1. Blended synchronous learning (BSL)
Could it enrich your teaching?

2. Agenda and outcomes What is BSL Possible uses of BSL
Opportunities for BSL within HE
Challenges of BSL within HE

3. What is BSL? Blended? Synchronous ? BSL BSl project website
A new way of approaching synchronous communications which can be used to connect people across physical and virtual worlds.
“Learning and teaching where remote students participate in face-to-face classes by means of rich-media synchronous technologies such as video conferencing, web conferencing, or virtual worlds.” (Bower 2015)
Bower (2015) -

4. Why do it? Retention and attendance
Widening participation and inequality of provision
Different delivery modes
Collaborative Learning
Active Curriculum – ARU
TBL
Bower et al

5. Team Based Learning (TBL) and Employability Skills
The role of the teacher is to create the conditions for invention rather than provide ready-made knowledge (Seymour Papert)
Team Based Learning (TBL) and Employability Skills
TBL is a structured form of AL
Undertaken in the following stages;
Prior reading
IRAT
TRAT
Application exercise
Group sizes of typically 5/7 students. Groups formed on diverse characteristics

6. Applications within HE
Single institution
To blend:
- F2F and remote learners
- F2F and remote learners via an Avatar
- F2F learners despite timetabling clashes
Across different institutions
- Collaboration - national and international
Could be used to create a BSL environment – to offer students the choice of attending classes in person or via a synchronous virtual connection. This would be student-centred – offering students choice over their place of study/study mode. This may help with retention and engagement.
It is a multi-modal instruction approach with the following potential benefits:
Allows student choice
Allows student flexibility and convenience
Allows collaboration among F2F and remote learners
Could help with student engagement
Could help with student attendance and retention and therefore potentially attainment if students in fact miss fewer sessions then their attainment may improve.
Could have cost benefits too as some cross faculty sessions could be delivered fewer times or to a greater number of students by fewer staff
Cross faculty – it will enable students to work together with students who they would not otherwise have an opportunity to work with to work collaboratively to tackle messy, authentic problems and to co-create knowledge.

7. Virtual worlds BSLE video clip “Same sense of co-presence”
(MR research)
Blended reality:
“synchronous blending of augmented reality and augmented virtual reality environments”

8. Robotic tele-presence
“making the distance disappear to fully engage
all students in a hybrid or blended classroom.”
michigan state video clip
Enabling engagement with Kubi

9. MR Research
Title - Should I stay or should I go now? Investigating the role of the teacher in engaging students and influencing decisions to continue or withdraw from study.
Aim – the study aims to investigate the role of faculty in engaging students outside of the classroom, specifically with regards to the design and facilitation of the LMS.
The research seeks to understand the student perception and uses the lens of the Community of Inquiry framework to do this. The study focuses on the role of teaching presence and social presence of the teacher via the LMS during Directed Independent Learning time.
Learning Design aspect/implications – can faculty influence retention by designing in presences and/or interactions?
Learning Gain - increase completion? Reduce inequity and attainment gap?
Focus on “non-traditional” student groups
Links to BSL – use of technology to reduce transactional distance and increase presence.
Innovations in use of technology in education to blend online and face to face. Michigan State University – robotic telepresence in BSL – language used shows how the research and theory from Distance education is being transferred into the face to face setting to ensure parity of educational opportunity for all – to fully engage all students – remote and face to face.

10. Over to you…
In groups think about how you could make use of BSL to enrich teaching and learning in your area - uses? - opportunities? - challenges ? Consider perspectives of teacher, student and institution

11. Group Feedback
Possible uses
Opportunities
Challenges

12. BSL Opportunities
Options to “‘open up’ on-campus activities to off-campus students via the Internet and in some cases to permit free movement of students between on-site and online participation.” Bower (2015)
Solution to the problem of how to engage learners in meaningful, collaborative knowledge-creation
Increased learner choice and autonomy and potential for increased satisfaction
Increased student engagement
Increased inclusivity
Co-teaching opportunities and richer learning experience for students

13. BSL Challenges Student and teacher preconceptions
Technical and digital skills of students and teachers
Potential for compromised pedagogical approaches
Increased effort in delivery by teaching staff
Management buy in
Cost or perceived cost

14. Questions?

15. Key resources BSL Project website and outputs BSL Handbook
Bower et al (2011) Uniting on-campus and distributed learners through media-rich synchronous tools: A National Project
Bower et al (2012) Use of media-rich real-time collaboration tools for learning and teaching in Australian and New Zealand universities
Bower et al (2013) Blended synchronous learning: Patterns and principles for simultaneously engaging co-located and distributed learners
Conklina et al (2017) – BSL Environment (BSLE)
Hastie et al (2010) - Proposed BSL model
Oyarzun and Martin (2013) – “unique learning community”
Blended Synchronous Learning Project
Aims: to identify, characterise, and evaluate technology-enhanced ways of bringing together on-campus and geographically dispersed students and engaging them in media-rich synchronous collaborative learning experiences;
Conklina et al – BSLE – what is a BSLE? An innovative setting in which learners can decide to attend classes either F2F or via a synchronous

16. Thank you for your participation