Group items tagged

Bryn Mawr's first blended learning conference was a great chance to see what colleagues at a similar institution are doing with teaching with technology; the second conference should be just as good. Kenyon is a partner on their NGLC grant so our registration fee is waived.

Essay by a professor at Vanderbilt who adapted his face-to-face classes to take advantage of MOOCs on the same subject. He calls this making his course a "wrapper", I've called it "using the MOOC as a textbook." See in particular the last paragraph, regarding the "scholarly-like community with my fellow educators."

One thing I learned as Helpline manager is that the stereotype that today's students are "good with computers" is a gross generalization. Students (and most people) are good at _doing some things_ with computers. If we're asking them to use an unfamiliar system, especially for a complex task, it would be time well spent both to introduce them to the tool and check in on how they used it.

A good discussion of how on professor uses multiple choice quizzing to measure comprehension of the major concepts in the course, instead of just testing for the ability to recall facts.

As we think increasingly about the use of screencasting software for laptops and desktops, we should also consider those small computers in everyone's pocket.

Admittedly this example covers engineering students and is limited to just two semesters worth of data from a large, public, research university. However, the results are encouraging if you ever wondered whether or not students might actually watch the screencast videos you are making (or plan on making).

A review of recent papers on the effectiveness of video lectures as supplemental material in a traditional class. From the article: "I think it suggests that screencasts, when done well and deployed properly, help all students - they certainly don't hurt - and they help most those students who need the most help."

I've heard from multiple people who are not satisfied with the quality of online discussion in their classes. Their concerns sound like the ones in this article - they get more student-to-professor writing than real "class discussion", and what they get is often dominated by the better students. This article poses 2 responses: ask for private journaling instead of public discussion, and then use the writing intentionally during class time.

I'm intrigued by Bowen's idea of courses which offer "a playlist of 25 different types of explanations in different languages using different approaches to a single concept" to support different learning preferences. Despite the title, this idea could apply to MOOCs, tuition-based online courses, and face-to-face "blended" courses. (The assertion that the pedagogical innovation will come from MOOC-land and not established campuses is also intriguing, and troubling...)

Interteaching is an approach to peer instruction. It may be interesting to faculty exploring blended learning.

An interesting application of blended learning theory to the advising process, describing ways in which a student's curation of an electronic portfolio could feed into (and benefit from) the advising process. From the International Journal of ePortfolio.

An interesting balanced look - dare I call it a "middle path"? - at how to move toward wise, effective use of technology in the classroom.

"MOOCs will get better quickly. There are important reasons for some universities to do this. Soon there may routinely be as much or more learning in MOOCs. The response, however, should not be for everyone to start offering MOOCs." Enter the MBC - the Massively Better Classroom. A terrific analysis and collection of links by Jose Bowen.

"A microlecture is a short recorded audio or video presentation on a single, tightly defined topic." ELI wraps up some of the important points to when considering this approach to a "blended" or "flipped" classroom.

This testimonial brings up a crucial aspect of course design--making sure that you have reasonable expectations for your own workload when developing activities that require significant amounts of direction and feedback from the instructor.

Analysis of discussions on a site called Piazza suggest that requiring students to post an introduction can improve the amount of discussion on the boards, while heavily-graded discussions can lead students to "grind for grades" instead of authentically participate.

Show me the data! Frankly, I think any survey that includes 722 physics faculty members has to be worthwhile -- that is quite the sample size! Moreover, this is likely to be pretty representative. While it is impressive that a very large majority (88%) were aware of certain "research-based instructional strategies," what is even more impressive is that 82% of the respondents had tried some of these strategies. True, 1/3 of these have given up and gone back to traditional lectures, but I agree with Eric Mazur's comment that this means that 2/3 are still plugging away. The follow-up studies should be interesting, especially if they shed light on what drove the 1/3 who gave up to do so.

Flipping the classroom is about more than students watching videos outside of class. It is about taking advantage newly available classroom time to lead students in active and engaging activities for improved learning outcomes. Developing new and effective activities can be a challenge and differs by discipline. This useful article discusses a range of practices at various universities and the offers thoughtful quotes from faculty about the pros and cons of those activities.