7/29/2019 Proposal for the Development of Blended Learning at Universidad Catlica de Colombia

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Proposal for the Development of Blended Learning at UniversidadCatlica de Colombia

1. IntroductionThe Centro de Lenguas de la Universidad Catlica provides language training to undergraduatestudents of the university from all careers, also there are extension courses for graduate studentsand all the community in general.

All the programs offered are within the Common European framework of reference for languages,and most students take one course of 120 hours and are evaluated as A1 students. Most studentsdecide to take their English training at the end of their career, therefore we account with studentsin the last semester of their careers.

The programs offered are mostly focused on speaking and communication, but lack of a strongvirtual component that provides students with support and additional tools to improve their learningprocess.

This proposal intends to provide new methodologies and virtual solutions that help improve theprogram we have by implementing new tools and virtual components, designed to make learningeasier and more interactive.

2. E-learning y B-learning Background (Existing practice)For many years the university has included English as a compulsory subject for all careers,however, the language programs designed have not included a solid virtual component.Sometimes teachers work a isolated in virtual projects, that are assigned to an specific group, butthere is not a general component or virtual in the programs.

The only virtual contact students have during the course is a virtual lab: every week studentshave to access an online page that provides a collection of vocabulary classified by categories,each category offers a list of vocabulary related to the category, also if you click with the pointer ontop of a word, it provides audio with the pronunciation of that word. Students are assigned one

The 100% online courses are delivered through the universitys online Campus (using sakai)where students also have access, via a link, to the Tell Me More platform. Students are expected

to study and complete the work set for them on Campus and Tell Me More each week and theyalso receive an individual 15 minute tutorial session every week via Skype with their course tutor.

Students on the blended courses also have access to the Universitys online Campus and Tell MeMore. Each week they are required to complete certain units of the Tell Me More platform, which

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occupies most of the students out-of-class time but occasionally the tutor may set homework to bedone on Campus. These courses follow Design 1 of the blended and flexible learning frameworkias the Campus is used mainly as a reference where they can find the course guide, some learningresources, and their grades for the course and check the calendar to see when work is due in.The blended courses consist of four hours of face-to-face hours a week and three hours online(semi-intensive) or eight hours of face-to-face hours and six hours online (intensive).

3. Context and ParticipantsCONTEXTThe course participants will be the eleven teachers currently working at Plus Language, two full-time teachers and nine part-time teachers. Five of these teachers have experience of teaching onour 100% online courses, the other six have only worked on blended courses. All the teachersmanage the Tell Me More platform and have a basic understanding of how to use the universitysonline campus.

4. Objectives of the practice For teachers to understand their role as e-moderators. For teachers to learn how to use web 2.0 tools that were previously unknown to them. For teachers to learn to select the appropriate tools for the creation of specific learning

activities.

For teachers to learn to make optimum use of the universitys online platforms. For teachers to learn to use appropriate criteria for online evaluation and assessment.

5. Rationale

Currently the online Campus (Sakai) is underutilized by all the English teachers, even on the 100%online courses. On the blended courses, time constraints are a factor but it is also due to teacherslack of knowledge about how to use the different tools available to them. This not only includeshow to set up appropriate activities using the tools but also how to evaluate them. For example,teachers have said I dont use forums because they are so complicated and time-consuming toevaluate. It is obvious that teachers need to have a better understanding of how to use different

tools and have tips and guidelines about how best to evaluate and give feedback to students.There are also cases of tools being used inappropriately, for example a forum is not used for anysort of collaborative work but for students to post individual homework which doesnt generate anydebate or discussion. The 100% online teachers are generally good at sourcing ready-made onlinematerials for their courses but few have the skills or knowledge to create their own online materials

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adapted to their students specific needs, particularly in terms of audio-visual material. There isalso a lack of collaboration and interaction among students on online courses at the moment asforums; chats and group work are minimal. There is a real need for online courses to becomemore interactive in order to align them with the communicative focus of the face-to-face classesand teachers therefore need to be equipped with the skills and knowledge to create interactive andcollaborative e-courses.

6. Implementation

The training program will be delivered through five two-hour face-to-face sessions and will besupported by weekly online research and activities throughout the course of ten weeks.Participants will be expected to spend a minimum of three hours each week online for a total of 40hours of study.

