Designing Blended Degree Programs: Theoretical Assumptions and Practical Experience Jay Halfond,...

Designing Blended Degree Programs: Theoretical Assumptions and

Practical Experience

Jay Halfond, Tanya Zlateva, Leo Burstein

The 15th Sloan-C International Conference on Online LearningOctober, 2009

Outline1. BU History of Blended Learning2. Definitions and Perspectives3. Value Proposition4. Building Blocks5. Technology Overview6. Future of Blended Learning7. Q & A

© 2009 Boston University Metropolitan CollegeOctober 2009 2

BU History of Blended LearningLarge online operation - more than 20 grad & undergrad degree programs +- 10+ years history- student population ~ 5,000Blended (eLive) program- Two years old- Leverages online and on-campus experienceInitially struggled with definition of “blended learning”

© 2009 Boston University Metropolitan College

Promise of blended learning

– creating a better package

October 2009 3

Definitions of Blended – It All DependsDefinitions based on allocating percentages “Blended programs are programs where 30 to 79% of content is delivered online,

while in on-campus programs all content is delivered in writing or orally”.

Definitions based on allocating time“Blended courses are courses with reduced contact hours.”

Definitions using dichotomies based on: educational technologies, physical proximity, content media, learning objectives, pedagogical theories, etc.

No universally accepted practical definitions! © 2009 Boston University Metropolitan CollegeOctober 2009 4

Blended from School Administrators’ Perspective


Distance Blended Learning ClassroomNational & International coverage

Regional reach; other opportunities depending on program design

Requires local residency

Designed for self-learners who prefer flexible schedule

Good fit for students who are working professionals who appreciate flexibility

Designed for students who prefer F2F interactions

Proven business model with high scalability

Attract distinguished non-local faculty

Marketing partnerships

Defensive strategy against local competitors; Innovation while maintaining school brand

Opportunity to increase faculty efficiency with reduced contact hours (???), reusable online content, recordings, etc.

Challenging business model, with initial investment and associated risks, complex implementation framework (Khan’s Octagonal).

October 2009 5

Blended from Faculty Perspective


Distance Blended Learning Classroom

Typically large classes

More work; significant out-of-classroom participation; online office hours (time and technology aspects).

Typically smaller classes

Online content development

Develop online content AND new classroom activities (students come prepared)

"Death by PowerPoint"

Working with IDs Smaller (comparing to DE) classes

“Easy to follow-up on absences”

Indirect interactions guiding TAs

Choice of teaching modalities, e.g. combining spontaneous classroom and in-depth online discussions

Directions not always clear

Increased opportunity to explore (distributed) teamwork, real-life projects, decision making.

October 2009 6

Business World Realities

Jr. Programmer, Jr. Analyst, Jr. Researcher

Sr. Programmer, Consultant, Project Lead, Subject Matter Expert

Manager, Director

MS Degree

MS Degree + Practical Skills (Certificates)

MS Degree + Practical Skills + Core Business Competencies


Information Age Realities


Fish Teach how to

fish

Teach how to learn to

fish

October 2009 8

Blended Learning - The Students’ Perspective

October 2009 © 2009 Boston University Metropolitan College 9

BlendedLearning –Student

View

By L

eo B

urst

ein

Academic FoundationP

ract

ical

Ski

lls

Business C

ompetencies

succeedtoneed

studentswhat

REASON FOR EXISTENCE – “Exceeding Comparability”

Empower Teachers: enhance the variety of teaching approaches design programs for multi-modal delivery use multimedia and new collaboration technologies streamline course logistics create a sense of community for students

and facultyo more than just making content available online; create new learning

opportunities by combining classroom activities with independent study and working in virtual teams

o optimal blend of online/classroom modules based on taxonomy of learning objectives (come prepared for F2F meetings!)


Exceeding Comparability (cont.)

Broaden the Audience: Increase student quality and diversity Meet student expectations Provide flexibility and choice

- accommodate different lifestyles and personal preferences

Support for new communication paradigms - welcome “digital natives”)

Maintain workplace relevance


Instruments for Building an Effective Blended Program

StructureCourse materials, well defined activities, schedules, etc.

Dialogf2f sessions, online discussions, video collaboration

Impact

Answer is an area and depends on student’s independent learning ability

Moore’s TD TheoryMaintain optimal “transactional distance” using both structure (CMS-supported) and dialog (both async and sync communications).

