Blendkit 2015 Week 1 Reading Reflection

This week’s readings included an overview of the definition, benefits, and implementation of Blended Learning (BL).  According to the chapter 1 readings, “institutions generally use “blended” (or related terms) to refer to some combination of on-campus class meeting and online activities.”  The term “hybrid” was a new concept I had not heard before, although I am very familiar with the term “Blended Learning”. 

The Sloan Consortium defines blended learning as “a course where 30%-70% of the instruction is delivered online.”  This seems to be a wide variance; however, it is only a guideline to use in planning the blended learning course.

Benefits of Blended learning

The following excerpt was not new knowledge:  “blended courses allow students and faculty to take advantage of much of the flexibility and convenience of an online course while retaining the benefits of the face-to-face classroom experience.”  However, I found it surprising that there was a lot of current research relating to BL.  Of particular interest was the fact “Research shows that when properly implemented, blended learning can result in improved student success, satisfaction, and retention.”  I was also surprised to read that Blended Learning has been implemented successfully for over the past 17 years at my Alma matter UCF.  I am interested in reviewing the data presented at http://blendedlearningtoolkit.org/about/benefits-of-blended-learning.  I was a bit disappointed that most of the research presented was from the secondary level with not much, if any, in the K-12 setting.  This is inspiring as it creates an avenue for new empirical research, and provides ways for teachers to differentiate learning meeting the needs of all students.

The reading introduced BL design as a controlled process beginning with learning objectives.  These objectives guide the course, delivery of content, and evaluation.  In order for students to meet the goals of the course ample practice needs to be introduced. 

One thing designers need to keep in mind is that the online component is not implemented just for the “sake of using technology”.  It needs to be appropriate and purposeful.  Designers also need to know that any course development is cyclical meaning that courses need constant evaluation and implementation reflection .  There are five key elements to designing the online and traditional components of BL:

• Live events. These are synchronous, instructor-led events. Traditional lectures, video conferences, and synchronous chat sessions such as Blackboard Collaborate or Adobe Connect are examples.
• Self-Paced Learning. Experiences the learner completes individually on her own time such as an internet or CD-ROM based tutorial.
• Collaboration. Learners communicate and create with others. E-mail, threaded discussions, and wikis are all examples.
• Assessment. Measurements of whether or to what extent learning has taken place. Assessment is not limited to conventional tests, quizzes, and grades. Narrative feedback, portfolio evaluations and, importantly, a designer’s reflection about a blended learning environment’s effectiveness or usefulness are all forms of assessment. Support Materials. These include reference material, both physical and virtual, FAQ forums, and summaries. Anything that aids learning retention and transfer (Carman, 2002).

The Week 1 reading concluded with two case studies detailing course design and implementation of BL at the secondary level.