What Students Want

It's 2013--hard to believe another year has begun...and I am still posting on this blog, even though no one is reading it. But, I like looking back at my own progress in thinking about blended learning. After completing another blended course (teaching it), I am convinced that (1) students really appreciate the lecture and problem videos I post, and (2) we owe it to students to post our material well in advance of the week to which it pertains. 

First, about my videos...the most popular part of my lecture videos, created in Articulate Storyline, is the use of the interactive "quiz" function. I insert questions--drag and drop, matching, multiple choice--in the material to give students an opportunity to stop and see what they have (or have not) learned. It's like an interactive lecture in a face-to-face class. In class, you might talk about a topic for a bit and then ask some questions. Online, you can embed them in the video. Students have asked for more of these "knowledge checks" in the videos. Already I include 3 to 5 in a 20-30 minute video. It's great to know my students are watching the videos and actually find them useful. The other type of video I use is made using Jing, Snag-it, or Camtasia (all increasingly powerful tools from TechSmith). I "walk" my student through a solution to an assigned problem in Excel. In accounting, the course I teach, students have to do a lot of problems. They can listen to me while watching me populate an Excel spreadsheet with the solution, pausing and rewinding the video whenever necessary. These videos aren't as fancy as my Storyline videos--no great graphics or interactivity--but they are extremely popular in my courses (both the blended and the face-to-face courses).

Second, about the timing of posting materials...one of the great benefits of online learning is the flexibility it provides students who have busy lives, many of them with full-time jobs. If we post our materials and assignments well in advance, it gives our students the ability to read ahead and work on assignments when they might have a slow time at work. If we wait until the week begins to post that week's readings and assignments, we destroy that benefit. I strongly believe it our responsibility as educators to do whatever we can to help our students learn. Believe me, this is one thing we can and should do. I am currently finishing my masters degree in instructional design, in which the majority of the courses have been online. How disappointed I am when a professor doesn't post the week's work until the week has begun! As a full time working professional, I have weeks when I am not able to dedicate as much time to my studies as other times. When a professor posts the work several weeks in advance, I am able to plan my time to maximize my learning.

So make some videos and post your material in advance. Students will thank you for both!

Building a Template for a Blended Course

 

Why is it so difficult to build a good template for a BLENDED course? I think it's because there are a million different looks to a blended course, so the template has to be super-flexible. In the course I'm taking this semester (Designing a Blended Course), our current assignment is to design a template; so I've been giving it a lot of thought. So far, I've drafted a three-part template: Part 1--general course characteristics like objectives, topics, planned lectures, assignments, etc.; Part 2--a F2F module template with a part that helps link it to a subsequent online module; and Part 3--an online module template with a part that helps link it back to the next F2F meeting. The last two parts would be used multiple times in the mix that a professor has chosen for her course. Do you think that such a template would be useful in designing a blended course?

Swimming in Blended Learning

This semester I feel like I am swimming (think refreshing, not drowning) in blended learning. I am taking a course (in pursuit of my instructional design master's degree at UMass Boston), and I am participating in the BlendKit2012 online course offered by UCF. Earlier this week I did an IT-sponsored workshop for faculty on thinking about what should be online and what should be F2F in a blended course. Finally, I am "blending" my core accounting course (that I am teaching to new MBA students) with 25% of the F2F classes being replaced by online activities. By the end of this semester, I hope to know a great deal more about what to do and what not to do when teaching a blended course!

What I absolutely know is this: there are many great resources to help us get better at this! A recent article from the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks provides some "best practices" that are definitely worth reading. Here are some examples from the article:

Category	Best Practice
Design Process	The best strategy begins with clear course objectives. Don't shortcut here!
Pedagogical Strategies	Varied interactivity and prompt feedback are key to student engagement.
Technology Utilization	The main tools promoted in the literature are discussions and wikis.
Assessment Strategies	Effective practices are divided on when and where assessments should occur, but the preference is for assessment to be conducted online.
Course Implementation Student Readiness (addressed together in the article)	Communication of the blended design, expectation, and process is key for student success. A F2F orientation is a good way to start!

