Design for online and blended learning

Topic 4 concerning the design for online and blended learning seemed for me even more difficult than previous ones. I was afraid that we would have to prepare a given syllabus to show that now we know how to do it whereas I still am not sure. Luckily we didn’t have to do so and my group mates have decided to share the experience we have had so far. Surprisingly , I discovered I am not so ignorant in the field. Presumably due to my previous collaboration with Spanish teacher and this ONL course itself I used blended learning in my current classes! I gave some homework to my students that was supposed to be asynchronous learning and cooperation which was later on presented in person on class forum. So somehow unconsciously when looking for ideas to make the lessons or the topic more attractive I created something really up-to -date!

 However I’m still wondering why my group members enrolled for the course. They know so much about blended and hybrid learning, synchronous and asynchronous, flipped classroom, etc.. Why are they here?

There were two webinars supporting the meetings and I found the second one with Robin Kay from Ontario Tech University in Canada especially helpful . He pointed out nicely very basic issues that we probably don’t realize but implement , for example :setting your culture at the beginning of the course or making students work in smaller groups, which is more fruitful for the learning. However I’m going to use his ideas which seem really significant in blended learning, e.g. :volunteer chat monitors done by students and more video creations by the students and teachers as well. It appears students nowadays are more likely to watch things rather than read so they will appreciate pre-recorded lectures. Robin Kay gave examples of numerous apps that can used in blended learning. I will try to use some of them and now I think that was the thing I was waiting for. Very few of us have time to search the internet so deeply thus finding many apps in in one presentation was great for me.

I think I found really strong tools for my journey and I feel supported and much stronger.