I Just finished teaching the first blended learning course (entitled Teacher’s Action Research and Academic Performance) for the J-term (January term for the winter 2013 session). This course was a challenge in two ways: 1) Getting enough students to meet the enrollment minimum requirement is very tough for an elective course for the winter session. Most students choose to take time off during the winter break or to take only the necessary “required” course during this time. 2) Fitting all the course components in such a short period of time and engaging all students in active learning with only three face-to-face meetings seem nearly impossible. As this course is the blended learning course, there are two types of meetings: face-to-face (or synchronous) meeting and online (or asynchronous) meeting. Thanks to the new technologies we are able to hold the course and bring forth great results.
Fortunately I was working with one of my colleagues, Dr. Tony Conte, who has been working with me on various tasks for the past many years. Since this is the first blended learning course we ever tried, we decided to co-teach the course. We worked hard talking to interested students, preparing lesson plans and materials, and agonizing on every aspect of the course. We also took suggestions from many other people, including Dr. Sarah Kern, Dr. Deb Knox, John Kuiphoff, and Dr. Timothy Hornberger.
We were also very fortunate to have a group of dedicated students who eagerly participated in and contributed to the class activities. With their enthusiasm and our passion, we created a nurturing learning community among this group. They all go their separate way to research and study to prepare for the class assignments. They also shared and helped each other shaping up individual research topic and ideas. An extra effort we put in to tie the class together was the conference phone call between the instructors and each individual student. During the phone call, we chatted about issues, concerns, and ideas. As a result, each and every one of the students showed clearly they understood what they were supposed to do and they all were happily engaged in carrying out their projects. It took a lot of effort for the results to materialize. Both Tony and I felt it was well worth our time and effort.
