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Blended Content and Assignments

Focus Question

How and when will I introduce and collect student work?

Objectives

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

Introduce each week’s (or other unit of time) required student work
Present online content to students
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 4: Blended Content and Assignments [html file; size=21b]

Highlights

Even if you’re pressed for time, this chapter is short enough that you should still be able to skim it in its entirety.

Reading Reaction Form

Please use the Chapter 04 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 produce modules (i.e., HTML pages that present content, provide access to assignment instructions you created last week, or both) for uploading to the online portion of your blended learning course. You may wish to refer to last week’s Creating Assignment Instructions document. If you already have existing online content resources, you may wish to either link these from your module pages or to include them in the module as in-line content.

Create Module Pages [pdf file; size=758kb]
Step-by-step instructions for creating your module pages. Includes an example module. The following files will be useful to you in completing the steps contained in the above document:
Module Template [docx file; size=12kb]
Zapt Instructions [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. Alternatively, you may choose to use the web development tool of your choice. However, if you do so, please consider following the guidelines on the Creating Accessible Course Content page on UCF’s Teaching Online website.

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.

Is there a one-liner from the readings that you loved (or hated)? Consider posting quotes from this week’s readings or sharing your 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.

Have you found a good resource on blended learning? You might 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.

What do good blended course online modules look like? Consider taking a digital photo or screen capture of online module examples shared by a colleague (or one of your completed modules). 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 04’s learning activities, please join us for this week’s 30 minute webinar on Monday, October 22, 2012 at 1:00pm (US ET; -4 UTC) at http://ucf.adobeconnect.com/blendkit2012. [Note: Select "Enter as a Guest" and then input your name and location, e.g., “Kelvin Thompson - UCF” or “Kelvin Thompson - Orlando, FL”]

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 04 Feedback Form. Please consider taking a moment or two to let us know how the BlendKit Course is going for you.

BlendKit Course: Week 04 Activities