- 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.