Week Face-to Face Online

Week1

Forum: online learning - what are thebenefits? What are the drawbacks? Canquality education be delivered online?

Week2

What differences are there between onlineand face-to-face learning environments?What makes a good online teacher? Whatfactors are important to take into accountwhen teaching online? What is the role ofan e-moderator?

LMS vs. Open Access Social Media. Do weneed an online campus (LMS)?

What is web 2.0, What web 2.0 tools doteachers know? How do they use them intheir virtual classrooms?

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Week3

Research of different web 2.0 tools: eachparticipant selects a tool to research andpresent to the class.

Week4

Presentation of Web 2.0 tools. How canthese tools be used on courses? What kindof activities can be designed with thesetools? What advantages anddisadvantages do they have?

Activity: design a lesson plan using one of theweb 2.0 tools that you have not used before.Upload to the online platform.

Week5

Wikis: what are wikis? How can they be usedfor language learning activities? What arethe advantages and challenges of using wikisin an online classroom? Use a wiki to

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brainstorm ideas.

Week6

Review of wikis. Moderating forums andother collaborative work: how to deal withdifferent types of e-learner.

Design a collaborative writing task andspecify the teaching objectives and learnerprofile (level, age etc.)

Week7

Referencing materials. Importance ofreferencing materials. How should it bedone?

Week8

Podcasts, webcasts and web-conferencing.What is the difference between them? Howcan each of them be used for languagelearners?

Research and presentation of different audio-visual tools, which ones do you like best andwhy?

Week9

Production of audio-visual podcast: specifylearning objectives and learner profile.

Week10

Presentation of podcasts.

How to assess online activities. Whatshould the rubrics be for assessing forums,wikis and other online tasks?

Course evaluation.

7. Project Partners

8. Positive Aspects which will support implementation

All of Plus Languages teaching staff have experience of blended learning so they all have someknowledge of online learning resources and basic tools. This means that the barrier to online learning hasalready been broken down. Although some teachers continue to be a little technologically adverse, theyrealize the importance of ICTs for learning and understand the need to continue updating their knowledgein this area.

Another positive aspect of the teaching staff is that they are a relatively small team (eleven people) and

there is a real sense of community among them. They share resources and are willing to help each otherboth in lesson planning and the use of online tools.

Most importantly, Plus Language has the full support of the universitys rector when it comes to developingand improving our online and blended programs.

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9. Risks or challenges to implementation

Nine out of eleven of the teachers at Plus Language work on part-time contracts and nearly all of themhave teaching hours in other institutions and companies. All teachers are expected to attend a meeting on

the second Thursday of every month, where they participate in a one hour teacher development workshopbut it is often difficult to arrange training time over and above this. For this reason, the bulk of the coursewill be taught online with face-to-face sessions bi-monthly, by extending the normal programmed meetingtime and adding an additional session.

10. Projected results

It is hoped that after the course teachers will have an increased enthusiasm for e-learning and aheightened curiosity to research new ways of creating more dynamic and collaborative e-learning activitiesfor their students. It is expected that teachers will have a better understanding of their role as e-moderators and feel more confident about how to evaluate and give feedback to students online.Participants are projected to learn how to use new web 2.0 tools that were previously unknown to them

and be able to select appropriate tools for different learning activities and objectives. It is hoped that afterthe course all teachers will make better use of the Universitys online Campus on both blended and 100%online courses but also go beyond the limitations of Sakai when necessary to develop the best e-tivitiesfor their students needs.

11. Follow up actions

Following the course the teachers will be able to share ideas and links to tools and resources through awiki page. Teachers will also have a chance to collaborate and keep each other updated in PlusLanguages monthly training sessions. It is also important for new teachers who join the Plus team toparticipate in this e-learning course, either before being contracted or during the first few months ofstarting work. The course could be programmed once or twice a year, depending on the number of new

teachers that join the language centre.

As academic coordinator, it is vital to keep constant track of both teachers and students activitiesthroughout their courses and to give guidance on how they can make improvements to the way they areusing online tools or creating and carrying out online and blended activities.

iAlmpanis Timos et al. (2010) Proposing a framework for Blended and Flexible Course Design, IADIS International Conference

on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age, CELDA.