What I Did at My Summer Conference: Four Key Takeaways from OLC Denver 2015

Earlier this month, I attended the 12th Annual Online Learning Consortium’s Blended Learning: Leading Education’s Digital Future conference here in Denver. Generally, blended learning refers to using both online and face-to-face learning experiences to teach students.

A common example of blended learning is students in a course traveling to campus to meet face-to-face one only once per week, instead of twice, and the coursework they would have otherwise completed in that second meeting takes place online. I have also heard other terms such as “hybrid” used to describe this type of approach, and through reading online resources and having conversations I have found that exactly how “blended” or “hybrid” courses are delivered can vary widely.

This was my first conference dedicated to blended learning topics, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  What I found was, while there certainly were many sessions that addressed issues specific to creating blended courses, much of the information shared could also apply to the process of creating sound and engaging courses regardless of the delivery method.
  

I attended several different sessions and made my choices based on how the topic might apply to my job as an Instructional Designer (ID). I’m always looking for new tools and ideas that I can use in my work developing courses with faculty. As a result, I ended up attending several sessions that were presented by IDs. While I took lots of notes and saw several great presentations, there were four takeaways that lodged themselves in the crevices of my brain and stayed with me to ponder after the final session ended.

 

Before, During and After Approach to Blended Course Development

I attended a session titled Walk in an Instructional Designer’s Shoes: Designing Hybrid Courses which was presented by an ID named Bill Egan from Penn State. Bill shared in detail the process that Penn State uses to support faculty in creating blended courses, highlighting the concept of “before, during, and after”. Blended development is approached from the perspective of how students will be using technology to learn before, during and after face-to-face class time. Bill’s presentation, which addresses this approach, is available on the OLC Conference website. I also found an online resource title What is Blended Learning? which outlines the process. Definitely worth a look.

 

Online Faculty Development Resources

I saw some very interesting sessions that shared online courses that were created to provide faculty with resources for developing and teaching online courses.  One such example was provided by CU Online. In Reinventing Faculty Professional Development the UCD team provided a look at their Online Skills Mastery (OSM) Program--a 10-week online facilitated course designed to “prepare University of Colorado - Denver faculty for teaching with digital tools, with a focus on great digital pedagogy.” (CU Online OSM website). You can take a peek at a sample of the OSM course  and explore the growing list of electives they plan to offer as a part of this program at the CU Online OSM website.

Another session I attended, Collaborating with Faculty to Produce High Quality Instructional Design in Online and Hybrid Courses, was presented by several individuals from Concordia University, Irvine. Their team shared how faculty professional development plays an integral role in course development and facilitation. Concordia’s Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) is the training arm of Concordia. They have a website with many resources for faculty, provide trainings both face-to-face and remotely and have developed a self-paced five module course that provides faculty with the information they need to facilitate online courses. The five modules are:

• Module 1-Concordia’s Lutheran Background
• Module 2-LearningTheories
• Module 3--Pedagogy in Practice--Covers such things as honesty in courses, how to conduct an online synchronous session and facilitate engaging online discussions and includes a course readiness checklist
• Module 4--LMS Basic Skills--Provides information about how to complete basic functions in the LMS using pictorials and videos
•  Module 5—Useful Tools--Provides a plethora of tools to help facilitators in their teaching (e.g., shows how to record videos with a smartphone to do a weekly introduction)

Both CU Denver and Concordia reported a great deal of success with their respective approaches. These presentations gave us plenty of food for thought about how we could borrow some of these ideas to support faculty at Regis.

 

Use of Student- and Instructor-Created Videos in Courses

The proliferation of mobile devices and the ability for anyone to easily capture and share video in just a few simple steps is definitely having an impact on how video is being used in both classroom and online courses. Concordia reported that every online course they develop includes an introduction video and, as a standard practice, instructors record and upload a brand new video to introduce each week as they are teaching a course to foster a greater sense of connection and increase student engagement.

Another session I attended titled Moving Student Presentations Online addressed using video in online or classroom-based courses for presentations. This session showcased how the faculty at Grand Valley State University in Michigan are seeing positive results using Ensemble Video in their LMS for student group work and peer review. Additionally, Ensemble’s annotation feature allows instructors to stop and start a student’s video presentation submission and provide feedback at specific time signatures throughout the presentation. They posted their slides for this presentation online, a resource definitely worth checking out if you are interested in learning more about this valuable tool.

 

Communication and Collaboration Essential in Course Development

The last major takeaway I gained from the OLC Conference was the perspective that I heard time and time again in several sessions—whatever course development approach an institution uses, it is essential to have good communication between all parties involved to facilitate the collaborative effort. 

Bill Egan from Penn State shared the process that his department uses in his slide presentation, which typically consists of a guided development process that supports the faculty in course development at each stage. A detailed look at the Penn state process can also be found on the PSU Learning Design website. 

In the session Intentional Blended Design: Creating an Evaluative Course Map, Jason Drysdale of UC-Denver also emphasized the importance of collaboration by sharing his process of working with faculty to map an existing course. The process he described covered how an instructional designer and course author can to use mind mapping tools to work together and examine a course’s outcomes and assignments to target where changes need to be made. 

Last, the team at Concordia shared their “rigorous process/project management system for designing high quality, digitally rich course learning environments through collaborative partnerships with faculty” (OLCConference Presentation page). Their presentation walked the attendees through their muliti-step process (see slide 14 for an overview) which provides guidance and support for faculty every step of the way.