Course Design for Blended Learning Dr. Rebecca Frost Davis, Program Officer for the Humanities, National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE) Blended learning offers many opportunities for liberal arts colleges to enhance the curriculum, but how can faculty maintain the essential values of liberal education in an educational context combining online and face-to-face interaction? This seminar will examine successful methods and processes for blended learning course design. Examples will include designing online courses from liberal arts values, flipping the classroom, and academic collaboration between campuses. Interactive exercises for course design will help participants leave with a process and next steps for developing blended learning experiences in their own courses.

1. What’s your current process for
course design?
Type your answer in the chat room.

2. Course Design for Blended Learning
An ACS Blended Learning Webinar
Rebecca Frost Davis
September 14, 2012

3. Participating in Today’s NITLE Seminar
Photo courtesy of
http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelinlibrarian/3251345730/
Twitter: #blendedlearning RECORDING NOW
Presentation Materials
1
2
3: Type chat here.

4. Recent & Upcoming NITLE Seminars
• Blended Learning in a Liberal Arts Setting, September 12
• Designing Online Resources to Enhance In-Class Interactions,
September 20, 4-5 pm EDT
– Integrating online & face-to-face for blended learning in
liberal arts context.
• FemTechNet: The First DOCC/A* Feminist MOOC, October 4,
4-5 pm EDT
– Distributed Online Collaborative Course: Join this
networked learning experiment.
• http://www.nitle.org/events/events_list.php

5. Seminar Goals
• Learn about course design process for blended
learning
• Discuss how blended learning fits the liberal
arts environment
• Examine case studies for best practices
• Practice course design process for blended
learning

6. Defining Blended Learning
• “computer-mediated instruction that is
combined with the interpersonal and
interactive pedagogy that distinguishes the
ACS institutions”. (from the ACS CFP for
blended learning grants)
• http://colleges.org/blended_learning/index.html

7. University of Central Florida
• “a portion of the traditional face-to-face
instruction is replaced by web-based online
learning” BlendKit Reader: Chapter 1
• Shortage of classroom space prompted move
online
• http://blended.online.ucf.edu/blendkit-
course-blendkit-reader-chapter-1/

8. Bryn Mawr College
• Courses in which students both participate in
face-to-face classes and work through
computer-based, interactive tutorials and
quizzes that provide customized learning and
instant feedback

9. EXAMPLES OF BLENDED LEARNING
Our Case Studies

10. Flipping the Classroom
• Dr. Jennifer Ebbeler, Associate Professor of Classics,
University of Texas
• Classical Civilization 302, Introduction to Ancient
Rome
• Recorded lectures (video + ppt)
• Class time focused on ethics case studies

11. Blended Learning in a Liberal Arts Setting
• Bryn Mawr College, NGLC grant-funded program
• “Using Blended Learning in a Liberal Arts
Environment to Improve Developmental and
Gatekeeper STEM Course Completion, Persistence,
and College Completion”
• Computer-based, interactive tutorials and quizzes
that provide customized learning and instant
feedback, e.g., Open Learning Initiative modules
• http://nextgenlearning.blogs.brynmawr.edu/

12. Intercampus Interaction or Collaboration
• Sunoikisis intercampus courses (ICCs) in
advanced Greek & Latin
• SUNY-COIL Globally Networked Learning
• FemTechNet: Distributed Online Collaborative
Course
Fall 2006 Sunoikisis ICCs

13. Liberal Arts Fully Online
• Stetson University Summer Online:
http://www.stetson.edu/other/online/summer/
– Class meetings online in desktop videoconferencing
• University of Mary Washington Online Learning
Initiative
– Steven Greenlaw, Acting Director, University Teaching
Center, & Professor of Economics
– Econ 201: Principles of Macroeconomics

14. What’s your current process for
course design?
Type your answer in the chat room.

15. ADDIE Design Process

16. Backwards Design
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine Acceptable Evidence
3. Plan Learning Experiences
• Understanding by Design, Grant Wiggins and
Jay McTighe
– Cf. Mark Sample’s “Planning a Class with Backward
Design”

17. Design for Flexible Learning
• Networked Learning
• Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the
Digital Age.” elearnspace, December 12, 2004.
• Creation of a knowledge ecology where the
learner can find their own pathways.
• Networks of learners and content

18. DDIE Analysis: Why blend?
• Why do you want to do this?
• What are your pedagogical goals?
• What advantages do you expect that blending
will give you?
• Answer in the chat room.

