Teaching in the Blended Classroom Online Course
Session 1 Introduction to Teaching Students in Blended Courses
Blended Learning: Making it Work in Your Classroom, Edutopia
This article explains how the teachers are enhancing teaching and learning with blended learning at P. K. Yonge Developmental Research School.
What is Your Main Purpose for Blending?, Andrew Coulson
This reading discusses five factors for blended learning that revolve around the learner-centered perspective of instructional interaction between the student, teacher and digital content. These five factors provide opportunities for personalized instruction, one of the benefits of blended learning.
Four Benefits of Blended Learning, Teachthought
This reading concisely outlines the benefits of blended learning.
Five Benefits of Blended Learning, Dream Box
10 Benefits of Teaching in a Blended Learning Classroom, Learn 2 Earn
Sal Khan Maps Out Blended Learning, Edutopia
Session 2: Modals of Blended Learning
Classifying K-12 Blended Learning, Innosight
Read pages 1-15 to learn about models of blended learning as they are currently identified. Is your school or district currently implementing blended learning and if so which of the models fits the implementation in your school?
Blend My Learning: Lessons from a Blended Learning Pilot, Brian Greenberg, Leonard Medlock, and Darri Stephens
Learn how the teacher’s role and student perspectives on learning changed as a result of the implementation of a blended learning program at Envision Schools. This article also describes the impact of blended learning on the uses of the physical classroom space. Read sections 3-5 on pages 6 -13. The sections are "Change in the Role of the Teacher," "Student Perspectives" and "How Space is Used."
The Four Important Models of Blended Learning Teachers Should Know About, Educators Technology
This article highlights the four main models of blending with embedded videos that help you to understand what each model looks like in action.
Blended Learning Energizes High School Math Students, Edutopia - Video
The math teacher in this video uses Khan videos to provide additional support for students who have gaps in their knowledge. This blended classroom includes a mix of online and face-to-face strategies.
Blended Learning Models: https://www.christenseninstitute.org/blended-learning-definitions-and-models/
Blended Learning Profiles: https://www.christenseninstitute.org/blended-learning-profiles/
What Can Blended Learning Look like?, e-Learning Ontario
Blended Learning in Practice: Case Studies from Leading Schools, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation
Session 3: Engaging Students in the Blended Learning Community
Blended Learning: Strategies for Engagement, Edutopia
The author of this article, an experienced blended classroom teacher, shares advice about strategies to engage students in a blended learning classroom.
Top 10 Reasons that Blended Learning is Worth the Hype!, Catlin Tucker
This blog post offers practical reasons for blending learning. The second part of the article explains why the writer thinks blended learning is worth the effort.
How to Create Engaging eLearning Content, Learn Upon
Learn some practical tips to help you prepare, create and deliver engaging online courses.
Blended Learning and the Future of Education, Monique Markoff, TEDx
Session 4: IntroductionThe Power of Online Discussion
As you read the selections below, reflect on the following questions related to facilitating online discussions:
What strategies will you use to facilitate discussions effectively online?
What tone will you use during discussions to foster a safe and robust learning environment?
How will you encourage students to participate actively in discussions?
How will you encourage student-to-student interaction?
How will you guide students and keep the discussions on topic?
How will you provide a sense of closure to each discussion?
How will you effectively assess students' participation in discussions?
Ten Tips for Effective Online Facilitation, EdTech Leaders Online
Follow these 10 strategies to create and sustain a strong learning community in your online environment.
Generating and Facilitating Engaging and Effective Online Discussions, Teaching Effectiveness Program, University of Oregon
This article provides concrete strategies that will help you to effectively facilitate online discussions as well as practical suggestions regarding setting the expectations for your discussions and managing your own time facilitating.
Asynchronous Discussions to Your F2F Classrooms, Edutopia
This article focuses specifically on the benefits of incorporating online forums into your classroom environment. Assessing by Discussion Board, UNSW Australia This article includes practical suggestions for designing discussion questions that promote critical thinking. Well-designed discussion questions will help create a sufficient body of evidence of student learning for assessment.
