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Definition of "Blended Course"
l What is Formative Evaluation
l Issues on which formative
evaluation should focus
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The first step toward
developing a plan for formative evaluation of a program of
blended courses is to specify what you mean by
"blended courses." People
can get into frustrating or angry discussions if they don't
realize that each have a different definition. The
following elements are often part of what people mean by
"blended course." It's our impression that most people
include the first element in their definition, somewhat
fewer include the second element, and so on down the line.:
1. Use
of various technologies for complementary
communicative/interactive purposes including classrooms,
textbooks, and online tools such as course management
systems, e-mail, and the web.
2. Nontraditional
scheduling. Total time spent in the course remains
the same as in typical classes. However, students are
expected to spend more time on ‘homework’ (out of
classroom) including online work (using or creating Internet
materials; communicating). Fewer hours are spent in
face-to-face meetings in classrooms. This may be done for
many reasons. Most common: give students more time to do the
work online; reduce the demand for classroom space; decrease
the chance that a student won't be able to take two courses
(both required for graduation) because their class meeting
times overlap.
3. This
use of time is noted in the announcement/advertisement of
the course so that students who want this increased
accessibility can choose the course
4. Student
work done face-to-face is designed to complement or build on
the work done online, rather than duplicating it. So the
success of face-to-face work in a blended course is
relatively dependent on a high percentage of students having
done the homework effectively. Similarly the success of the
homework may be relatively dependent on students attending
and learning from the face-to-face work.
People who include #4 in their definition
sometimes resort to a variety of strategies to help assure
that students actually do that homework, including the
online work, and come to class prepared. Usually the
faculty member gets feedback on student homework within a
short time (12-24 hours) of a class, so that the design for
class time can be created or modified in light of what
students have mastered or misunderstood. This feedback may
come from online quizzes, online discussion, submission of
homework before class, etc. Below we will refer to all of
these collectively as “feedback loops.” This technique is
sometimes called
Just
in Time Teaching. In effect, a formative evaluation of
'blended courses' that are defined as including element #4
often requires studying the operation of these feedback
loops: feedback to the student during the homework, and
feedback to the faculty member to help plan the imminent
class meeting.
Formative evaluation is
defined as the intentional gathering of data in a way
designed to produce guidance for improving the program,
service, technology, or other thing/person being studied.
The kinds of studies described below are designed
specifically to increase the success rate and use of blended
courses.
One important component
for formative evaluation is the process of studying
teaching/learning activities as they unfold in order to see
how they can be improved. In our explanation below, we'll
refer to this process as "debugging (click
here if you're interested in the history of this term.)
The first step in
designing formative evaluations (studies whose findings
provide direct guidance about how to increase the success of
blended courses) is to pinpoint the issues. Here are some
key activities, described in ways that suggest the kinds of
studies that might provide the most leverage for the effort.
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Debugging problems
that may be hindering some or all students from
participating fully in elements of the homework. See,
for example,
these evaluation tools to help debug problems hindering
students from participating in online discussion or
collaboration.
- Debugging problems in the course that
may be hindering some students from using the homework
to prepare for classroom work. Among the issues that a
broader evaluation might investigate:
-
Whether the content of the homework
is indeed good preparation for the classroom work
-
Whether the students are
participating in the feedback loops in a thoughtful,
timely way and, if not, why not
-
If, when students participate in the
feedback loops, are the message for faculty
sufficiently accurate and timely to enable planning
of productive courses
-
If, when faculty receive findings
from the feedback loop, do the faculty have the
wherewithal to design appropriate course meetings
- Debugging problems that may be
hindering some or all students from participating fully
in the classroom work. For example,
-
Are all students able to attend all
class meetings and, if not, why not?
-
Are all students abler to participate
in all phases of classroom work and, if not, why not
(e.g., is the student’s culture or native language
inhibiting full participation in classroom
discussion)?
- Debugging problems that may be
hindering the use of blended courses from contributing
fully to increased access. For example,
- Problems preventing some students
from enrolling in, and passing, courses;
- Problems that may be preventing
some students from moving speedily to a degree
despite the ‘availability’ of some blended courses
(e.g., the face-to-face time or location is
inaccessible for some students; some key courses are
not available in accessible formats).
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