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
- Read and view the module content.
- 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.)
- Optional: Attend the online session live at 10:00 AM in E225 on Monday, April 28th.
- Recommended: Find time to meet with Jen or Sally for an individual consultation.
- 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.
eLWTech 
I just love that criticism ‘hole in the wall’ TED talk by Sugata Mitra….I can understand the confusion is normal, especially when there are so many good educator/people contributing great things/tools for us to use. We as ‘a learner’ must use what is pertinent to our teaching and at our own pace.
I liked this TED talk a lot…
“Do they have access to the required technology?” Even in F2F classes, I require written assignments to be turned in on Canvas. If a student is in a blended or online course, the technology to participate in discussions and upload assignments should be a given. In F2F, all my students have been OK with learning Canvas (and Angel before that) until one student this quarter who keeps saying, “I’m no good with computers,” even though she has a laptop that she brings to class. Is it unreasonable to expect her to learn to use Canvas? I don’t think this type of technology, and much more, can be avoided at any college.
Sherry, some folks are working on web-enhanced courses that won’t be listed as hybrid in the schedule. For those courses, they need to have more flexibility with students who may not have skills or access. But I do also think it’s our responsibility to make sure our students walk out of here with basic computer skills, even if they arrive here without them!