Jason Siko

Assistant Professor of Educational Technology

Grand Valley State University

What I’m going to doShare experiences teaching an advance biology course in a blended format

Discuss history that led to decision to offer course in this format

Design decisions

Constraints

Results & Perceptions

What Happened?IB Biology HL course

Course Expanded in size (~doubled)

$ for supplies/materials (e.g., gel electrophoresis)

Space (self-designed labs)

Scheduling Constraints

Bye-Bye!

District’s desire to test waters with blended coursework

FYIOnline – 100% distance

Hybrid – coursework is both online and face-to-face (f2f); separation of tasks

Blended – mix of online and f2f; content overlaps

Synchronous – online instruction/activities occur in real time with teacher and students

Asynchronous – instruction/activities occur whenever student accesses content

What we did...School on trimester system

2nd trimester: 2 sections had same teacher, different hour of the day

3rd trimester: 2 sections had different teacher, same hour of the day (1st Hour)

Moved course content online (~”flipped”)

Students came in for labs and for individualized help

Tests/Exams were taken in class. Everyone took the test at the same time.

AttendanceBecause course was 1st Hour, students did not have to arrive and then leave in the middle of the day.

For attendance purposes, students had to arrive for last 5 minutes of 1st Hour and sign in. Otherwise, students were marked absent.

Attendance personnel and building aides were made aware of situation.

Students were not given freedom to roam; if they were in the building, they were in class or had planner pass to leave

Attendance was “normal” on lab and exam days.

Grades and AttendanceSchool had online grade and attendance program; thus, students/parents were aware of progress on demand.

Teachers reviewed grades every 2 weeks.

Students below a C- were required to attend class for tutoring.

Once grade was above C-, student could resume normal schedule.

ParentsSchool hosted an information night where parents were informed of the study and given an opportunity to ask questions.

Survey data indicated some apprehension, but overall there was positive support for the initiative.

Stressed self-regulation

Given nature of IB Program, parents were open to opportunity to give students online course experience before college.

ContentOakland Schools (Oakland County’s ISD) provides Moodle to districts in county

Course used Moodle as a repository for materials

Teacher used Slideshare to create lectures with voiceovers

Textbooks

Campbell & Reece (i.e., the AP Biology text)

IB Course Companion (Oxford Press)

CommunicationEmail (Parents & Students)

In-Class Announcements

Edmodo (Students only)

Online Gradebook (Parents & Students)

SchoolCenter (district program for teacher web pages)

Google Docs (district – used to share data)

“SuperDoubleSecretFacebookPage”

AssignmentsTurn in physical copies of assignments

Edmodo

Edublogs

Lab DaysDepended on lab

Both sections simultaneously

One section on one day/week (~training)

In class splits

ResultsEnd of year survey with both parents and students

Grade comparisons – not much deviation from f2f grades. Difficult to compare to previous year’s group.

Survey results: Students, then parents

Liked the independence

Although some struggled with the autonomy (~liked the “pressure” of being in class)

Many admitted to falling behind

Various “favorites”/”dislikes”

Some wanted more communication/had confusion

Parents

Parent commentsExcited with a little apprehension

Some frustration with communication (grades)

Despite access to online grades

“ABLE to get lazy…”

Overall, most seemed glad their student had the experience.

Questions?

Thanks for Coming!!!!Jason Siko

Assistant Professor of Educational Technology

Grand Valley State University

Grand Rapids, MI

sikojp@gmail.com / sikoj@gvsu.edu

http://jasonsiko.com