While working as an instructional designer I have quite a bit of experience in integrating technology and blended learning in my professional work life. Although the majority of my projects are working on 100% online asynchronous courses, I do have the pleasure of working on a few blended courses. For the purposes of my work, I use the university’s definition of blended learning “a combination of the following: face-to-face, LIVE-streamed, online and/or video-conference instruction.”  What this typically looks like in courses I help design is 70% asynchronous online learning, and 30% synchronous remote learning completed via zoom.

Challenges:

There have been some challenges when it comes to my role and online/blended learning. Un-surprisingly, based on our last lecture, much of the challenges come from the multiple meanings of the terms used to describe class modality. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, things seemed pretty clear-cut with students and instructors knowing the differences between online, synchronous, livestreamed, or blended classes. During and after the pandemic, things became a lot less clear. As Katia stated in our last lecture, even this class we are all enrolled in right now could be considered “online” since we never meet in person and it is 100% delivered through zoom. Though, this does not meet the university’s definition of online. Confused yet? This class would be considered remote, which is basically the same as a face-to-face course, except the synchronous learning happens through zoom. The U of R has 7 different terms for courses, and all the definitions of those modalities are not even easily found in one location! For example, I had to look at an open textbook, and U of R website to find them, they should all easily be found in one location! Without looking at these resources, try reflecting on what you think each of these would mean. Here are all the terms:

• Face-to-face
• Online
• Blended
• Hybrid
• Hyflex
• Remote
• Live-streamed

Confusing, isn’t it?! Students and Instructors alike are unsure of what all these terms mean. Challenges have stemmed from this ambiguity in terms where instructors are scarred to develop “online” classes, as they think back to when they took their synchronous face-to-face courses online during the pandemic. For most, this was a bad experience, and many instructors associate this with “online learning” when in reality online is so much more.  As stated in Chapter 4 of Teaching in a digital age, “…students studying online are in a different learning environment or context than students learning in a classroom, and the design needs to take account of this.” As an instructional designer I work with instructors, taking these special needs into account, showing them that online is so much more than just lecturing through a webcam. I show them the possibilities of building h5p interactive content, breakout rooms, discussion forums, annotating activities, recorded activities, and so much more! By the end of the projects, instructors have a new opinion on online learning, and it is always in a positive direction!

Experiences with Blended Learning:

When designing blended courses, the instructor and I often design with a “Flipped classroom” pedagogy in mind. According to Irvine, a flipped classroom is when content is learned first asynchronously through resources such as readings, recordings, videos and more, then synchronous time is used for discussing questions and/or applying that material. This approach has been game-changing for some instructors. For example, I am currently developing a language course with an instructor who has only ever taught face-to-face before. We are designing a blended course with one synchronous 50 minute session per week. The instructor is already very excited and enthusiastic about the enhancements we can make using our LMS. This instructor has told me that through the use of technology we are being able to include exercises that would normally take 50 minutes to go over in class condensed down into 10 minute online activities! Additionally, now students are able to explore the weekly material on their own time, and come to class prepared with questions, instead of learning the material in class and sometimes not having enough time for questions! The class experience has been transformed for the better by taking a blended approach!

Moreover, using the definition of blended learning that we are using in this class from Teaching in a Digital Age, ch10, another instructor I worked with has created a blended learning environment in their regular face to face course by integrating aspects that we designed for their online class! Previous to working with me, this instructor did not utilize our LMS at all and taught his courses entirely face-to-face. After working with me to develop an online course, he saw many opportunities to integrate aspects of it into his face-to-face environment. As a result, now his face-to-face course has components such as formative assessment with immediate feedback, pre-recorded lectures, and interactive learning components. All of this has supplemented the student experience and I have been told by him that the student feedback has been very positive.

Overall, I am a huge supporter of blended learning environments. Prior to taking this class, my definition of blended only included classes that had both synchronous and asynchronous components. After this weeks lesson, I have expended my definition to be instruction that includes technology and other modalities of instruction outside of typical “sage on the stage” lectures.