Enhancing Your Hybrid Course with MERLOT Learning Objects

Cathy Simpsonhttp://tac.nvcc.edu

Laura Franklinhttp://www.nvcc.edu/home/lfranklin

Northern Virginia Community College

Session Objectives

• Define hybrid courses at NVCC

• Explore their advantages & challenges

• Share learning materials from MERLOT collection to build successful hybrid courses

• Provide example of hybrid course using MERLOT learning materials

What is a Hybrid Course?

Courses where a significant portion of the learning activities are moved online and time spent in the classroom is reduced but not eliminated. They blend in-class teaching and online learning.

“The single greatest unrecognized trend in higher education today” – Graham Spanier

What are Advantages to Teaching a Hybrid Course?

• Encourages integration of out-of-class activities with in-class activities for more effective use of in-class time

• Promotes self-directed learning

• Enhances computer skills

• Presents learning materials in a range of formats

• Promotes greater student involvement and engagement

• Opens new teaching opportunities• Affects way faculty approach their other

courses• Offers flexibility for students• Promotes increased attendance• Maximizes physical resources

What Types of Hybrid Courses Are There?

• Synchronous Face-to-Face Classroom and Asynchronous Online Learning

• Virtual, Synchronous Face-to-Face Classroom and Asynchronous Online Learning

• Variety of Combinations of Classroom and Online90/10; 60/40; 50/50; 40/60; 10/90

What Types of Activities Occur During Course Time?

• Didactic: Lecture, content centered “covering” material

• Discursive: Exploration of ideas through discussion and inquiry

• Coaching: Helping students develop and practice skills, often through experiential learning opportunities

How Can You Integrate F2F and Online Experiences?

• F2F and online are “symbiotic:”– Each can “feed” the other:

• Classroom time to build relationships with “ice-breakers” that free participants for deeper discussion online

• Classroom activities that are built from points initially developed in online discussions

– Developing a “feedback loop”• F2F leads to Online Activity, which leads to more

follow-up in F2F session

comments by Terry Doyle

F2F Instruction

Online Experience(s) or Interactions

F2F Activity or Coaching

Online Experience(s) or Interaction

F2F Performance and Feedback

Online Feedback

What Types of Online Activities Are in Hybrid Courses?

• Use of learning objects to learn key concepts, including– simulations, tutorials, exercises, webquests, case

studies, presentations

• Use of discussion forums and/or chats• Online surveys, pre-tests, post-tests, and tests• Group assignments• Peer review of written assignments

• Web site development

• Internet searches

• Brainstorming

What are Some of the Characteristics of Effective Hybrid Courses?

• Establishes learning environment– Introduction activity– Clearly stated course goals and objectives– Clearly stated course policies and procedures

• Getting Started

• Technology Orientation

• Attendance Policy

• Netiquette Statement

• Designs variety of F2F and online learning activities

• Integrates the F2F and online learning activities to meet course goals & objectives

• Organizes clearly the F2F and online elements of course

What are Some of the Challenges?

• Investing time in course redesign

• Integrating online activities with F2F meetings

• Designing online activities to meet course goals and objectives

• Course management

• Developing new teaching strategies,– facilitating online interactions – assessing student online learning.

• Learning new technology skills

• Ensuring appropriate workload for students

Reinventing FRE 201

MERLOT and the Hybrid course

Basic Challenges

• Resisting the urge to build a course and a half

• Including out of class activities that support in-class work

• Giving students a variety of motivating tasks

• Deciding what is best F2F and online

• Making students aware of their preferred learning styles

• Providing activities to engage all learning styles

Great Advantages

• Reaching more learning styles and keeping

student attention

• Skill- getting at an individual pace at home

• Practice and social learning in class

• With MERLOT, I don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Ohio State “Statistical Buffet”

• Introductory Statistical Concepts (5 cr) becomes a hybrid course.

• OSU implements a "buffet" strategy, offering students a choice of interchangeable paths to learn each course objective.

• Active and reflective learning activities to reach all styles.

Buffet Analogy"You can think about how people present food to a group," says Dennis K. Pearl, a professor of statistics at Ohio State who is developing the hybrid course. "You can make the best roast beef that you can, but a vegetarian is not going to have a good meal."

Chronicle of Higher Education, March 2002, “Hybrid Teaching Seeks to End the Divide Between Traditional and Online Instruction.“ by Jeffrey Young

Sample Activities

• Lectures (live and web)

• labs• small group study

sessions• videos, training

modules

• oral and written presentations

• active large group problem solving (TA graded or self-graded)

• individual and group projects.

A Word of Advice

“Hands-on is needed for minds-on. “David Weaver, Physics, Chandler-Gilbert CC

Matching MERLOT Sites to Learning Styles

• Students choose from one of two LSQs:

• Felder/Solaman Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire (North Carolina State)

• VARK Questionnaire and Help Sheets

Felder/Silverman Learning Style Model

• Active learners need to try things out.

• Reflective learners needs to think first, than try them out.

• Sensing learners like solving problems by well-established methods and dislike complications and surprises.

• Intuitive learners often prefer discovering possibilities and relationships.

•Visual learners remember best what they see--pictures, diagrams, flow charts, time lines, films, and demonstrations.

•Verbal learners get more out of words--written and spoken explanations.

•Everyone learns more when information is presented both visually and verbally.

•Sequential learners tend to gain understanding in linear steps, with each step following logically from the previous one

•Global learners tend to learn in large jumps, absorbing material almost randomly without seeing connections, and then suddenly "getting it."

Finding the MERLOT Sites

• Review Learning Objectives for the week

• Isolate broad topics (literature, grammar, culture)

• Select items for active learning

• Select items for self-directed learning

• Review MERLOT Personal Collections

FRE 201 Pick Three

• For each unit, students choose three activities.

• With two weeks to complete assignment, they can choose activities that feature their learning styles.

• They share what they learn in the f2f sessions• They will probably sample more than three

before they choose.

Tic-Tac-Toe

Culture

Voyage virtuelA,G,VIS

Grammar

ConjuguemosS, R

Lit

Petit NicolasVIS

Grammar

RfiVIS/VER

Lit

Chasse Littéraire A

Culture

PromenadeEuropéenne A

Lit

ArchivoxVIS/VER

Culture

ParispourvousA,G,VIS

Grammar

Temps LudiqueS, R

Searching MERLOT for sites that reach all learners

Editor’s Choice and MERLOT Classics 2003

http://taste.merlot.org/awards/2003/