Transitioning to a Blended Course

In recent years, education has been turning away from a teacher-centered approach to more of a student-centered approach.  One method by which this has been done is a blended learning format.  With blended learning, online and face to face learning are combined and between 30% and 79% of the learning is delivered online.  A blended learning format requires active participation of the students through discussion, and discovery (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012).  It is important to remember that when designing a distance learning course, one that was once completely taught in a traditional classroom might not be able to be used in its entire original form online (Simonson et al., 2012). As a result, care needs to be taken with preplanning along with consideration for the instructional design that goes into creating the blended course.  The attached user guide contains suggestions and considerations that should be taken into account when creating a blended course as well as how the role of the trainer changes from a traditional classroom course.

 

Reference:

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

User Guide for Distance Learning