virtually a librarian

[First: a disclaimer. I am still very green in terms of my experience as an educator. What follows are my impressions of blended learning, which have been formed through my limited experience as an educator and my ponderings on how to get the right mix for online students. These are not necessarily a reflection of my institution's philosophy on blended learning, nor are they necessarily indicative of the approach taken in the course I teach into.]

I’m in the midst of writing a paper on one aspect of a large blended learning research project I’ve been working on for about the last 18 months. The paper looks at our experience at QUT in teaching a dual mode cohort (both online and face-to-face) while aiming to realise the benefits of blended learning.

And I’ve been thinking: what is blended learning for wholly online students? If we can never see those students face-to-face, what ingredient should replace that face-to-face interaction in the blended learning mix? For lots of institutions, lecture capture has been the answer to that question. I’m not convinced lecture capture is the answer – at least not in isolation.

These days, I aim to teach face-to-face classes that require student participation. Instead of telling students how it is, I prefer to work with students as they figure out how things work. Class time is for engaging in activities and discussions and hearing from guest speakers. With this approach, recording the lecture does not necessarily allow the online students to realise the same learning outcomes as the students who were physically in the room (although they may indeed walk away with the same content knowledge).

More and more, I’ve been wanting to replace the term ‘face-to-face’ with ‘synchronous’. Rather than seeing my students in the flesh, I think it is, in fact, more relevant to say that I want to be in a ‘ teaching space’ with them at a single point in time – whether that space is a physical or virtual one is largely irrelevant. If I think back to the activities I’ve run in face-to-face classes this semester, I can’t think of one that wouldn’t have been possible to run via Elluminate. Some of them may even have been easier to facilitate and more meaningful in that environment.

For me, blended learning is more about mixing synchronous learning (technology assisted or face-to-face) with asynchronous activities (predominantly [but not necessarily exclusively] online), than it is about mixing face to face and online. And this means that online students can engage in a blended learning experience without ever setting foot on campus.

But what drives students to select online courses rather than face-to-face courses? I’m aware that geographic distance from campus is only one contributing factor. For many online students, it is simply not possible to be in a single place – any place, campus or a home study – at a predetermined time. This means that it might be as difficult for an online student to attend a class in Elluminate as it is to come into campus for a class.

Where does that leave blended learning? Are educators chasing an unattainable dream by trying to achieve blended learning for online cohorts? Or do we need to rethink the balance between flexibility and learning outcomes? Are there any learning outcomes that can’t be realised through asynchronous interaction?