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Mboni's contributions   Blended course design and content development: emerging challenges This is my experience regarding ability of faculty to integrate and align face-to face learning content and the online component content and emerging dilemmas.The first which may seem to be a simple issue which I have experienced is on deciding whether online component content builds upon the f2f component content or if a f2f content become an extension of the online component content. In many situations I came across this depends on the nature of the course and type of learners, suffices to say it could be complex issue if care is not taken.Another issue is regarding novice instructors leaning how to grade the two blended learning assessment - f2f and online.  Skills are needed to understand how grading of f2f component would affect the grading of the online component content. Depending on the depth of learning content, there need to be a balance in grading between f2f and online assessment to avoid skewedness of grades, say, to one learning component (e.g. online) which may affect another learning outcome of the second component e.g. f2f or vice versa.  For example, at MUHAS faculty it was decided that the grading to be exclusive with an average final grade conditional on achieving requirements in online component. However, technicalities in course grading scheme between face-to face and online activities and assessment tools for each learning component is still something not many faculty are skilled about. Another issue is, for courses which are done in collaboration (e.g. modular course) it requires engagement of all faculty who will facilitate the course from the beginning including designing methodology that would work best for student...e.g. when would they have instructor- led method for teaching in a blended course? Or when should peer to peer or group-led method woud be applicable? Or if students are not responding or active in the online course, what would instructors do to ensure that student become active learners? How many hours of interactions will there be online, and balancing between online and f2c time is still a challenge to many faculty. With reference to the communication skills course which I and my colleagues teach, for example, and bearing the nature of classes that we have – 600+ students- it is very, very, very difficult to strike the balance of interaction between f2c and online time!! to me these are pertinent issues when it comes to designing a functional blended course in my context.

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Mboni's contributions   Blended course design and content development: emerging challenges This is my experience regarding ability of faculty to integrate and align face-to face learning content and the online component content and emerging dilemmas.The first which may seem to be a simple issue which I have experienced is on deciding whether online component content builds upon the f2f component content or if a f2f content become an extension of the online component content. In many situations I came across this depends on the nature of the course and type of learners, suffices to say it could be complex issue if care is not taken.Another issue is regarding novice instructors leaning how to grade the two blended learning assessment - f2f and online.  Skills are needed to understand how grading of f2f component would affect the grading of the online component content. Depending on the depth of learning content, there need to be a balance in grading between f2f and online assessment to avoid skewedness of grades, say, to one learning component (e.g. online) which may affect another learning outcome of the second component e.g. f2f or vice versa.  For example, at MUHAS faculty it was decided that the grading to be exclusive with an average final grade conditional on achieving requirements in online component. However, technicalities in course grading scheme between face-to face and online activities and assessment tools for each learning component is still something not many faculty are skilled about. Another issue is, for courses which are done in collaboration (e.g. modular course) it requires engagement of all faculty who will facilitate the course from the beginning including designing methodology that would work best for student...e.g. when would they have instructor- led method for teaching in a blended course? Or when should peer to peer or group-led method woud be applicable? Or if students are not responding or active in the online course, what would instructors do to ensure that student become active learners? How many hours of interactions will there be online, and balancing between online and f2c time is still a challenge to many faculty. With reference to the communication skills course which I and my colleagues teach, for example, and bearing the nature of classes that we have – 600+ students- it is very, very, very difficult to strike the balance of interaction between f2c and online time!! to me these are pertinent issues when it comes to designing a functional blended course in my context.

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On the one hand I tried to find myself a way to understand and find good ideas and examples of blended courses and on the other hand our University provides us loads of possibilities to have instructions, trainings and exchanges / informations in blended courses and a few in designing online courses. But as I said at the start of this Topic 4 weeks, it's really a question of time and how efficient can we be, who are more into specific teaching areas and would need some good support to transform our materials into online useful materials.
Iv'e learned now some tools like Padlet which works good and is easy to use. Zoom and Prezi I already knew very well and use quite often. So, I just need to find a good way now to combine different of these tools better into my course ... need to think how and as well find time for it ;o)
Some more apps, which sound as well interesting and somehow "easy" to start with ;o)

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Focus Topic : Possibilities and challenges in designing online or blended course

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Focus Topic : Possibilities and challenges in designing online or blended course

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I took sometime to learn from other teachers' experiences and tips for online learning. I searched within YouTube to listen to short videos. Here is one good video on 10 tips for preparing for online instruction by Dr. Patricia Delich (Note: She has a set of four small videos but this one is the most useful):

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And here comes another small video on some tips for teachers of online courses. At the end of this video, there is a link to https://teachonline.ca/, which seems a good resource though I have not browsed in detail. Here is the video:

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Possibilities: In the past few years student unrest on our university campus forced me into designing an online/blended version of my subjects to replace my normal face-to-face lectures. To this end I used Microsoft’s Powerpoint presentation program to generate online lectures with my voice embedded in the presentations using a program called Screencast-O-Matic. I also tried to make videos of myself presenting these “lectures” to accompany the presentations. Now that I am attending this ONL191 course, I have learned that there are many other possibilities to use in online and blended learning. I have learned that in addition to Skype, Zoom can be used for online synchronous group discussions or meetings. Padlet, Prezi and Microsoft Sway are possibilities for online work submissions. As time goes by and I get more involved in generating online and blended learning courses, I will find what I like, is free or provided by my university, and what works best for me.
Challenges: In my limited experience in generating an online and blended subject presentation, I found that it takes a tremendous amount of time and effort in producing a 45 minute powerpoint presentation with voice and video embedded into it. To make animations in powerpoint is an art, as is the making videos of oneself presenting the subject material. In addition to these challenges, the abstractness of electronics, where one cannot physically see electricity and with its embedded mathematics, makes the generating of decent, professional and meaningful presentations a massive challenge. Notwithstanding these challenges it is an unbelievable sense of achievement to actually make one such blended lecture!

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Online and blended learning: students learning through online/ virtual environments mixed with traditional face-to-face learning. Employment practices, extended research and collaborative discussions of best practices, provide frameworks for designing online and blended learning courses. However, challenges still arise, the correct infrastructure, skills and people are therefore needed to create and support the development of online and blended learning. With the use of effective resources online and blended learning can be created and sustained successfully, and student and teacher can benefit from the learning experiences.