Which Activities, When, and Where?
The blended course has a lot of pedagogical flexibility, which can make it difficult to decide what to do when, how, where and for how long.
Consider these questions as helpful starting points:
- How do you imagine allocating your learning activities across two modalities?
- How much in-person class time might you schedule in relation to online time?
- What tasks can students do on their own? What tasks will students be most successful at with guidance from you or their peers?
- What is the relationship between the online and in-person components of your course? How do those learning activities correspond to each other?
Instructors may find it useful to think about the three different types of interaction within a course — student-content, student-student and instructor-student — and how these might be emphasized across the two modalities. Which "classroom" can best support the relationship between student and content to the required degree? The answer will change depending on type and level of the course, its learning outcomes, and student needs.
Another useful exercise is to think about online courses you have taught recently. What aspects of those courses went well? What things helped students learn, and what things did they enjoy? On the other hand, what aspects of those courses didn’t go as well? Was there anything that you felt would have worked better in-person, or activities you couldn’t include because they would only work in-person? Consider keeping the online activities that worked well, and using in-person time for activities that require it.
After you decide which activities and assessments you will include based on the required learning outcomes for your course, decide, for each activity and assessment, whether it’s best implemented online or in-person. Here are some suggestions about what kinds of activities work well online and in-person:
ONLINE ACTIVITIES
Content delivery tends to be a great online activity. This could include assigned readings, pre-recorded short video lectures, podcasts, or other materials students engage with asynchronously. It could also include synchronous online lectures that are recorded and posted after the fact.
Online discussion boards are a great place to allow students to begin to think about content at a deeper level. You could ask students to post questions they have about class content to generate asynchronous discussion, or for you to collect and address subsequently (e.g., in a recorded video, or at an in-person or online synchronous Q&A session).
Another online option for creating discussion and deeper thinking about course content is to have online synchronous meetings (using Teams or Collaborate Ultra) that incorporate polls and breakout groups. While discussion can be a great in-person activity as well, some classroom spaces are less conducive to small group discussions than breakout groups in an online meeting.
IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES
Activities meant to develop hands-on skills are best matched to in-person activities. For example, conducting experiments in a lab or practicing clinical skills.
Collaborative and active learning activities also work well in-person. This might include in-person group discussions of class content, working through case studies or other problem-based learning activities, working on a group project, peer feedback activities, etc.