How to Develop Effective Content within a Blended Learning Environment

The key to developing effective resources lies in developing resources that develop holistic students enabling them to meet their outcomes and objectives. Within a blended environment, the designer has the opportunity to develop constructive resources and methods of assessment that not only support and aid learners in achieving a certain skill-set but in essence implement the skill-set within the learning. This will enable the development a single learning experience.

This can be challenging within a blended learning environment, primarily because students sometimes treat the course as two courses as oppose to one course. The challenge here is to develop a well-integrated online learning course with the face to face element. A good way to do this is to integrate an assignment into both modalities.

With a lot of face to face tools having very effective online alternatives, instructors should use these as a middle ground integrate existing tools within them.

Online Assessment

Online assessment, how to find the perfect rule!

 

 

Introduction

Assessments are imperative for a course, because it validates the learning of an individual. The key to learning is the student at the end of the course can reproduce the topic taught to him. Hence it is the Instructor’s responsibility to design, define and manage assessment methods that will give confidence to the Instructor, learner and the general public about the credentials of the student.

Within a class-room environment you have a host of assessment methods, furthermore you have both formative and summative assessments during a course. This needs to be replicated within a virtual world. I will be discussing how to develop successful online learning assessments.

Multiple Choice Questions

The most common online testing tool is multiple choice questions. This has been made popular by various LMS’s as well as online tools. Furthermore the ubiquitous nature of this testing and ability to self-populate results has made it easy to control testing. I will like to add here if control is the only reason these tests are used then it is a poor solution.

I personally feel that for certain courses multiple choice questions are useful however they need to be written well.

Key features of Multiple choice tests are:

·         Timely

·         Proctoring

·         Randomization

·         Complexity

Traditionally multiple choice questions were developed primarily to remember certain elements of a course (recall), they would only test low level thinking, (as defined by Blooms Taxonomy) however I believe it is possible to develop high-level thinking through multiple choice questions. This I have experienced when taking Microsoft exams, a lot of the questions are multiple choice and require analysis, synthesis and evaluation as well.

High level multiple choice questions can be developed using aids like well-written scenarios, charts, maps and case studies. An example of this is:

You work for Simple Solutions IT, Recently your company has migrated from server 2003 to server 2007. During the migration there was a power cut which delayed the migration. Our main cabling technician Tony had to leave due to his wife going into labour. Once the power was back we carried on with the migration. Testing was brief due to needing to re-open the business.

Q.1) Monday morning you receive a call from the business you provided support for and they can’t access the back-up server, what do you think is the most likely reason and why?

Ø  The ISP has blocked your IP address, because of the migration of servers

Ø  The cabling wasn’t completed as Tony who had the information left early, they forgot to re-connect the back-up server.

Ø  Due to migration the IP addresses have changed and no-one has reset the DHCP server.

What is interesting about the above question is that the student will need to know about each of the possible answers in order to rule them out as well as know about the correct answer. This requires the student to have comprehensive knowledge of the subject allowing her to analyse the problem scenario and apply their comprehension to the question in order to find an answer. Similarly questions can be created requiring both evaluation and synthesis.
This one question requires the student to comprehend, apply and analyse the situation in order to provide a correct answer. Using the higher level skills as stated in Bloom’s taxonomy.
The following is an excellent pdf file demonstrating how multiple choice questions can be defined in correlation to blooms taxonomy: http://teach.ucf.edu/files/2010/12/Examples-of-Multiple-Choice-Items-at-the-Levels-of-Bloom.pdf

Assignments
Assignments can be set an offered within an online environment, useful tools to support this include instant messengers, FAQ board, previous examples and discussion on assignments. Online assignment tools and e-portfolios have made this easier to manage.

Discussions

Online discussions are a useful, it has the added advantage of being able to widen participations to anybody and everybody. These can be assessed both synchronously and asynchronously, discussion comments are stored for reference sake as well.