Assessing by Discussion Board, UNSW Australia
This article includes practical suggestions for designing discussion questions that promote critical thinking. Well-designed discussion questions will help create a sufficient body of evidence of student learning for assessment.
Discussion Board Etiquette video - Jake Dold
Consider how you will assess messages posted by your students in the online discussion forum you created. What criteria will you use to determine whether students are using discussion to extend and enhance their learning? Rubrics can be used to establish the criteria you will use to assess student discussions. Review the sample rubrics below. You may want to consider these as models for use in your course.
Discussion Board Expectations, EdTech Leaders Online
Online Discussion Rubric, The University of Central Florida's (UCF) Center for Distributed Learning (CDL) offers the Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository (TOPR)
Discussion Rubric for Online Class, University of Wisconsin - Stout
Session 5: Managing Diverse Learning Needs
How Technology Is Helping Special-Needs Students Excel, EdTech Magazine
This article describes how educators in California, Montana and Washington explain how technology makes it easier to engage students with physical and learning disabilities.
Special Education Students and Online Learning: Accommodations, Modifications, and Strategies, Leslie Fetzer
In this article the 2012 National Online Teacher of the year Leslie Fetzer shares some of her best practices for teaching students with special needs in the online environment. For more great advice from the pioneer of students with disabilities and online learning, see the Learn More section at the bottom of the page.
“In this video, students in a gifted classroom use the multi-user learning environment Quest Atlantis to explore issues related to the creation of a game reserve in Tanzania. Interviews with the teacher and students offer perspectives on the value of using virtual worlds in the classroom.”
Who's Serving Online Learning's Forgotten Students?, TechLearning
This article highlights some of the tools that can support students with special needs and advocates for teachers and leaders in online education to think about students with special needs when designing online courses and when purchasing technology tools for online environments.
CAST, CAST is a nonprofit education research and development organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals through Universal Design for Learning. Take a look at CAST's free learning tools.
Blended Learning in K-12/Blended Learning in Grades 9-12, Wikibooks
CCSS Application to Students with Disabilities, Corestandards.org
30+ tools for diverse learners, ITSE Luis Perez and Kendra Grant
UDL Tool Kit Karen Janowski and Joyce Valenza . Take time to explore more of the collection of strategies in the UDL toolkit
Session 6: Assessing Students
Blended Assessments of Learning, University of Central Florida
In addition to providing an overview to the assessment process, this reading points out the benefits of using online assessment tools as part of the teachers toolkit and the use of authentic assessment strategies for student projects and students’ learning process.
Learner-Centered Assessment, University of Waterloo
This article offers some concrete suggestions for creating learner-centered assignments that assess what you want students to learn or be able to do by the end of an assignment, unit or course. Follow the links embedded in the article for more information about some of the suggestions.
What is Authentic Assessment?, Jonathan Mueller
This site offers an overview of authentic assessments. You may want to bookmark the site to return to later as you plan and implement authentic assessments in your blended classroom.
Rubrics to the Rescue, Melissa D. Henning, M.Ed.
This article provides an overview of the rationale for using rubrics as well as tools and tips for implementing rubrics as an assessment tool. Make sure to read the section on “Important Characteristics of Rubrics” to learn how to evaluate the rubrics you create so that they accurately assess the learning objectives.
Creating Rubrics: Tools and Resources for Teachers; Educational Technology and Mobile Learning
BlendKit Podcast series; select a podcast from Blended Learning Toolkit site
The Best Free Online Rubric Makers, Edudemic
Scoring Rubrics: What, When and How?, B. Moskal
Extra Resources for Blended Classroom
I appreciate your enthusiasm! Unfortunately, I am not able to provide early access to future sessions; however, I am more than happy to provide you with some resources with ideas that I have found to be useful, easily applicable, and inspiring. (Here are two books and two websites to get you started.)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35069715-bold-school
https://www.teachthought.com/learning/37-blended-learning-resources-you-can-use-tomorrow/
https://www.commonsense.org/education/top-picks/best-apps-and-websites-for-the-flipped-classroom
Hope you find some of the information here useful.
Christine