 

McGee, P. & Reis, A. (2012). Blended course design: A synthesis of best practices. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 16(4), 7-22. 

The old model is out of date...

The traditional model of pouring knowledge into our students' brains is no longer valid. As professors, we are no longer the dispensers of knowledge and wisdom. Even if our students wish we would simply lecture and tell them everything they need to know, we can no longer take this approach. In a world where information is plentiful and critical thinkers are not, our approach must be to design our courses so that students will be forced to take responsibility for their own learning. Our role should be to encourage, guide, and challenge our students--not simply attempt to transfer our knowledge to their brains. 


We should be prepared for some resistance to this approach. Most of our students have experienced more of the traditional teaching model than the student-responsibility model. They may complain that "they are not getting their money's worth" if the professor doesn't take the traditional role as "the sage on the stage." As we move from face-to-face courses to blended courses, it will become more apparent to everyone--students and professors--that students must take responsibility for their own learning. 


Think about the Blend 101 course you just sat through. Did you enjoy the professor-led class sessions more than any of the online weeks? The model where the students simply listen and join in a class discussion may be appealing to those of us who were educated with that model. Did you take responsibility for your own learning during the online weeks? How will we motivate our students to take this responsibility?

Lifelong Learning and Change

One of the things we want to teach our students is to become lifelong learners. Advances in technology have now put us to the test: Can we do what we have preached to our students? Can we show that we, too, are lifelong learners? I’m repeatedly surprised that so many professors simply don’t want to change what they have always done. There’s a “don’t fix what is not broken” attitude among many professors. As long as student evaluations are excellent and the students are passing my tests, then everything is perfect just as it is. There is a fatal flaw in that thinking, and it’s one that we frequently talk about in business courses.

When I was young, we had one telephone in the house, firmly attached to the wall. It worked. It wasn’t broken. To many people who couldn’t imagine the smart phone world that now exists, there was no need to change. (I imagine that the parents of some teenagers wish that phones were still firmly attached to the house.) Many successful companies have become UNsuccessful companies precisely because they stalled in their success while the world passed them by. As educators, we need to be careful not to become too satisfied with our “success.” Drops in enrollments (drop in demand for our product) DEMANDS that we keep learning, changing, and challenging ourselves to move forward. 

Here something important (and perhaps obvious) that I've learned from taking online courses and from teaching a blended course:
It's just like a traditional course in this way: A majority of students will put in a minimum amount of effort unless the assignment/reading/discussion is graded. When one of my professors has an "optional" discussion or assignment, only a handful of students participate. We are all focused on the many assignments and readings that are graded and often don't have (or take) the time for "extra" work. With respect to this blended class, many "students" want to get whatever is easy and comfortable--like coming to the F2F sessions but don't want to put out the effort necessary to do the online part of the course. The lesson for us is that we must think very carefully about the incentives we provide for our E and P students in the new blended programs to make sure they stay involved and engaged in the course between the F2F sessions. The assignments and discussions must be meaningful and necessary for success in the course. For this blended course (Blend 101), anything that those who are taking the course can learn from the experience is a plus. For our MBA programs, engaging the students is not optional. It is critical to the success of our programs.

I spent way too much time listening to webinars on blended learning this week! The one message I that I came away with from each of them was this: INSTRUCTOR PRESENCE is crucial to a good online experience for the student. That's a combination of a good syllabus, good materials, audio and video presence (students love to see you and/or hear you), and participation in the discussion boards. In my own online experiences, I can confirm the importance of this. A good student (and that is one thing that I have always been) is on the course website everyday and loves to see that the instructor is, too. While you may not need any advice from me about teaching, please know that you can trust my advice as a student! Who else would go back to school for a master's degree at 62. Heck, I'll be 63 when I finally get it!