19. Save Money or Resources
• Save money: fiscal motivations at institutional
level:
– compensate for limited classroom space (UCF)
– effective use of information technology to
improve student learning outcomes and reduce
the cost of higher education National Center for
Academic Transformation
• Student convenience

20. Improve Student Learning
• Department of Education, Evaluation of
Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning :
A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online
Learning Studies
• Enhance student engagement, e.g., getting
the quiet ones engaged with online discussion
or addressing multiple learning styles
• Student performance analytics & intentional
learning (metacognition)

21. Melt Space-Time Restrictions
• Free up more time for more meaningful
interactions
• Expand the classroom
• Bring more real world examples in the
classroom
• Multiple and global perspectives
• Navigate successfully in a digital world

22. Liberal Arts Interaction as Goal
• “combined with the interpersonal and
interactive pedagogy that distinguishes the
ACS institutions”
• What kind of interaction do you want to
preserve?
• Can the blended elements also promote
interaction and active learning?

23. Mary Washington University
1. Define liberal arts values
2. Develop process to ensure values are
integrated
3. Faculty development: thinking about
teaching and learning

24. Defining Liberal Arts Values
• Five fundamental values of a liberal arts
education:
– Community
– Interactivity
– Active learning
– Reflection
– Self-directed learning
• What are yours?
– Answer in the chat room.

25. STEP 2: DESIGN
A DIE

26. Econ 201: Principles of Macroeconomics
• Online Course Proposal
– Course description
– Learning Objectives
– Online Learning Environment Description
– How will this course will meet the Mary
Washington liberal arts values?
– How do course learning goals connect to Mary
Washington liberal arts values?

27. DESIGN PRINCIPLES
A DIE

28. Advanced Planning
• Checklist for integrating digital humanities
projects into courses with Kathryn Tomasek,
Wheaton College
– Connecting course & Project
– Scaffolding & Chunking
– Collaborative Teaching
– Logistics
“This is where a little effort pays off.”

29. Flexibility
• Current academic structures from industrial
age
– Cathy Davidson and David Goldberg, Future of
Learning Institutions in a Digital Age
• What structures might blended learning help
you escape?
• What structures do you have to keep in mind?

30. Shifting Coverage of Content
• Making time for learning new platforms
• Making time for experiential or problem-
based learning
• Content determines timing
• Online learning modules: students determine
coverage
• Course work & time expectations?

31. Figuring out Your Blend
Photo courtesy of Flickr User Chris Hunkeler
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrishunkeler/7123689937/in/photostream/

32. Blend Options
• Asynchronous modules
• Synchronous online interaction
• Threaded discussion
• Digital project work
• Online elements for self-study
• Modules with built-in feedback
• Assessments
• And many more . . .

33. BlendKit
• Create ideal learning plan
• Analyze the elements that can be delivered online
without compromising effectiveness
• http://blended.online.ucf.edu/blendkit-course-diy-
project-tasks/
• BlendKit2012 MOOC
– Monday, September 24 to Monday, October 29, 2012
– http://blended.online.ucf.edu/blendkit-course/

34. Course Blueprint
Course
Blueprint
for
Meeting
Learning
Goals

35. MixMap for Integration

36. Consider Constraints
• Platform Availability
– video chat, lecture capture, etc.
• Consult with Information Technology!!!!!
• Finding or creating appropriate open
educational resources

37. (Open) Educational Resources
• Open Learning Initiative: http://oli.cmu.edu/
• Bryn Mawr:
https://moodle.brynmawr.edu/course/view.php?id=762
• Open University in the UK: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/
• MERLOT: www.merlot.org/
• Science activities: http://www.concord.org/activities
• http://www.oercommons.org/
• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
• Connexions: http://cnx.org/
• DHCommons: http://www.dhcommons.org

38. Creating Resources
• Spohrer (Bryn Mawr) reports 50 hours
• Designing Online Resources to Enhance In-Class
Interactions, September 20, 4-5 pm EDT
– Jeremy Donald, Mike Winiski, David Wright
– Analyzing and Creating Maps
– Beyond the (Online) Handbook: Writing Resources
Designed for the Digital Environment

39. ADD : Plan for Assessment & Iteration
• Talk to local assessment experts
• Figure out what you want to evaluate in
advance
• Make room for risk-taking
– Middlebury College’s pass-fail course evaluations
– Grants
– Work with center for teaching & learning
• Repeat and Tweak

40. ADD E: Implementation
• Transparency with students
• Avoid add-on model
• Ensure coherence between F2F & online
• Avoid direct conversion without recasting
• Technology to promote learning not spectacle
• Charles Henderson, Melissa Dancy, and Magdalena
Niewiadomska-Bugaj. “Use of Research-based Instructional
Strategies in Introductory Physics: Where Do Faculty Leave the
Innovation-decision Process?” Physical Review Special
Topics—Physics Education Research 8, no. 020104 (2012): 1–
15.