BlendKit Module 4 Reading Reaction

As I consider and reconsider how I want to put the course that I'm developing together, I continue coming back to the final deliverable I want from participants in the course: a full demonstration that the participants (new teaching assistants) are able to utilize our campus LMS effectively. With teaching assistants not always able to return to campus at a specific date and time, in particular if the teaching assistants are international students or are delayed on accessing their housing, ensuring that course content is online is critical.

So as I read though Chapter 4, I think about how I want to move forward with the learning techniques. The teaching assistants will receive training in classroom skills from another campus organization, so where do I want the focus to be? Since everything should build until the final project, I see the course as a blending of several techniques. For each module, I want the students to practice what they've learned - following very specific instructions on how to complete various assignments or tasks. The final project would integrate some experiential opportunities for the participants to build content in a simulated course.

In the end our teaching assistants have a limited amount of time to complete the course and the more practical experiences they have will help better prepare them to assist their faculty supervisors. This course should also encourage participants to explore more features within the LMS.

Week 3 Reading Reaction for BlendKit

As I read through the chapter titled Blended Assessments of Learning in the BlendKit course, I'm thinking about the assessments I'll be using in the training course that I'm redeveloping as part of my BlendKit experience.  Since the course is meant to be done as much as possible on one's own with a final assessment at the end, I'm considering several paths to assessment:

• Final project assessment at end (only assessment).
• Low-stakes quizzes at the end of each module, plus final project assessment.  
• No-stakes quizzes (for reinforcement only), plus final project assessment.

I'm not concerned about giving quizzes, timed or otherwise, to participants in the course.  I expect these participants to have experience taking online assessments (our institution requires online training assessments for FERPA, etc).  Furthermore, the target audience will be those of an age where they have taken online assessments through their academic careers.

Where I struggle is with ongoing assessments.  I want there to be reinforcement of the topics being held, but I am concerned that no-stakes assessments will be ignored (no positive/negative impact, why bother?).  The project at the end is what matters as it will demonstrate the ability of the student to appropriately utilize our campus LMS, so low-stakes quizzes might be seen as pointless and busy work.  Our participants will be busy and the absolute last thing I want them to see low-stakes quizzes as aggravating speed bumps on the road to the final project.  However, I feel a demonstration of participation and activity in each module is important so my path will be to add a single, untimed, multiple choice quiz to the end of each module.  Taking the quiz (regardless of final score) will open the next module.  Completing the last module's quiz will open the link to complete the final project.  If I focus on the quiz being the key to the next module, regardless of the final score, I feel I can reinforce topics without making the quiz have an impact on their progress beyond being the gatekeeper to the next lesson.

I have always hated "busy work" in classes and that is why I am struggling here.  However, I am hopeful that the quizzes will provide "a-ha" moments to the participants as to what is important, so I'd better be careful in the quizzes I create!

BlendKit Week 2 Reaction

This week I see the chapter being all about interaction.  I think this is one of the key differences between a blended course and a fully online course.  In many online courses I have taught, interaction between students was minimal, in fact even discouraged to a point due to restrictions on having synchronous meetings.  In the most recent course I taught online, there was a group project and many students who were taking the program's courses online really didn't know how to react, as they had never had to participate in online interactions with their fellow students.

So my first question is what are student expectations for the course?  Are they looking for an completely autonomous experience where they complete assigned work where their only interaction is with the course instructor when it's necessary, or is the student expecting something more? If we tell a student the course is autonomous, we should not include any face-to-face meetings (either in-person or via web conference) unless its very clear that such meetings are 1) completely optional, 2) no material is covered in the meetings that will be assessed later, and 3) meetings are recorded and will be available for review later.

If we are integrating student-student interaction, it should not be for the sake of student-student interaction.  To me, discussions or other interactive activities should be carefully crafted to allow for a clear topic of discussion, but there should be enough flexibility where students can develop their own position and engage other students they may agree or disagree with.  Topics that are to narrow can lead to a swarm of similar postings; topics that are too broad can allow for easily derailed conversations.

Interactions though should be somewhat safe.  There should be an option for students to post anonymously to their fellow students.  For classes where sensitive topics could be discussed, students should have the option to keep their identities hidden from other students (but not necessarily from their instructors).  Faculty may also need to consider backchannel discussion tools that can be used in face-to-face or web conference meetings to also allow for students who may not desire to verbally participate in the live discussion, but who do want to add to the conversation.

I believe laying out expectations for interaction needs to be done at the beginning of the class and any  interactions should be done to significantly impact the student experience in the class, not just to force interactions.

BlendKit Week 1 Reaction

As I read through Chapter 1 of the BlendKit reader, my initial reaction is a mix of both strong support for the blended learning experience, and some level of trepidation of the overall process.  As I review the chapter, I think of my institution and I have to consider questions about the process:

• Will changing the course from a traditional lecture to a blended learning experience require more investment in course meeting preparation time for faculty?
• Who will develop content that students will utilize online?  Will faculty be developing videos or other media for the course?  
• How will accessibility for course materials (videos, audio, recorded presentations, etc) be guaranteed for all students?
• Are there additional instructional design and development resources on campus that can be called upon to provide design and development assistance?

There are many more questions in my mind but these are the first I've thought about, especially since these are some questions that have come up here and there in my time working with our faculty. 

I think one of the things that I feel got sort of brushed over is that faculty really have to buy into the blended learning process.  Should you consider a cohort program on campus where a group of faculty are working together to learn how to integrate blended learning into their courses where their teams are made up of fellow faculty, instructional designers, and technical experts?  Could that help address some of the questions and potential pitfalls they may experience?  I realize that I'm at an institution where course redesign is supported by the highest levels of administration and our faculty who participate in the cohort redesign program (IMPACT) do receive a stipend, but that's not the case everywhere.  

What also stuck out to me is assessment.  There has to be assessment of the course to ensure it's meeting student and faculty needs.  This assessment has to be done regularly to ensure the effectiveness of the blended learning experience and to determine if the class may need constant updating and redesign.  

I think there's a lot of great ideas in our first reading.  I'm ready to learn more.