#BlendKit2014 Description of Project Document Requirements

I have created a separate set of documents for our college participants taking the #BlendKit2014 course. They are similar to those in the course, and designed to achieve the same objectives. The spirit of the course encourages participants to use the documents as inspiration to develop materials that meet individual needs.

For our local project, we’re developing documents that can be shared and reused by other instructors.  Assigning Creative Commons licenses allows instructors to receive attribution for their work. (Our college IP policy gives copyright ownership to the college for any course materials created by instructors while funded by the college.) The documents I’m requiring for the project do not include all those available in the course.

1. Blueprint – This document is basically an outline of the course. Many instructors already have this information in some format and will simply fill in the form. I created a new version of this because I felt it might be too challenging for some to fit all the necessary text in the graphical representation included with the course materials. (Official course Blueprint document.)
2. Mix Map – This document gets you thinking about the types of activities you can do online, blended and face-to-face. You might start by filling in things you already do, and then add activities you’ve learned about during the course. If you are enhancing a face-to-face course but not displacing any seat time, you may have fewer online activities than you would if you’re converting a course to a hybrid course where online activities displace classroom activities. I revised the official document, which included a visual diagram, with a simple table format. (Official course MixMap document.)
3. Schedule – This document is just a simple schedule of the course online and face-to-face sessions. I didn’t revise it much. It can also be included as a component of the syllabus. (Official course Schedule document.)
4. Syllabus – The Syllabus includes components unique to our college. Instructors should also include protocols, such as those presented in the official course Protocols document. You may include your schedule as part of the Syllabus.
5. Assignment Instructions – For our project I’m requiring Assignment instructions for a single assignment. Here’s an example of one that’s been filled in. (Official course Assignment Instructions document.)
6. Module Template – For our project I’m requiring a completed Module Template for a single module in your course. This doesn’t have to be the first module of the course.  (Official course Module Template document.)

These documents count toward the requirements for our college and can be used as submissions for the DiY assignments in the course. (You have to complete a single assignment for each module, and DiY assignments are one of the options each week.) The documents, combined with the course completion badge and a reflection statement, also cover the portfolio requirements. The documents should address the rubric criteria and the reflection statement describes how the documents address the criteria. Participants must score 6 points on the rubric below in order to receive the credential.

Portfolio submissions are due to the course by June 2nd, and the completed project documents are due to me by June 6th. I’ll contact participants with instructions for submitting our local documents.

 

#BlendKit2014 Module 2 Overview – Blended Interactions

Module 2: Blended Interactions

Summary

The chapter this week cites survey findings and research studies that support the importance of interactions to engage students in Blended Learning. Interactions can occur between student and instructor, student and fellow students, student and content, and student and external participants.  Online interactions typically require students to take responsibility for their own learning. The chapter mentions the Sugata Mitra ‘Hole in the Wall’ experiment. You may wish to search for criticism of the experiment and come to your own conclusions.

Instructors in blended courses often find they are serving a different role than in a face-to-face class. I like to ask instructors to visualize that role and consider a relevant metaphor for teaching. Will you be a guide? Conductor? Concierge? Curator? Here’s a short screencast one of my former students, Bruce Wolcott, created to describe his own teaching metaphor.

This chapter also discusses synchronous and asynchronous interaction. Synchronous activities occur when participants are in the same place at the same time, such as in the classroom or in an online video conference. Asynchronous interaction occurs in the same place, but at different times, like the comments on this blog, or posts in an online discussion.  Both can be effective when appropriately applied. If you’re considering online synchronous interactions, make sure students have clear expectations about their responsibilities to attend. Sometimes students take online or hybrid courses because they are not available to participate at scheduled times.

For this chapter, it’s important to consider your student population and what might work for them. Are there language barriers? Do the students have communication skills to participate in online discussions? Do they have access to the required technology? What interactions can enhance student learning and assessment without technology getting in the way? What guidelines or boundaries must you set for your students to help them interact successfully?

Activities

1. Read and view the module content.
2. Complete at least one assignment. (The DiY assignment this week includes a few extras I won’t require. I won’t be asking for a separate Protocols document or Module Interactions Worksheet.)
3. Optional: Attend the online session live at 10:00 AM in E225 on Monday, April 28th.
4. Recommended: Find time to meet with Jen or Sally for an individual consultation.
5. Recommended: Take a look at Boettcher and Conrad’s 10 Best Practices for Teaching Online

Tips

The DiY templates in the course are part of a ‘kit’ to help inspire you to develop your course. It is fine to revise them or create alternatives. The instructor isn’t expecting you to turn in the exact documents. The alternatives I created for this project are fine to submit for the course assignments. You are also welcome to modify them or create your own.

I’ve started collecting links to eLearning tools here on the blog. I’ll be updating this as I find time.

Housekeeping

Files are not due to eLearning until June 6th, but I’m happy to give feedback if you wish to share them with me.  I’ve already seen some great creative interpretations as instructors adapt the documents to meet their own needs.

#BlendKit2014 You Don’t Need to Love it to Learn From it

I’ve spent the past week fielding complaints and confusion about the #BlendKit2014 course. I’m still optimistic this experience can be salvaged. I think it’s important for participants to recognize the course was developed to address an audience with a wide range of experience and expectations. It’s built with flexibility in mind, so students can participate in a way that works best for their learning needs.

Unfortunately, that flexibility favors the experienced online learner who’s used to responsibility for self-directed learning. Participants with limited experience in online courses and communities can feel overwhelmed by the options. The course also addresses an audience from diverse disciplines and institutional structures and service areas. Our own project group within the course is so diverse, I’m working with participants individually to help them find value in the course. This image is a visualization of our participant teaching areas.

