Blended courses combine the best of both worlds – the convenience of online learning along with live, in-person meetings with the professor and students. This combination is a powerful means of engaging students. Common formats for the on-campus meetings involve meeting once per week, once every other week, or once per month. When creating a blended course, it is vital to create synergy between the online and on-campus activities so they are experienced as one integrated course rather than two separate experiences.
There are two broad approaches to creating a blended course. The first approach is to bring students to class prepared. This can be a full flipped approach or any modified version, but students must complete assignments prior to class so they show up well prepared. The second approach involves teaching and then practicing. A professor may decide that a topic needs to be taught in-person, and then students can continue to practice and apply the information in the online activities. Most blended courses use one or both approaches.
With successful implementation, blended courses lead to stronger learner outcomes (Boston University, n.d.). Students still get the much-needed face time with their classmates and professors, while also benefitting from the asynchronous online learning resources. One study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education found that students in blended classes performed better than those in either F2F classes or online classes (Boston University, n.d.).
Best Practices for Blended Instruction
- Build a Community of Learners:
- Many students, particularly first-generation college students, feel disconnected from the college experience as if they do not belong. Some students suffer from inequities based on their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and other factors. Creating a culture of inclusivity in the classroom can help to alleviate this sense of isolation and discrimination (Barkley and Major, 2020). When students feel connected to their peers, their teacher, and the material, learning is more likely to occur. Therefore, trust, camaraderie, and engagement are essential elements in the construction of a learning community. Likewise, intentional inclusivity in course design and planning yields a stronger sense of community (Barkley and Major, 2020).
- Create a Strong Sense of Instructor Presence:
- Just as in fully online courses, the online component of blended courses needs to have a strong sense of instructor presence. This helps promote continuity between the in-class and the online experience, yielding a unified whole rather than something cobbled together. There are a number of ways to augment the online aspect of a blended course with a greater sense of instructor presence.
- Write as if you are teaching. Imagine teaching one of your favorite classes or talking to one or two of your favorite students in your office. What you think and feel when you write comes through in your writing. Writing as if you are teaching recreates the animation and fun you have when teaching. Students will hear your voice and feel your presence as they read.
- Introduce everything. Some Blackboard features create the effect of “throwing materials at students.” Students click and a file is presented or a video starts to play or they are transported to website without explanation or objectives. No professor would make a habit of teaching that way in-person. Think of the things you would say when presenting a handout, video, assignment, etc., and write similar introductions so that before students click on anything, they know what you want them to do and why. It’s what you would do in person.
- Engage Through The Flipped Classroom:
- Time spent live and in-person with students is a precious commodity in the blended environment. The flipped classroom is a time-tested method to ensure that in-person time is used to maximum benefit. In this approach, classroom activities and homework exercises swap places (Herreid and Schiller, 2013). The students’ first encounter with new material will occur outside the classroom in their textbooks or online materials. In-class time is then used for facilitating the application of the new knowledge. “In a classroom that’s flipped, students consume lessons or lectures independently, whether at home or during a homework break on campus. Time in the classroom, previously reserved for teacher instruction, is instead spent on what we used to call homework, with teachers providing assistance as needed” (Horn & Staker, 2015, p. 42-43).
- Integrate the Components Deliberately.
- Consider carefully how best to integrate the in-person and online components of a blended course. Avoid simply tacking on the online element to a previously designed course. The pieces need to complement each other to create an engaging and reasonable whole. Instead, instructors should see the creation of a blended course as “a complete redesign,” one in which each activity or resource fits seamlessly (University of Waterloo, n.d.).
- Create two schedules.
- Many professors find that creating two schedules is a useful way to plan a blended course. The first schedule is your personal planning tool. It can be as detailed as needed to clearly delineate the topics and the activities you will conduct in person and the topics and activities that will occur online before and after class. Add columns as needed to plan the in-person and online activities in detail. Once your version of the schedule is complete, it can be pared down to a simpler student version that lists every course requirement and every deadline.
References
- Boston University. (n.d.). Center for Teaching and Learning. Blended learning. http://www.bu.edu/ctl/guides/blended-learning/
Herreid, C., & Schiller, N. (2013). Case Studies and the Flipped Classroom. Journal of College Science Teaching, 42(5), 62-66. Retrieved June 4, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43631584 - Horn, M.B., & Staker, H. (2015). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. Jossey-Bass.
- University of Waterloo. (n.d.). Centre for Teaching Excellence. Best practices for designing blended courses. https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/teaching-tips-planning-courses-and-assignments/best-practices-designing-blended-courses