Sunday, May 18, 2014

Blended Content and Assignments


When designing instruction, it’s not only important to incorporate objectives and assessments, but also designing content and assignments.  Assignments are essential elements of the learning experience because they are the framework and foundation of learning.  Aligning content and assignments to objectives and assessments is very critical.  If assignments are not directly related to the objectives or the courses overall outcome, then it can cause many misconceptions among learners.  Integrating activities in a blended classroom must complement each other and connect concepts that are relevant to the online classroom as well as in a face-to-face environment.  Kevin Thompson (2014) stated, “Students can be critical of blended instruction if they feel the face-to-face and time-out-of-class components of the course are not well integrated.”
 
Online materials are vital to a blended classroom.  The online activities and assignments must be relevant to the face-to-face environment.  If the blended classroom is not aligned and the activities do not complement each other, then it’s going to create confusion and the students can become disengaged and not motivated.  As an instructional designer, it’s imperative that I create tools that will complement both classrooms.  I need to use tools that complement both platforms.  For example:  students can participate in discussions online using wikis, blogs and podcasts.  This can be an extension of what was discussed in the face-to-face format.  Overall, connecting concepts and assignments that are relevant to the blended classroom, is a very important step in the design process.

 
References:

Thompson, K.  (2014).  Understanding blended learning.  Retrieved from https://blended.online.ucf.edu/blendkit-course-blendkit-reader-chapter-4/

 

 

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