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Praise for
this workshop
Hybrid courses emphasize
learning online while also including conventional homework
and a limited amount of time on campus -- often only an hour or
two a week. This TLT Group workshop is
designed for faculty with some experience in teaching hybrid
courses. Its goals: a) help those faculty develop new
insights and techniques for improving their teaching, and b)
help your institution develop better support for its hybrid
courses.
We always adapt workshop designs and
materials to suit local needs,
but here are three typical components:
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Opening and Fundamentals: Introductions. Help participants learn
from one other's experience through a facilitated
discussion of the nature of hybrids at your institution.
Why were hybrids initiated? Are there different
types of hybrids? Has their purpose or nature been
evolving? What good practices and results have
been developed thus far? Are there promising lines of
development? In this segment of the workshop, we also
discuss some of the antecedents of hybrids, and use that
history to get some new insight into today's
achievements and problems. (1.5 hours)
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Asking the Right
Questions: One way for faculty to
improve their hybrid courses is by 'asking the right
questions' of their own students. In this segment
of the workshop, we'll show faculty how they can use
simple surveys to get crucial feedback from students in
order to (for example) improve participation in online
discussions, improve presentations, and improve readings
and assignments. Here we draw on
model surveys
from the Flashlight Program and on brief hybrid
workshops from "Asking the Right Questions" (ARQ).
If your institutional subscription includes Flashlight
Online, we will use it during this segment; novices can
learn to use the system. If you prefer that we use another survey system,
please pick one that enables its authors to download and
adapt a model survey. (1.5 hours).
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We can then apply what's been learned in
the first two segments of the workshop to do a little
pioneering: drafting new surveys and faculty
development materials that focus on your areas of concern. What elements of hybrid
courses do your own faculty see as important and
problematic? For example, are all students coming to the
classroom fully prepared? If not, we could work on
developing feedback forms to help faculty decide how to
improve student performance. We will also discuss
other steps that faculty, departments and the
institution can take to deal with the issue. If this
segment of the workshop is productive, the faculty and
facilitator will have drafted a new survey and some
prototype workshop materials for other faculty by the
end of the session. The best such materials can be
made available to other institutions, with
acknowledgement of the role played by your faculty and
institution.
Leader:
Stephen C.
Ehrmann, Director of the Flashlight Program and Vice
President, The TLT Group
Schedule and price: This
workshop, as outlined, would take about 6-7 hours. A shorter
version (just segments 1-2) would take 3-4 hours.
The workshop (1-3) could be scheduled for
one day, for two separate visits, or with one session
face-to-face, and the other done with 2-3 shorter online
segments. For institutional subscribers with available
consulting hours, the only expense would be travel costs
for the workshop leader.
Track record: This workshop
(segments 1 and 2) were offered for the first time at Regis
College in Massachusetts in January 2008. [We're gathering
some evaluative feedback from Regis staff which will soon be
posted here.]
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One Columbia Avenue,
Takoma Park,
Maryland 20912
Phone:
301.270.8312/Fax: 301.270.8110
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To talk about our work
or our organization
contact: Sally Gilbert |
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