2. Some students listen to the suggested videos or read suggested articles prior to attending the class whilst others have no idea so if we are discussing the pre required videos or readings that they had to do before coming to class they had no idea of what was being discussed. 

3. Some students had difficulty learning, this either being due to their own anxiety or some students just had difficulty understanding the information that was being presented to them, as required by the module elements so this would trigger their anxiety levels. 

4. Some students would only attend 2 classes out of the 12 weeks as in VET there are no strict guidelines regarding attendance so if we had a quiz in class then these students could not attend the quiz. Also some of them would have to resubmit their assessments as they did not have an understanding of competently addressing the assessment questions. 

5. There were also times where i had to stay back with students for sometimes over 30-40 minutes just to explain what was discussed in class or to clarify extensively their assessments. This was very draining and time consuming for me as an educator.

2. Exploring further and what I have learned: I have learned the fundamentals of what is blended learning, what tools I can incorporate into my blended learning class space, some of the ways that I can address the challenges that arise when teaching students example: using mobile phones for class  quizzes, strategies to put into place regarding accommodating different learning styles, what other staff members are also finding challenging or ideas that have worked well, sharing of relevant information to better my teaching in a blended learning environment, the 5 stage Salmon model (Love love love it), using different software and applications and tips to assist me in my journey of applying blended learning in my teaching career and practice.
3. What are my next steps ? My next steps of action will be to further enhance my blended learning knowledge and enroll myself into other online FoLTO training including using different tools and resources in the blended learning and delivering example: Appsolutely! A guide to picking the right app with Padagogy Wheel. I would also like to slowly build my own collection of ice-breaker activities, list of other ideas that I can implement with my on campus students and weekend work shop online students using some of the concepts and ideas of blended learning and delivering  and last but not least put my hand up for on-line teaching included blended learning facilitating.
4. How will I evaluate my action plan: I will evaluate my action plan by making a list of what I would like to achieve in question 3 regarding my next steps and   recording the progress of my action plan and re-evaluating to see if the action plan outcomes have been completed or not as yet. If not I may need to re-evaluate how can I achieve my action plan suggestions? 
Thank you all. Namaste :-)

Throughout this course, I have been able to clarify engaging and motivating students during lectures is one area that could benefit from some blended learning strategies. At UC College, our class hours in each unit generally follow lecture, workshop and tutorial model. Lecture in the two units I convene is information dense and lasts for one and hours at least. Students tend to loos focus in the second half of the lecture. So I would like to explore ways to engage them throughout the lectures and improve effective learning.

2.    Explore further

I started this course with a further defined understanding of blended learning. My learning journey became more meaningful when I was sure that my own teaching practice happens in a blended learning environment.

Then I had the opportunity to observe some excellent blended learning examples and collaborate with other teachers during online sessions. These online sessions made me realise that we actually share some common issues and concerns. It was really beneficial to hear other teachers’ thoughts and suggestions based on their teaching experience. Multiple teachers recommended Bubbl.com to me when I was looking for an effective mind map tool. 

While it was all very exciting to hear and share learning tools, it was timely to bring to our attention that blended learning tools are not the only key ingredient to successful blended learning because teaching pedagogy should be considered first. Learning objectives should guide the design and implementation of blended learning strategies. 

I found week 4 module particularly useful and practical. I had the opportunity to observe some great ideas in the common categories and propose my own suggestion. This is where I discovered Socrative.com. 

 

3.    What are your next steps?

I plan on using Socrative platform in my lecture sessions to engage and motivate students. Specifically, the steps are below:

1)   Design 5 to 7 in-class quizzes questions related to each lecture topic in the next two weeks. There will be multiple-choice questions and true or false questions. These questions are directly related to the major concepts in each lecture. The difficult levels are low to medium.

 

2)   During the two lectures, the in-class quiz questions will be released to students throughout the lecture with one question at a time. Students will have the opportunity to learn new information and have a timely self-check during lectures. Upon answering each question, a student is able to see the correct answer and some explanation of the concept. The timely feedback would motivate students to focus more during classes.

 

4.    How will you evaluate your action plan? - Describe the steps you will take to evaluate your plan.

Socrative's Space Race will assist in evaluating students' progress in understanding. 

Space Race will be conducted at the end of each workshop during the two weeks. Workshop activities aim to assist students in understanding key marketing concepts. The extent of students’ understanding will be reflected on their performance in quizzes consisting of multiple choice questions and short answer questions. These are the question types of the final exam. So quiz marks are a good indication of their progress. 

Space Race will test students’ understanding of key concepts using the two types of questions within a time limit in classes. The result of Space Race would be useful in gauging students’ understanding level. 

A survey will be conducted at the end of the two weeks’ period to gather feedback from students about the effectiveness of using Socrative in lectures. The feedback will be the basis for the question design for the next round of implementation so that the number of questions and question direction will be appropriately designed. 

1  -  How far have you come?

I have learnt during this FoLTO course about how I can help students learn more easily. This is because they become interested in the both activities and knowledge. Presenting information to students the right way can be the key to achieving learning outcomes. We see those students developing higher levels of interest in what they need to learn.

 

2  - Explore further,

I think that I must create relevance from the very beginning. Explaining relevance after the fact doesn’t help the student or the instructor. It can also slow down the learning process. I will use the blended learning strategies to build me and my students skill levels. Because, blended learning incorporates both face-to-face and online connections. It gives students opportunities for multiple levels of interactive learning. This makes the learning much more varied and effective. Also, if the teacher is clearly passionate about something, it will spark student interest. In blended learning, much of the work completed online is reinforcement of what students learn in the classroom. If the student doesn’t need that work, he or she shouldn’t have to complete it. Some students grasp concepts faster than others. Being open to this can help all students learn and retain information more easily. I will try to work further on what I have raised above. 

 

3.    What are your next steps?

I plan to use padlet, kahoot and video lessons more in my next semesters and probably I will develop my own pawtoon clips for students. 

 

4.    How will you evaluate your action plan?

I will use the self-evaluation method which allows me to evaluate my actions further and I believe the best way of doing that is using a self-evaluation feedback form to be filled by students in order to improve my teaching skills. 

 

Kind regards 

Hayder