One of the best ways I know to get persons to understand that developing a blended course requires you to apply instructional design principles is to have them do a storyboard. The storyboard requires you to work out exactly what you will be doing both offline and online, based on your course objectives. You need to think about the elements of your course, the sequence in which they will be delivered and how they are linked to your outcomes and assessments. You need to present these in a form that is clear and logical. This exercise highlights the fact that course development both online and offline is a planned activity. Online and blended learning is not about throwing some bits of technology together online, and adding some course notes and readings. It is a well thought-out approach that involves the use of web-based and perhaps other technology. Happy story-boarding all!
Photo access from http://www.skyscanner.net/news/articles/2011/02/009249-skyscanner-follows-in-the-footsteps-of-the-oscar-nominees.html
I never felt I was just throwing things together on my Moodle (myeLearning) course sites - well, I hope it doesn't seem that way upon viewing my courses online; but, I never knew or considered that I could have planned how to construct and present the courses in such a structured way as storyboarding BEFORE putting them online. So, this for me is new learning. It is a very new and interesting exercise - more work, yes, but certainly something to add to my general knowledge, skills, understanding; to the way I plan my teaching; and to my SoTL experience as well.
ReplyDeleteA student once said to me that he would "throw a few things" on his site and let me have a look at it. That's why I made the comment in the post. Many people think you can just wing it in online learning. That works for some in a face to face classroom but online learning cannot be a random act. That's the point I was trying to make.
ReplyDeleteI have started doing my storyboard, and I can definitely say it is not something you can "throw a few things together". I have seen that it takes time and effort, but it will be worth it for the course shell.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to put my storyboard together but some of the lessons in my course do not follow the progression of one lesson to the next, how do I represent this on my storyboard? Also, how and where do I put the overview of the course?
ReplyDeleteHazra I am not sure I understand what you mean when you say your lessons don't follow a progression. Let's take this discussion out of the blog. Please send me an e-mail and let's talk it through.
ReplyDeleteAh, storyboarding! It forced me to think, plan and re-structure some of the elements of my lessons,the course, even. But then again this is essential for online delivery. What I have discovered is that whereas some things may be understood and therefore left unsaid in face-to-face delivery, or perhaps explained at a later date, online delivery requires clarity, exactness, precision, logical flow of ideas, etc. more so than its face-to-face counterpart. It's quite a challenge remembering not to leave any gaps and to include and explain all details. This is where the storyboard proves helpful to me.
ReplyDeleteSince I have completed my story board and my critique on blended learning I am looking forward to build my course on-line. I read many interesting articles on blended learning while doing the critique and I was fascinated and looking forward to putting part on one of my courses online.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good and worthy exercise.
ReplyDeleteI now started doing story boards for all my courses/units which I would teach from now on.
Definitely it helps to keep things organized and focused and streamlined; everything to fulfill the learning/teaching objectives and facilitate the teaching/learning process.
-Jaya
Working on the storyboard has really made me realise that the online components of blended courses should not only be used to supplement instruction. Blended courses should really combine face to face and online instruction. The online elements are valid in their own right in order to acheive learning outcomes. It is so helpful to be able to be able to use these tools, such as podcasts, wikis, online discussions in addition to, and not just supplementally for, instruction.
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