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Blended Interactions

Focus Question

How and when will students and I interact?

Objectives

After completing all of this week’s activities, you should be able to:

Plan for instructionally relevant interactions with students in your blended learning course
Communicate to students via course documents your expectations for their blended interactions
Edit template files to create accessible online content pages

Readings

If you haven’t already done so, please select the online/offline version of the BlendKit Reader that is best for you. In addition to the individual chapter linked below, the complete reader is available as an ebook (epub or Kindle formats), pdf, or in HTML.

This Week’s Chapter

Chapter 2: Blended Interactions [html file; size=29b]

Highlights

If you’re pressed for time, focus on the excerpt beginning from the following location:

Considering Techno Expression During Course Design

Reading Reaction Form

Please use the Chapter 02 Reading Reaction Form to document your written reaction to this week’s reading. If you’ve already posted your reaction to your blog or other public platform, you may enter the url on this form.

DIY Project Tasks

This week’s development task is to design for interaction in your blended learning course. First, you’ll have the opportunity to begin revising key course documents for the blended version of your course. Along with being a good “fresh start” design activity, with the resources linked below you will be able to make your course documents “web ready.” Second, you can use the worksheet below as the basis for planning out weekly “modules” (i.e., content/activities). The Module Interaction Worksheet is a follow-up to last week’s Course Blueprint document.

Creating Course Document Drafts: Schedule, Syllabus, and Protocols: Instructions, examples, and templates [pdf file; size=144kb]
Draft these course documents with an eye toward how interaction will take place throughout your course. Within the instructions are example course documents and links to blank templates for creating your own pre-web course documents.
Instructions for Using Zapt (automated content tool) [pdf file; size=266kb]
If you aren’t experienced in creating accessible web pages, you may wish to follow these instructions to convert your Microsoft Word course documents to HTML files ready for upload to your CMS or web space.
Module Interaction Worksheet: [Word doc; size=33kb]
While the course documents above will reflect your intentions for interaction in general, this worksheet will allow you to think through the interactions in one module (e.g., one week). You may continue the process for as many modules/weeks as you like.

Blogging/Social Networking

Post to your blog your reflections related to this week’s activities. For a list of ideas to blog about or for help getting started, please see the BlendKit Course blogging resources.

Not into blogging? Consider sharing your quick thoughts related to the readings, the DIY tasks, or any related topic via HootCourse or Twitter. If you’re using Twitter, please include the hashtag #BlendKit2012. If you’re using HootCourse, you do not need to include the hashtag.

You might also consider using the Diigo social bookmarking site to bookmark (and comment upon) any helpful web resources you’ve found this week. These might be links you followed from the course materials or resources you found on your own. If you join the BlendKit “group” on Diigo, you’ll be able to share bookmarks directly with the group. You might consider taking a look at this brief Flash-based tutorial on Diigo groups if you haven’t used Diigo groups before.

Want to try something completely different? Take a digital photo related to blended learning in general or this week’s topics in particular. Post it to Flickr, and tag it with “blendkit.” (See blendkit tagged items on Flickr.)

Any of the above social networking contributions you undertake should eventually show up in the BlendKit Course RSS feed. Subscribe to the RSS feed using your preferred reader Note: Registered participants receive a daily digest of these interactions via email.

Commenting

Take a few minutes to read the BlendKit Course blog postings of others, and leave behind a comment or two. You may find such blog postings linked from HootCourse or by exploring the list of blogs posted by other participants. (You can find tips for making blog comments on Grammar Girl’s web site.)

Weekly Real Time Session

After completing all of Week 02’s learning activities, please join us for this week’s 30 minute webinar on Monday, October 8, 2012 at 1:00pm (US ET; -4 UTC) at http://ucf.adobeconnect.com/blendkit2012. [Note: Select "Enter as a Guest."]

If you are unable to join us in real time, the recording of the Adobe Connect session will be posted afterward on the session archive page for review at your convenience.

Have Feedback?

How’s it going so far? Have suggestions for making the BlendKit Course better? Please don’t hesitate to send an email to Kelvin at anytime. However, we’d also love to compile everyone’s quick feedback via the Week 02 Feedback Form. Please consider taking a moment or two to let us know how the BlendKit Course is going for you.

BlendKit Course: Week 02 Activities