Simulations and Online Recordings

Where you are required to provide some form of demonstration it is possible using tools like, Skype, adobe connect and WebEx to allow demonstrations to be assessed via checking tasks are done properly. With regards to software tasks the learner can use screen share to allow the instructor to assess the situation.                                                                                                                                                                                                  

I will add that online recordings could also support teaching observations and consultancy type roles like dentistry, allowing observations via the technological mediums listed above. Language learning can be assessed live or via archived recordings as well.

I personally designed an online learning course, of which I assessed the students completing technical activities via screen capture recordings, screen-prints, video recording when building computers and photos of certain tasks. Other artefacts I included, were Skype sessions of building PC’s, video discussions and online whiteboard group project design. I found using online resources helped me greatly when designing multiple artefacts for their portfolio.

Conclusion

Due to advancement in technology coupled with the adoption of this technology by the masses the transition to online assessment is not difficult. The above tools mentioned provide a solution to various assessment methods. The key is to consider the best assessment methods for your course outcomes, and then select the traditional assessing method and then look for an alternative online assessment tool. There are certain online assessment methods which may provide a better assessment solution than traditional face to face methods. When developing a blended learning assessment plan both online and face to face methods should be considered as an equal and then the decision should be made, explaining which assessment method is best for the learners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Methods of Interacting with Learners on a Blended Learning Course

Blended learning communication is a topic which can have a host of connotations. This is mainly because as an instructor you can define every type of learning communication. For this to be a success the following things need to be considered

The National Survey of Student Engagement’s 2007 notes the importance of high impact activities where learners “interact with faculty and peers about substantive matters” (National Survey of Student Engagement, 2007, p. 7). My experience as a trainer agrees with this principal focussing on benefits: students learn from one another and they learn through questioning and answering other questions. Furthermore the more diverse the group the greater amount of experience and view-points are found. The key is for the instructor to channel the communication and use it in a productive way.

An apparent contradiction occurs with different learning theorists. Some of which state learning should be learner driven and others argue learners need instruction. The key to solving this contrast is to take each course and learner’s skill set into consideration. Furthermore during the planning stage the Instructor should take both arguments as truths and select which is most appropriate based on the skills acquired.

This is explained well by: Asbell-Clark et al. (2012) who state their explanation of game design which can be attributed to learning

In game design there is a constant tension between what is enough scaffolding to get players motivated and able to pursue the mystery and how much can be left open-ended for players to learn on their own. Too much scaffolding can easily feel “school-like” and procedural, taking away from players’ initiative to tinker around to discover things on their own. Too little scaffolding may leave players lost and disengaged.”

There are two main concerns with regards to leaving learning to individuals without any real supervision. They are: 1. How will they know what they need to learn, the other is do they have the ability to be able to 2.organise and structure fragmented knowledge and when they do try organise this knowledge who or what do they take as an authority.

Despite the above criticisms and concerns it is correct to say personal learning is effective although it may not lead to achieving the goals entirely.

Asynchronous learning is useful in blended learning, especially for activities that require learners to delve into subjects deeply. It allows students to understand the topic consider the learning objectives and focus on improving their knowledge thorough research joining discussion and collaborating learning with peers. This would be good especially for learners who are asked to consider the underlying effects within a specific case-study.

A really good method of encouraging student communication is to design assignments, activities, discussion forums that encourage their views. As an instructor think on the lines of (Who, How, What and Why) will students give their views, provide incentives and guidance on what is required.

Within a blended learning environment, students can achieve excellent communication between each other. I say this because they have the opportunity to meet within the face to face learning environment, these relationships can then develop via electronic means, (IM, e-mail, discussions, VOIP e.t.c)

With regards to Instructor-student communication the model can be set to favour either the theories: instructivism or constructivism. Furthermore I add that it will enhance the learners learning skills, by involving them in different learning medium. The key to developing effective communication lies in the instructor developing an effective online learning network based on network administrator theory (fisher 1997). In which an instructor develops a learning network for students to learn from. This will require the instructor to plan the relevant resources and places that will help develop the student’s skills. Furthermore I would add the Instructor should provide effective tasks that challenge students and develop specific learning skills.

Thank you for Reading!