eLearning in LLS
eLearning and LLS
LLS has had a long involvement in online learning delivery at the College. We are one of a few schools currently performing most online and blended eLearning. As a faculty member in LLS, you will likely teach an online or blended course.
To provide flexible learning opportunities for our students, LLS typically offers online and blended courses across all disciplines, including the WRIT and COMM curriculums and many General Education elective courses. In addition, the General Arts and Science Program (GAP) includes an online-only option.
Meet your Coordinator
Andrew Stracuzzi
Email: astracuzzi@fanshawec.ca
Principal Role: to support faculty in curriculum design and delivery and pedagogical support (such as assessment design, learning/module outcome creation, effective online teaching practices and course review). Please feel free to stop by my cubicle or contact me via email for anything eLearning and curriculum-related.
How is eLearning Defined at Fanshawe?
eLearning includes all forms of electronically-supported media, information, and communication technologies to support teaching and learning. It can occur in or out of the classroom and be self-paced, synchronous, or asynchronous. FanshaweOnline (FOL) is the College’s Learning Management System (LMS) used to host course content for all three delivery modes.
Some key definitions from Fanshawe’s A115: Online Learning and Education Technology policy are as follows:
- Educational Technology: The use of software, technologies, processes, procedures, resources, and strategies for teaching and learning. Using these tools facilitates integrating technology into education to build better teaching and learning experiences that help achieve learning outcomes.
- Learning Management System (LMS): A cloud-based system provided and supported by the College that facilitates the provision of organized, consistent, and timely course-related communication between professors and students; assists professors with course administration; supports student engagement; promotes quality learning experiences; and provides a vehicle for ongoing formative student feedback. The Fanshawe College Learning Management System is provided by the D2L system and is branded as FanshaweOnline (FOL).
- Online: A course where all or almost all of the content is web-based with either no or a limited number of face-to-face meetings. In the Online model, course content delivery depends on the same computer and network-based technologies used in web-facilitated and Blended courses, but here, they become the principal method of engagement between professors and students. Blended: A term often used interchangeably with “hybrid learning.” Blended is a course design model that combines traditional, face-to-face class time with Online and out-of-class coursework.
- Blended courses typically replace face-to-face class time with Online or out-of-class teaching methodology. This definition largely depends on the subject matter and the overall nature of the course.
Teaching Resources
NOTE: the links below require special access; please ask your elearning coordinator or EST for faculty access.
- OLTS: OnlineLearning Template Showcase Course – this course can be used for fully online and blended courses. This template contains more detailed instructional design elements and aims to follow Quality Matters guidelines, a Teaching Online guide, and a set of ancillary resources.
- BOLT: Blended and Online Learning Toolkit – a FanshaweOnline resource course for all things related to elearning
- WRIT Template Course – for faculty teaching the WRIT curriculum, this is an FOL course template with additional instructor resources.
Organizational Development and Learning (ODL)
Find virtual webinar dates, professional development info and resources related to online and blended learning through ODL:
- Fanshawe’s Digital Teaching and Learning Program includes an introduction to online teaching at Fanshawe course and a teaching with digital technology course.
- Workshops and Virtual Webinars through Fanshawelearns
- Quality Matters Teaching Online Certificate (TOC)
- Looking for more training videos? Take a look at these resources.
Email: learningcontinuity@fanshawec.ca for any questions!
Teaching an Online Class
What do you need to know about teaching an online course?
- Always ask for help: asking early is best if you have questions about online and blended learning. I am always available to provide pedagogical advice and curriculum support for your online and blended learning courses. Our School’s Educational Support Technologist is the principal contact for all things technology-related and specific help with FanshaweOnline.
- Make sure your online and blended course(s) support student learning: an important step to achieving this is to use the preloaded “Course Information” modules within FOL. Ensure the “required” information is complete and current in all your course(s).
- Check Your Course Material and Your Links: It is a good policy before the course goes “live” to click around and make sure all your external (and internal, for that matter) links are active and bring the user to the intended destination. This measure is especially worthwhile when teaching a course developed in previous semesters, as online content may have been moved, modified, or withdrawn without your knowledge.
- Explore the many PD options offered at the College through OD&L: sessions on effectively using FanshaweOnline for online and blended teaching are important. Understanding and becoming proficient in our Learning Management System (LMS) will help ease your online teaching and learning transition. Monthly emails are sent out college-wide, letting you know about available sessions. Details about current and upcoming PD can be found on the myFanshawe portal under Professional Development.
Ideas from Instructors
- Promote Online Presence and Engagement: a good rule when designing your courses is to ensure equal opportunities for student-to-student, student-to-content, and student-to-teacher interaction. Clear, weekly communication in various forms is also crucial.
- Scaffold your Students’ Learning Experience: online learning is primarily asynchronous, so scaffolding assignments, creating and spacing formative and summative assessments or activities, and supplying module learning objectives, as well as module summaries or checklists, will help to make an ideal condition for student success in the virtual environment.
- Open all content each week, same time, same day.
- Set up the FOL gradebook, calendar, assignment/dropbox, and content modules before the course begins.
- Orient your Students: plan to have a course orientation/series of activities in the first week of class so that students become familiar with the online learning environment and have an opportunity to fix any technical issues/barriers.
- Post welcome announcement on FOL on the first day of class & have students navigate the tools you will use in the course.
