Blended Learning: Best Practices Deborah Knox Associate Professor of Computer Science Interim Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning The College of New Jersey Peter DePasquale, PhD Associate Professor of Computer Science The College of New Jersey
What is Blended Learning? u Blended learning is a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path, and / or pace. Staker / Horn, May 2012
Blended Learning @ TCNJ u 6 week summer courses (8 week in computer science), expanding into January u Courses held on-line with 1 on-campus session per week (3-3.5 hours) u On-Line u Lectures / Exercises u Supporting Materials u Office Hours u Discussions u On-Campus u Lectures u Office Hours u Discussions u Other activities
Timeline u Summer 2011: Blended learning initiated at TCNJ u Summer 2012: First offering (Accelerated CS 1/2; mostly computer engineering, some early computer science students) u Summer 2013: HON 280 Creative Computing (Media Computation with Python)
CSC 250 : Accelerated CS 1/2 u Serves to fulfill curriculum coverage of object-oriented programming (CS1) and data structures (CS2) in one class u Taught using Java u Enrollment: ~20 u 80% electrical and computer engineering u 20% CS students with Java background
CSC 250 : Accelerated CS 1/2 u Assessments: u Weekly closed labs working in pairs u Monthly, larger, take-home programming projects u Mid-term examination u Final-examination u Mandatory blended learning survey
CSC 250 : Accelerated CS 1/2 u Average student has a programming background u Engineering students: Procedural C++ (no Object-oriented programming (OOP)) u Computer Science students: C++ or Java w/ OOP
CSC 250 : Accelerated CS 1/2 u Misc. u Initial enrollment: 12 u 9 TCNJ students u 1 incoming TCNJ freshman u 2 attending other institutions u Completing course: 6 u 1 of 2 from another institution
CSC 250 : Accelerated CS 1/2 u Highly accelerated pace u Covered 3-5 chapters per week (depending on content) u 2 labs (small programming work) per week u 1 take-home programming project per week u On-class time was used to provide short lectures on key concepts and hands-on lab work with instructor oversight / help
Student Feedback Summer 2012 u Analysis of Qualtrics survey Report on Student Feedback from Blended Learning Courses, Summer 2012 Prepared by: Jason Dahling, Helene Anthony, John Oliver, and Deborah Knox, for the Teaching and Learning Program Council (TLPC), November 14, 2012. u 119 respondents (133 registered students in 10 courses) 89% response rate u ~50% juniors and seniors; ~30% graduate students
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2012 Survey Results Question Decreased Same Increased Amount of interaction with other students 40% 33.7% 26.3% Quality of interaction with other students 30.5% 48.4% 21.1% Amount of interaction with the instructor 22.1% 53.7% 24.2% Quality of interaction with the instructor 17.9% 56.8% 25.3% Courtesy TCNJ Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
TCNJ Best Practices u Building community u Small group work - peer editing / grading u Asynchronous discussion forum - modeling meaningful contributions u Email / Social networking u Consider best use of on-campus time (faceto-face class) u Learner centered activities (flipped classroom) Courtesy TCNJ Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Recommendations on blended learning modality u Communicate the demands of the blended learning model to students (repeat as appropriate) u Set clear expectations for the workload and pace u Dispel assumption that a blended course will be easier because of the irregular class meetings Courtesy TCNJ Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Recommendations on syllabus u Plan syllabus carefully u Remove redundancies in goals and assignments u Integrate the online and classroom activities u Each activity should lead student towards meeting learning goals u Online activities should be used when they meet course goals more effectively than face-to-face strategies u Select most appropriate approach u Remove activities that require extensive face-to-face interactions to complete successfully Courtesy TCNJ Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Recommendations for course preparation u Budget adequate time to attend training on blended learning, prepare syllabus, and course u Some students indicate that faculty struggled to prepare their materials while the course was ongoing u Prepare materials for courses before the start of the blended learning session. u Prepare assignments, lecture notes, and other resources u Avoid delaying students progress on assigned work Courtesy TCNJ Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Recommendations for class time u Emphasize discussions u Some students found it hard to contribute meaningfully online u Include high-quality forms of peer and instructor interactions u Use the full time period when face-to-face meetings are scheduled u Some students noted that their in-class meetings were quite short and not worth the drive to campus Courtesy TCNJ Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
CSC 250 Results u Mixed results u Disappointed by course withdrawals u 6 week format was too challenging u No time for absorption u Little time for confidence building u Pace of grading / feedback / support u Challenge to run this type of course in blended learning fashion
Blended Learning + Computer Science u 2012: Database systems, CSC 250 u 2013: Software engineering, HON 280 u HON280: Non-major introduction to programming in Python using media computation
Blended Learning + Humanities u May be more successful in humanities u Off line: reading, essays, discussion u Seem to attract more students u More widely required across the curriculum u More widely accepted at other insitutions
Additional resources on blended learning u UWM Faculty Resources: Tips u http://www4.uwm.edu/ltc/hybrid/ faculty_resources/tips.cfm u Idaho Digital Learning, Blended Community u https://sites.google.com/a/idahopd.org/ blended-learning/blended-community Courtesy TCNJ Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Gracias u Special thanks u Deb Knox, Interim Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, TCNJ u John Kuipoff, instructor, Interactive Multimedia, supporting blended learning initiative @ TCNJ u TCNJ Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning u http://cetl.pages.tcnj.edu u Peter DePasquale depasqua@tcnj.edu