepts your students must learn for each module? • What do they need to know? • What do they need to be able to do? • What will they know as a result of my instruction?

9. Support Objectives by • Integrating learning technologies • Classroom technologies • Emerging technologies • Online resources • Developing diverse assessment techniques • Infusing active learning, interaction, and peer engagement

10. Why Modules? • Easier to find course content • Support consistency • Allows students to focus on content rather than form • Content becomes manageable • Prevents information overload • “7 +/-2 rule” Source: Blending In, March 2007

11. Meeting Objectives • Source: Blending In, March 2007

12. Course Organization • Dates • Topic • Readings • Section • Unit • Module

13. The Organization • Course content broken down into “chunks” • Course structure in a repetitive manner allowing for easy navigation • Content organized in conceptually related blocks • Consistent, logical, clear, common sense, apply past experience, let the content set the chunks Source: Blending In, March 2007

14. Mapping Your CoursePart II • In your chunk or module • What does the instructor do? • What does the learner do? • What can stay in the classroom? • What can happen online? • What is the relationship between the two? • Apply Bloom’s levels

15. Building Community among Students

16. What makes a successful community? • Individuals feel safe • Get questions answered • Have conversations • Get resources/information • Support • Friendship • Produce a product • Individual and shared identities

17. Jane Livingston, 2006, Building Community in a Blended Course, Educause

18. Building Community • Start early • Make it relevant • Identify connections • Create opportunities for engagement • Encourage participation

19. Collaboration Benefits • Passive to interactive • Increase retention of class materials • Develops critical thinking skills • Knowledge construction • Builds community • Team building • Interpersonal skills • Importance of emphasizing the relationship of interactive activities to “content”

20. Power Law of Participation Ross Mayfield: http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2006/04/power_law_of_pa.html

21. In Class: Student Collaborative or Interactive Activities • In class writing activities • 5 minute discussion questions • Scripted scenarios for role playing • Think-Pair-Share • Note Check • Case Studies • Discussions • Group Projects

22. Online: Student Collaborative or Interactive Activities • Case studies • Discussions • Forums: Panel or Symposium • Experiential Learning • Group Projects • Role-play • Games & Simulations • Demonstrations • Online Presentations • http://www.ion.illinois.edu/resources/tutorials/pedagogy/instructionalstrategies.asp

23. Activity • Keeping your module in mind, develop a community-building activity for use online or in the classroom • Report out

24. Break

25. Facilitating and Assessing Online Discussions

26. Please think about and answer the following questions. • How do you use classroom discussion in your current courses? • How do you assess students?

27. Written Communication in the Online Environment • Netiquette: • http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html

28. Discussion boards must be graded with substantial points assigned

29. Source: Teaching Online A Practical Guide by Ko and Rossen Ways to Use a Discussion Board • Prepare for upcoming in-class discussion (pre-assignment) • Reading • Review of literature • Follow-up to in-class discussion (continue discussion or post-assignment) • Extension of in-class discussion and assignments (exploratory, will not be covered in class)

30. Source: Teaching Online A Practical Guide by Ko and Rossen Ways to Use a Discussion Board Continued • Question and answer forum (to create an FAQ page) • Pose a problem and have students generate possible solutions – discuss those solutions • Students post homework or projects and get classmate feedback • Case study

31. Ways to Use a Discussion Board Continued • Students critique classmates’ work using provided evaluation guidelines • Find/evaluate web resources on lesson/topic and discuss results • Invite guest speakers/lecturers • Debate about topic

32. Quick Tip! • Consider allowing students to self assign groups that will take charge of and moderate/track a particular week’s interaction • Facilitate • Summarize • Record • Track participation • Lead discussion

33. Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching, Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt (pg. 121) Questioning Techniques • “Name and describe three social systems theories that apply to community development.” • “What theory of community development did you find yourself relating to most? Why? How would you apply that theory to our learning community?”

34. Moderating and Facilitating Online Discussion • Encourage participation • Ensure that some students don’t dominate • Keep discussion focused • Bring out multiple perspectives • Summarize highlights • Do not dominate or be over-involved in the discussion Source: Gregg Kearsley Online Education: Learning and Teaching in Cyberspace, Wadsworth: 2000, p. 85 Source: Tom Nolan, Sonoma State University http://www.sonoma.edu/users/n/nolan/501/powerpoint/moderating_facilitating/

35. Discussion Boards in Your Hybrids • How will you use the discussion board? • See Discussion Board Ideas handout

36. Utilizing Student Teams and Community Building

37. Which best describes your experience with student teams?

38. Using Teams • Based on the work of Larry Michaelsen (University of Oklahoma) • http://teambasedlearning.apsc.ubc.ca/ • 3 Keys • Promoting ongoing accountability • Using linked and mutually reinforcing assignments • Adopting practices that stimulate idea exchange

39. Promoting Ongoing Accountability • Require pre-group work • Require group members to express individual opinions and monitor via another member • Include peer evaluation in grading • Readiness Assurance Process • Test over readings • Group: Test, discuss, reach consensus and retest • Provide information for peer feedback process

40. Using linked and Mutually Reinforcing Assignments

41. Adopting Practices that Stimulate Idea Exchange Use of assignments that create conditions that foster give-and-take interaction Diversity of opinion, ideas, and perspectives • Not too easy • Not too much writing • Employ, select, apply concepts from the course • Assign roles • Use permanent groups • Allow some in-class group work • Size: 4-7

42. Team Teaching Tips • Outline learning goals • Teach team skills • Clear and detailed instructions • Rubric • Stages of team development • Forming - polite but untrusting • Storming - testing others • Norming - valuing other types • Performing - flexibility from trust

43. Team Contracts • Purpose, goals, and missions • Expectations • Roles • Conflict resolution strategies • Meetings • Communication • Decision-making policy • Agendas • Record-keeping

44. Other Resources • Team Based Learning (Michaelsen) • http://teambasedlearning.apsc.ubc.ca/?page_id=9 • Video Demonstrations • http://teambasedlearning.apsc.ubc.ca/v/michaelsenvid.html

46. 4 Questions as Guides • What do I want students to be able to DO after this unit of instruction (behavioral outcomes) • What will students have to KNOW to do XYZ (learning outcomes) • How can I ASSESS whether or not students have successfully mastered key course concepts? • How can I tell if students will be able to USE their knowledge of key course concepts? (application)

47. Activity • Using the 4 questions, develop some type of team activity for a unit in your course • Report out