Teaching a Blended Class
What is a Blended Course
Blended learning is a model of learning that combines elements of online and in-class instruction. In a blended course, some predetermined portion is delivered entirely online while the remaining parts are delivered face-to-face (F2).
In the School of Language and Liberal Studies, most blended courses combine one hour of online instruction with a two-hour in-class session.
What do I do with the blended hour?
The online portion of your blended course should include a mix of activities. For example, having students read, watch, and do something.
A strong blended hour uses bridging activities to incorporate the online and in-class components. The online hour should not be completed in isolation. Instead, learning should flow between the two components.
Does there need to be a graded activity each blended hour?
No, not every activity needs to be graded. Activities (online and in class) can be woven together to create one larger assignment or simply as learning activities to prepare students for large summative assessments such as tests or exams.
Instead of grading each piece of work, focus on weaving the online and in-class elements together and demonstrating to students that it is one learning experience. The best way to do this is through bridging activities that build on the learning that has come before and show students the value of the online material.
Ideas from Instructors
- Don’t post your PowerPoint! Asking students to click through PowerPoint slides is not a good blended activity, especially if the slides are text-heavy.
- What can I do?
- Offer a text-based narrative instead of a slide show or If visuals are important, consider recording a video screencast.
- What can I do?
- Make effective use of the two modes. Easier learning activities can be moved online, but more complicated concepts and activities work better in class.
- What can I do?
- Ask yourself: What can students do on their own? What do I need to teach them?
- What can I do?
- Be consistent in your approach. Each week should have the same feel and parameters.
- Connect the two environments with a bridging activity. The online and in-class components should complement each other.
- Provide regular communication: Regular communication is essential for online or blended courses.
- What can I do?
- Email your students each week.
- Post an announcement each week! Give it an end date so your news feed isn’t cluttered. Also, uncheck the “Always show start date” box.
- What can I do?
Blended Learning FAQ
Question: What exactly is a blended course?
Answer: A blended course (sometimes called hybrid) is a course that combines in-class learning with some institutionally defined portion of (usually asynchronous) online instruction. A standard definition describes blended courses as “integrating online with traditional face-to-face class activities in a planned, pedagogically valuable manner.” Another definition from Ike Shibley offers that “Blending learning involves using a combination of face-to-face interactions and online interactions in the same course.” There are many others, but it’s that simple: combining online and in-class learning. It is important to remember that the term blended is a categorical distinction. A blended course can come in many models or configurations:
- The University of Waterloo offers math courses that guide students through basic math problems online, followed by an in-class session where the instructor guides small groups of students through more complex problem sets.
- Royal Roads University offers courses that deliver blocks of intensive on-campus learning punctuated by several weeks of online learning.
- Sun-Life Financial offers employee training workshops that require participants to complete an online module before attending an in-person workshop.
All of these are examples of blended learning! They just use different configurations.
In SLLS, we have (generally) adopted a model of blended learning that combines 2 hours of in-class instruction with 1 hour of online instruction.
See also:
McGee, P. & Reis, A. (2012). Blended Course Design: A Synthesis of Best Practices. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 16(4), 7-22. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ982678.pdf
Question: How can I ensure students do their online work?
Answer: The same way you ensure they come to class – you can’t. It’s a bit of a mindset shift for students (and instructors). Students have to take responsibility for their online work.
Question: Can I record my lecture and put it online?
Answer: You could, but it isn’t the best way to use video. Aim for shorter clips (7 to 10 minutes) if you want to use video. Further reading:
- Brame, C.J. (2015). Effective educational videos. http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/effective-educational-videos/
- Carmichael, M., Reid, A.K., & Karpicke, J.D. (2018). Assessing the Impact of Educational Video on Student Engagement, Critical Thinking and Learning: The Current State of Play. Sage Publishing. https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/hevideolearning.pdf
- Zhang D, Zhou L, Briggs RO, and Nunamaker JF Jr. (2006). Instructional video in e-learning: Assessing the impact of interactive video on learning effectiveness. Information & Management 43, 15-27. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378720605000170
Question: Is there any evidence that blended learning works?
Answer: There is a lot of research within the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL). I’d encourage you to explore it, but here are a few articles to get you started:
- Bernard, R. M., Borokhovski, E., Schmid, R. F., Tamim, R. M., & Abrami, P. C. (2014). A meta-analysis of blended learning and technology use in higher education: from the general to the applied. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 26(1), 87–122. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-013-9077-3
- Liu, Qian, et al. (2016) “The effectiveness of blended learning in health professions: systematic review and meta-analysis.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 18.1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4717286/
- Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy R. F. & Baki, M. (2013). The Effectiveness of Online and Blended Learning: A Meta-Analysis of the Empirical Literature. Teachers College Record, 115(3), 1-47. https://www.sri.com/sites/default/files/publications/effectiveness_of_online_and_blended_learning.pdf
- Sana, F., Fenesi, B., & Kim, J. A. (2011). A Case Study of the Introductory Psychology Blended Learning Model at McMaster University. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2011.1.6
And… for those generally interested in evidence-based teaching practices, here are some lecture resources (spoiler alert: lecturing isn’t effective).
- Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience
- Freeman, S., Eddy, S.L., McDonough, M., Smith, M.K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M.P. (2014) Active learning boosts performance in STEM courses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(23), 8410-8415; http://www.pnas.org/content/111/23/8410
- Schmidt, H.G., et al. (2015) On the Use and Misuse of Lectures in Higher Education. Health Professions Education, 1(1), 12-18
