Tips from TELS: Advice for Blended Courses

The Concord Consortium is a founding member of the Technology Enhanced Learning in Science (TELS) project, a research consortium sponsored by the National Science Foundation.  Each year of the five-year project, TELS faculty offers a collaborative online course to students at each of the participating institutions. The first course on Assessment and Technology, offered in spring 2003, enrolls graduate students from UC Berkeley, Arizona State University, Norfolk State University, Boston University, North Carolina Central University, Pennsylvania State University, and Technion Institute of Technology, Israel.

The TELS course is a unique blended course, delivered online and with face-to-face sessions, with the distinction of being led by local instructors in each of the seven locations. Each weeklong online unit of the course has students in each locale interacting mid-week in face-to-face sessions with their local instructors and classmates. This stimulating arrangement has led to the creation of communities of learners in both the local settings and on the larger scale of 16 to 20 online students.

As we prepare for our next course offering in fall 2004, we reflect on our learnings to date, and we invite you to sit in on our musings and examine a few of our successful strategies.

Remember the Learners

Education is always about the students.  We must be open to listening to students as they progress through each of our online courses, and never assume our experience trumps theirs.  Each new student reaction, suggestion, and criticism is as valuable as any from the online course pioneers. We must be open to new students and to experienced online learners, who bring with them skills and expectations that can help us challenge our notions about how best to construct online communities. Best practices must be flexible enough to change as we continue to learn with and from our students.

Keep It Simple

Our students have the advantage of many sources of interaction, including discussions and small group work with local and online instructors and classmates. The course must be structured in a way to help students feel supported and organized; students must not spend valuable online time with unnecessary navigation of the courseware.  Students should focus on the learning, with the technology transparent. The courseware  should not drive the course. Instead, course needs should come first, with the courseware forced to meet those needs.

Create Inclusive Discussions

Although we assign a variety of discussion activities for our students and feel structure and order are essential scaffolding to encourage online discussions, we want to focus on student learning, not on checkoffs of how many postings each student has made each week. Combining discussions on several related topics may help students feel more connected as they study readings each week, share their life experiences, and reflect on the comments of their classmates.

Commit to Asynchronous Communication

For students learning English, online conversations often work best, allowing students the necessary time to research confusing expressions their classmates use and to phrase their comments carefully. For teams that use fast-action online chats or conference calls, those without a strong English background may find the process frustrating and alienating.

In a Blended Course, Pull People Online

The lure of the face-to-face segment of blended courses is an attraction that’s capable of pulling conversations out of the online discussions. It’s a challenge to keep students from saving their questions and best comments for the next face-to-face class. To avoid this pitfall, online conversations must include clear guidelines and expectations, and a strong and timely instructor involvement with students.  Additionally, private online discussion areas afford students individual counseling, encouragement, and answers to any questions they might be feeling uncomfortable asking in front of the group.

Make the Instructor Voice Constant and Clear

With multiple instructors determining the readings and activities each week, it’s difficult for students to keep track of whose voice is that of the online instructor. Although we provide weekly content experts who serve as discussion leaders, we like to keep a reliable constant in the voice of the instructor – the clearly identified and introduced personality who presents the online information each week and answers questions. This person serves as “the” instructor to oversee the entire course program.

Go Deep, Not Broad

The best learning comes in the form of mastering a limited number of concepts in depth, rather than many concepts at a minimal level. Online and blended courses can accomplish this by presenting focused readings, research, and discussions, and not spending students’ time with many unrelated assignments.

In the fall, we’ll offer our next TELS course, incorporating learnings from this and our other online projects. For more information or to become involved, visit the TELS website.