Despite the challenges, I believe we can still learn much from the experience. We don’t need to love it to learn from it. Here are some of the ways we can turn our experiences into opportunities to improve our own professional practice.

• If you find the course instructions confusing, what changes might you make to ensure your own students don’t experience the same in your courses?
• If you feel overwhelmed by the available choices, how might you limit choices or guide your own students so they have a more positive experience?
• If you feel the content is irrelevant to your teaching practice, what strategies do you think you could employ in your own courses to make sure you understand your audience and provide them with clear expectations about the course content?
• If you feel the assignments and assessments don’t contribute to or identify your learning, what can you do in your own courses to ensure assignments and assessments are relevant and students find value in completing them?
• If you are experiencing issues with technology that impact your ability to successfully participate in the course, how might you build flexibility into your own courses to accommodate for students who experience technical issues?

The best part of experiencing a course that doesn’t meet your expectations or causes you frustration, is that you learn what not to do in your own professional practice.

 

#BlendKit2014 Blended or Hybrid?

Much of the discussion in Week 1 of the #BlendKit2014 course centered around definitions of Blended Learning, and the difference between Blended and Hybrid courses.  I don’t know that there’s a perfect definition, and there’s a good chance corporations will have the last say in defining Blended Learning. There’s already movement to include Adaptive Learning as an important component of Blended Learning.

For the instructors participating in our project, Blended Learning might mean replacing a few of their classroom activities with online activities, or converting a face-to-face course to a Hybrid course. We have local confusion about the definition of Hybrid courses. Our faculty bargaining agreement includes a definition in the section on Distance Learning that defines Hybrid courses as those with at least 51% of instruction conducted online. This definition is designed to designate boundaries for compensation for course redevelopment. This does not match the way the state, or industry defines Hybrid courses.

Hybrid courses are courses where faculty and students spend some time meeting face to face, but online activities displace some portion of the typically scheduled face-to-face time required for the number of credits in that course. There could be a single face-to-face meeting, a weekly meeting, a reduction of weekly meeting time by an hour or two or any number of combinations. They key is that student seat time is reduced and they are expected to actively engage in online activities, not just additional homework.

The division of online and face-to-face activities should be based on the instructional requirements for students to successfully achieve course outcomes. Some courses require a great deal of hands-on practice using equipment or software students are not likely to have access to outside the college. It doesn’t make sense to automatically remove half the class meetings in order to convert these courses to hybrid. In courses where face-to-face time is frequently spent in passive lectures, there are many online activities that can improve on the classroom experience.

The #BlendKit2014 course offers ideas and suggestions for the types of activities and assessments that can be successfully conducted online. Instructors should identify online activities that work for their content area and instructional requirements. Once effective online activities and assessments are identified, instructors can determine a valid distribution between face-to-face and online participation, in order to develop a Hybrid course. Don’t be surprised if your distribution between online and face-to-face activities looks more like 80/20 or 20/80.  The 51% guideline can be discouraging to instructors developing their first hybrid courses. Ignore the numbers and do what works best for your instructional context.

#BlendKit2014 – Confusion is Normal

We have more than 30 instructors participating in the UCF/EDUCAUSE #BlendKit2014 MOOC. The first week has left many instructors confused and overwhelmed. This is normal for those experiencing their first online course, and it’s valuable to experience this frustration from the student perspective. Part of the confusion is with the other part of the project, which requires instructors to create course materials. I’ve aligned our requirements with the course, but I’m overwhelming participants with content.

There were also technical issues with the course. The first survey was back-dated, so students thought they had submitted it late. Some of the content wasn’t ready, so links didn’t work. The live session had technical difficulties. The course materials mentioned availability of the material in PDF and Kindle format, but those were not an option. It was also confusing to have all assignments in a Canvas module, even though students only need to submit one each week. Canvas modules include navigation from item to item, so it wasn’t clear students didn’t need to complete it all. It might have been more effective to present assignments as links on a page, with clear instructions students only need to complete one assignment to earn the completion badge.

Moving forward, I would like to start each week with stronger facilitation of the course. I’ll create an introduction to the module and explicit instructions about the work to be done that week.  If I had a chance to start week 1 all over again, here’s what I’d do:

Module 1: Understanding Blended Learning

Summary

This module introduces blended learning and the variety of ways course design can incorporate face-to-face and online learning experiences. The Mix Map and Course Blueprint are tools instructors and course designers can use to begin planning blended courses. The Mix Map helps to visually divide course activities into online, face-to-face and combined learning experiences. The Course Blueprint is basically an outline of the key components of the course. The BlendKit course contains sample documents, but I have revised them in a way that better matches our project. These are sample starting points, and you are encouraged to be creative and modify them as you like.

Activities

1. Read and view the instructional content (1-2 hours)
2. Complete at least one assignment to qualify for the course completion badge, which is required for the credential. (1-2 hours)
   • If you complete the DiY assignment, you’ll also be satisfying requirements for the project deliverables. You can find my Mix Map and Blueprint templates in the shared Google Drive folder. These are fine to submit for the course assignment. These do not have to be complete, as this is a first draft and can be resubmitted later.

Tips

When you click the Week 01 Activities link in the Canvas module, it opens the page from the online course materials. The page isn’t clearly divided into readings and assignments. The readings are at the top of the page and the assignments start with ‘Reading Reaction.’ These are descriptions of the 5 assignments. You only need to complete 1. The links to the assignment submission locations are in the Canvas course.

Housekeeping

• You don’t need to submit anything to eLearning this week.
• You don’t need to register for the portfolio review. eLearning will get info about enrolling everyone in a batch.