University of Lethbridge Blended/Online Learning Course
Are you an educator looking to enhance your knowledge of blended/online instruction focusing on technology use in the classroom? Well, you’ve come to the right place! This self-paced course consists of six professional asynchronous learning modules designed for higher education educators like you. In addition, this course will help you acquire a new set of technology-enabled learning skills that you can apply to your specific area of instruction.
This course offering is a modified version of Ontario Extend, an open educational resource. It is grounded in sound practices in online learning and thoroughly researched.
Module Design
Design features:
- Online
- Self-paced
- Unfacilitated
- Module-based
As advances in technology continue to impact teaching and learning, blended/online educators require new knowledge and skills. These competencies include learning new technologies, creating content, acquiring resources, facilitating learning experiences, and designing effective online assessments. Given this, each module helps build capacity in these areas and addresses one of the six skills educators need in today’s digital world as outlined below:
- an understanding and appreciation of what research has to say about how people learn
- the ability to curate, develop, use, and share appropriate educational resources
- skill in discerning the possibilities—and limitations—of technology to support teaching and learning
- professional learning networks through collaborations with other disciplines
- a scholarly approach to teaching, and
- a willingness to experiment: to try, reflect, and learn from new approaches, pedagogies, and technologies to support learning (Bates, 2014).
Time Commitment
Understanding that as an educator, your time is valuable, before embarking on this learning journey, know that it will take a considerable time investment. Each module takes approximately 3-4+ hours to complete. The modules are sequential, with the knowledge and skills from one module supporting your exploration in the next. However, you can also explore a module on its own. Thus, after completing the course (six modules), you will have built capacity in the areas mentioned above and enhanced your knowledge of specific technologies that support teaching and learning. Furthermore, you will likely expand your peer associations and collaborations by participating in this professional development course.
Instructional Strategy
The course is grounded in the belief that digital fluency is a process and that learning to teach effectively with technology requires an experiential learning approach. “Experiential learning is the process of learning through experience and is more specifically defined as “learning through reflection on doing” (Wikipedia, 2020). Therefore, as you move through each module, you’ll be invited to learn by doing and reflect at times on the process.
The resources are intended to be a starting point, an activity-oriented set of challenges to stimulate further thought and collaboration. We encourage you to explore the content, consider the resources, experience the activities, and reflect on your practice. If you choose to engage in the course activities, you’ll find you gain a richer experience.
Pressbooks Layout
The layout of this Pressbooks instance is as follows: (1) the first page is the introduction to this resource (2) the second page outlines the accessibility statement (3) the third page contains a glossary of relevant pedagogical and online learning definitions (4) the fourth page provides a common understanding of blended and online learning (5) the fifth page is the start of the first module in the course. Finally, a resource page lists additional resources to support faculty/instructors in designing and developing blended/online course(s) at the end of the course.
All of these resources are freely available through a Creative Commons license for adoption and customization.
Online Learning Support
If you have questions as you move through the modules, you can contact: teachingcentre@uleth.ca, and you’ll receive a response within 24 hrs. Our hours of operation are: Monday – Friday, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm.
Have fun, and don’t forget to reach out if you need to.
