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 * __Saturday, June 12__

Welcome & Introductions Caveat

Purpose/What to expect from the Saturday Seminars:**
 * **//Essential Question//** //- How can I develop the most engaging blended learning environment?//
 * **//Learning Objectives//**
 * //To begin to understand the changing landscape of education, largely due to the proliferation of technology in society//
 * //To understand blended learning as an instructional delivery model//
 * //To engage a model for instructional design - Community of Inquiry//
 * //To acquire basic course design strategies including how to facilitate and assess online discussions//
 * //To understand and experiment with two technology options for delivering blended courses//


 * Education in the 21st Century**
 * A Vision of Students Today
 * InfoWhelm and Information Literacy

Discussion points:
 * Compare the technology mindset of "students" and "adults." How have the mindsets shifted over time?
 * Looking at yourself as a teacher, how has your mindset shifted over the past five years?
 * Your questions....

> Activity: In groups of 2-3, choose a hybrid course to visit from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee site or this hybrid syllabi site. If you don't find anything interesting at either site, you may wish to try a Google search on "hybrid courses" +"sample syllabi" to find more syllabi to examine. Some things to think about:
 * Blended Learning**
 * Definition: A learning experience that combines //online// and //face-to-face// instruction in a way so as to improve student learning outcomes. Well-constructed blended learning experiences are often a good match for digital age learner's visual, exploratory and participative learning preferences. Blended learning experiences are good for non-traditional students and adult learners because they allow a flexible mix of face-to-face and online time.
 * Challenges
 * How to integrate the two portions of the course and ensure students see the connections...
 * How to develop the two portions so that they are dependent on each other...
 * How to hold students accountable for out-of-class work...
 * How to select the best delivery strategies...
 * lectures
 * readings
 * activities
 * research
 * writings
 * projects
 * discussions
 * demonstrations
 * multimedia
 * others....
 * Identify what you observed to be unique in the blended syllabi/courses examples as compared to what you would normally see in a traditional course.
 * Identify any unique features of or instructional strategies used in the course examples, such as an online discussion technique or collaborative exercise approach.


 * Community of Inquiry Model**
 * The community of inquiry model rests on the idea that learning is social (focused on discourse) as well as personal (focused on reflection). Discourse and reflection leads to both mutual understanding and personal meaning, qualities that any course - face-to-face, blended or online - should strive to meet.

Activity: Visit the Community of Inquiry concept map. Again in groups of 2-3, discuss how your current courses - face-to-face, blended or online - align with the community of inquiry model. Do you think the community of inquiry model is a good match for designing blended learning opportunities?


 * Basic Course Design Strategies**
 * Designing a course takes time. Consider designing the entire course, as opposed to one piece or section while the course is in progress.
 * Build in plenty of activities for engagement.
 * The best learning occurs through individual contact and assistance through assessment, prompt feedback and communication.
 * Design process:
 * Identify the course content.
 * Write learning objectives and develop lessons and instructional modules (online).
 * Select the most appropriate course delivery strategies for your content.
 * Integrate the course content activities in classroom and online environments, determining what is best suited for the online or classroom environment. Online activities should move the face-to-face activities forward and, likewise, face-to-face activities should contribute to the progression of online portions of the course.

Both the National Survey of Student Engagement and the Community College Survey of Student Engagement empirically prove that student engagement through collaboration and community positively impact student success and achievement.
 * Community and Collaboration**


 * Activity: How do you presently build collaboration and community within your courses?
 * The stronger the community, the more engaged students will be in all areas of the course.
 * Traditional and Digital Pedagogy Is there a community in the traditional environment? Is there a community in the digital environment?

In online and face-to-face environments, discussion is a crucial community-building activity that serves as a means for students to interact with course content. Especially in online discussion environments, it is important to establish ground rules and expectations so that community and collaboration can be easily developed. Guidelines may include: > ]]
 * Establish clear expectations, especially online - [[@http://www.albion.com/netiquette/netiquiz.html|netiquette
 * Netiquette - Virgina Shea
 * Offer prompting questions or other prompts throughout the discussion
 * Remain neutral when possible
 * Encourage and establish rules for respecting differing opinions
 * Redirect when necessary
 * Focus on the discussion topic
 * Model appropriate questions and responses

Uses for discussion boards in blended learning environments:
 * Prepare for upcoming in-class discussion
 * Respond to readings
 * Review of literature
 * Follow-up to in-class discussion (keep the conversation, collaboration and community building going)
 * Extension of class discussion (exploratory, possibly beyond the scope of class discussion)
 * Question and answer forum (a kind of FAQ - frequently asked questions)
 * Pose and problem and have students generate possible solutions; discuss or debate those solutions
 * Post projects or assignments for feedback from other students
 * Case study discussion
 * Find/evaluate web resources on topic and discuss results
 * Invite guest speaker/lecturer
 * Debate a topic
 * Other?

Optional Activity: Log in to Blackboard and practice creating discussion board topics. Also, you may wish to investigate using the Collaboration tools (create a virtual Lecture Hall or Office).

Explore these tools to see how you might enhance the face-to-face and online portions of your course through technology: Optional Activity - Link to these resources in Blackboard
 * Technology Tools**
 * YouTube
 * Vimeo
 * iTunes - Podcasts and iTunesU


 * Putting it all together...**
 * Digital Exit Card