Blended Learning Certification: An Institutional Approach

Presenter Information

Devon Fisher, Lenoir-Rhyne UniversityFollow
Jessica O'Brien, Lenoir-Rhyne UniversityFollow

Streaming Media

Submission Type

20-minute Presentation

Abstract

This 20-minute presentation will describe the process by which Lenoir-Rhyne University developed a blended learning certification program in response to a need for focused time for faculty transitioning from teaching in face-to-face format to a blended learning environment. The certification was designed and delivered by two faculty in the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Office of Instructional Technology. This presentation will describe the process of the certification’s initial design, explore ways of helping faculty experience blended learning, and consider ways in which the program uses blended learning pedagogies to help faculty be successful in the blended learning environment.

Start Date

5-24-2018 1:15 PM

Description

This session will describe ways in which Lenoir-Rhyne University adapted the pedagogies of blended learning to provide faculty development for professors adapting face-to-face classes to a blended learning environment. Our Blended Learning Certification consists of twenty hours of contact time over two semesters. Participants in the program identify a course that they will develop for a blended learning environment. The first phase of faculty development occurs in the semester prior to implementation of that course with seven hours of face-to-face contact time and approximately the same amount of online instruction. The second phase occurs during the semester of implementation. Participants observe each others’ classes and provide formative feedback before regathering at the end of the semester for intentional, focused reflection.

Beyond simply describing the Blended Learning Certification, this session will explore how the program was designed to help faculty experience a blended learning environment. The certification itself is a blended learning format with participants completing assignments that directly connect to the content of the synchronous sessions. Instructors intentionally model both effective and ineffective blended learning teaching strategies and invite participant reflection on those practices. For instance, in discussion forum assignments, instructors offer a range of feedback and invite participants to reflect on what kinds of instructor presence and feedback were most effective and why.

Finally, the presentation considers the ways in which blended learning pedagogy informed the certification program. The designers intentionally created opportunities in the online components of the program to meet the needs of individual faculty, mirroring best practice in blended learning. Participants in the certification program were invited to use electronic tools to collaborate as they designed their courses. Finally, mirroring the need for blended learning to meet the needs of diverse learners, the program was designed to accommodate the varying needs of different cohorts.

Overall, this session is designed to provide the theory behind and the process for one institutional level response to providing faculty development for professors transitioning into the world of blended learning. Key takeaways for participants in this session will include:

• The need to allow faculty to experience a blended learning environment,

• The need to identify faculty readiness for teaching in a blended learning environment and to tailor programming to meet the needs of the individual and the cohort,

• The need for faculty collaboration in the development of blended learning courses,

• The need for focused time for reflection on the blended learning experience.

Comments

I hope you will still consider this even though it is a day late. My co-presenter and I each thought the other was submitting. We really are not that disorganized most of the time. We will entirely understand if you are unable to consider it, though.