Course Design Teaching Tips Advantages and Disadvantages
1. Start early with course redesign. 2. Focus on course goals/objectives, not technology. 3. Determine if it works best Onsite or Online. 4. Blend!
Provide substantial amount of lead time to migrate your traditional course to hybrid format. ◦ suggested = one semester Use TAC Hybrid Certification Workshops to work on your course.
Start with your Course Content Summary goals and objectives. Redesign your learning objectives one assignment at a time, according to what works well online and/or onsite for you.
Experiment in a live traditional class: ◦ Test out which assignments work better online or onsite at least one semester in advance. Examples: ◦ Are your lectures better live or in PowerPoint? ◦ Will your students do better Peer Reviews if they are in person with eye contact/body language or they are online with more time to think and write?
Design course content learning activities to be interwoven online and onsite. Create blending that increases students’ sense of continuity through sequence of logical steps. Avoid assigning online work that seems “tacked on.”
Organically blend materials and activities. Examples Begin new unit onsite and continue next step of instruction with online activity, or vice versa. Ex: Onsite lecture introduces content. Follow up with Online discussion forum for student feedback. Ex: Online reading + partner discussion. Follow up with Onsite quiz.
1. Don’t Procrastinate! 2. Teach Technology to Students. 3. Anticipate Student Problems.
Be prompt with feedback to students. Don’t let online assignments-to-be-graded stack up. Tweak problems in your Blackboard site as you become aware of them. Don’t wait until later.
Teach technology orientation on first day or two of class. Walk your students through online discussions in class.
First day of class – establish your expectations, policies, online attendance. Explain difference between hybrid and traditional course.
Explain importance of online portion of course. Repeat how important online portion of course is! Contact immediately students who are not doing online work.
Advantages Disadvantages Course Redesign gives fresh perspective on content Learn new technologies Get to know students in a different way online Increase in student participation Big time commitment to development course Time commitment in grading/running course Technology frustrations Less face-to-face contact
Advantages Disadvantages Provides different formats for learning; learning may be “deeper,” higher quality More interactivity w/instructor & classmates Flexibility for busy schedules Lower transportation costs Perceptions that Hybrids are easier Perception of lower quality education Technology trouble Poor time management can be a problem ~some material from Denise Ogden, Penn State, Lehigh