MOOC-blended-learning

MOOC: How to design an amazing blended learning course


A new free, five-week MOOC will help educators design more engaging blended learning courses

MOOC-blended-learning Designing a blended learning course may seem complicated to people unfamiliar with the vast array of options blended learning provides, but EDUCAUSE, Instructure, and the University of Central Florida hope to remedy that problem by offering a free MOOC on blended learning methods.

The new course also marks the first venture into the world of MOOCs for EDUCAUSE, a higher education nonprofit focusing on information technology.

Blended learning has gained steam in the past year as more educators seek to incorporate a mix of traditional classroom learning and digital media in order to create a more collaborative, and engaging work environment for students in the classroom and online.

“BlendKit2014, Becoming a Blended Learning Designer,” was created to provide “practical step-by-step guidance in producing materials for a blended learning course,” according to a report released by Instructure, the company behind the Canvas learning management system.

(Next page: What the MOOC course will teach; how to register)

“As blended learning continues to grow across higher education, we are very pleased to partner with EDUCAUSE and Instructure to deliver BlendKit2014,” Tom Cavanagh, associate vice president of distributed learning at UCF, said.

Monica Parks, a senior English major at the University of Maryland, said she has participated in blended learning courses offered by her department, noting class discussions and online meetings to reinforce readings and mitigate missed classes due to snow days have helped enhance her college education experience.

“It’s good to have online discussions because you have more access to resources online than in class, and focused discussion questions help outline what may be important in upcoming classes,” Parks said.

Redundancy between online segments of the class and face-to-face meetings is one of the frustrating pitfalls of blended learning for Parks, who said rehashing the entirety of an online discussion in the classroom feels like a waste of time.

BlendKit2014 will aim to help educators avoid those pitfalls. The new five-week course, designed by faculty at UCF with educators and instructional designers in mind, will teach the best ways to include digital media, such as online documents, content pages and peer review feedback tools, in order to develop effective blended learning courses

“By offering this course to educators and administrators across the country, we will be able to share the valuable tools, information and methods that we, along with other participants in the course, have developed during the past two decades,” Cavanagh said.

“While not every single course should be an online course, I haven’t run across a course that couldn’t benefit from taking the best aspects of online courses and face-to-face meetings,” UCF Center for Distributed Learning’s associate director, Kelvin Thompson said. However, “the number one design issue is the importance of successfully integrating face-to-face and online parts into a blended learning course.”

Participants of the new MOOC may pursue an official “UCF/EDUCAUSE Certified Blended Learning Designer” certificate for completion of the course if they submit a portfolio of the blended learning materials they develop throughout the course of the class.

BlendKit2014 begins on April 21 and is currently open for registration through the Canvas Network. For more details check out #BlendKit2014 on Twitter.

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