0


F2F

DE

Technology Landscape


Learning

Management

Systems

• Blackboard• Vista• Course Info• Angel• Moodle• Sakai• Mobile Academy• Learning Gateway• …

MultimediaCollaboration

• Discussions• Blogs, Wikis• SharePoint, Groove• Webinars• Video conferences• Citrix/app sharing• Social Networking• Second Life

Authoring

• MS Office• Dreamweaver• Expression Studio• Google Tools• Respondus• Camtasia• DRM• PHP, Ajax …

How do we know w

hen students

should

constr

uct a w

iki entry

rather th

an

to have a virtu

al disc

ussion

or a

face-to

-face

d

ialog?

• Video• Flash• Silverlight• Animations• Voiceovers• Podcasting• iTunesU• iPOD, Zune, …

Technology Architecture


Abstract vision … and the reality (over)

Lecture Notes, Syllabus

CD/DVD

Real-Time Webcasts

Recorded Video(Introduction)

Audio NotesSlide

Presentation

Discussion Boards

Assignments

Assessments, Exams

MS Office

Deploy Stream Server

E-Mail

Send Link

Recorded Lectures w/slides

Articles, Links

Recorded Video with Slides

Embed LMS

AnimationSurveys

Audacity(?), Microphone

Live/Sync Collaboration

Online Meetings (Wimba)

Live Video

Co

nte

nt/

Act

ivit

yD

eliv

ery

LMS (Vista)

Deploy iTunesU

Deploy podcasting

server

Headset

Camtasia

Webcam, headset,

laptop

Camera kit

Service or Instructions Service

Echo 360 Station

Video Collaboration

(IOCOM)

Webcam, headset

Training

Copyright check

Edit Update

QABuild

ERT Internal technologies:

* Procedures* Workflows* Instructions* Templates* Documentation* Collaboration

SharePointS

ilver

light

Cla

ssro

om

Pre

sent

er

Pho

ne/W

ebE

x

Online Labs, Group Projects

Virtual Environments Social Networking

Au

tho

rin

gP

roce

ssin

g

ClassroomPodcast

ITunesU

Lab Development

Lab Development

and Deployment

Group Projects

© Education Technology Research, Boston University

Online Office Hours

Edit and Encode

Premier Pro

Open Source

LMS

Dreamweaver RespondusAdobe Flash

Photo-shop

Adobe Acrobat

MSOffice

LMS Designer Kit

Simulation

Technology Architecture (cont)


Technology Wish List

- Low cost - match business model (open source is good, but remember TCO)

- Ubiquitous - routine use to preserve cognitive focus for faculty & students

- Supported - delivered through well defined services

You will know when you are successful!


Structure Need more structure

comparing to F2F Use of CMS to structure

content and deliverables – a must


You are successful if:- Faculty beyond CS department start using the system- No complaints about inability to change content in a timely manner

Dialog Need more dialog comparing

to Distance programs (and “typical” f2f programs?!)- Introduce sync elements in off-campus weeks


You are successful when students start inviting others to listen to their presentations!

Use lecture/mini-lecture recording (async) – “frozen” dialog - useful to ensure flexibility, but split into modules- use appliances to minimize overhead

Motivation for Using Video Collaboration• Challenge: maintaining learning

momentum and the connection with the students when off-campus (“an energy conduit”)

• Synchronous video conferencing closest to face-to-face communication


Pay close attention if you plan for international programs!

October 2009 19

•In addition to Moore, other researches indicate the importance of distance for communication in general and learning in particular and give indirect support for VC.

Classic work by Tom Allen on communication patterns in the 1970s:• frequency of communication diminishes with increased distance and that this holds true for all types of communication (phone and e-mail)

• important decisions tend to be made in face-to-face meetings

Video Collaboration Examples


Virtualization


Virtual Lab Example


Hardware Platform

Virtualization Layer

Application Server

Certification Authority

Network Protocol Analyzer

Client Workstation

vii

viii

ix

iii iv v

x

ii

vi

i

Example: “online banking” scenario (simulation of a distributed computing environment in a Cryptography/PKI Lab, linking to crypto algorithms, network protocols and security models)

October 2009 22

Business AspectsOrganizational placement:

DE/CET/School, business ventures, serendipity.

Staffing with students: content development, administration, technology. Integration. started out of necessity but observed

great enthusiasm from students assisting with content and lab development.


The King is Dead. Long Live the King!

Online banking and “blended” banks?

What is “flexibility”? Our “blended” future


Questions and Answers


Designing Blended Degree Programs: Theoretical Assumptions and Practical Experience Jay Halfond,...

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