Preparing for Blended e-Learning Are you an education professional seeking to design innovative courses that ‘blend’ different sorts of media learning activities across time and space? Do you find it challenging to decide what might be the best blend of activities and media for effective learning? In an age where innovations in social computing and the mainstreaming of e-tools are unlocking new opportunities for blending online with face-to-face interactions, this book will help you to design and implement effective blended e-learning. With practical, accessible advice for teachers and support staff, Preparing for Blended e-Learningreviews practice and research in planning blends of e-learning and scopes the core skills and knowledge required by teachers. Drawing on the experiences of expert practitioners worldwide and citing examples across a range of institutions and countries, it offers a readable, non-technical and comprehensive introduction informed by practice and research. Issues discussed include: • designing quality, appropriate, effective online learning; • efficient and sustainable e-learning activity; • providing appropriate feedback to learners; • devising student activities and sourcing learning resources; • managing online and offline interactions. Preparing for Blended e-Learningoffers a careful analysis of strengths and opportunities of blended e-learning, but is realistic about the possible pitfalls. With guidance for both newcomers to teaching and experienced teachers who are developing their practice online, it will appeal to teachers, academics, librarians, managers and educational support staff who are involved in e-learning. It is also a useful text for accredited courses for teachers in further and higher education internationally. Allison Littlejohnis the Chair in Learning Technology and Director of the Caledonian Academy at Glasgow Caledonian University, UK. She has led international research, development and implementation of innovative learning methods, including blended e-learning, in both further and higher education in the United Kingdom and United States. Chris Pegleris a lecturer and researcher into educational technology at The Open University, UK. She has led a wide range of educational initiatives in both further and higher education and has studied and taught online since 1995. In 2004 she was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship as a ‘Rising Star’. Connecting with e-Learning series Edited by Allison Littlejohn and Chris Pegler e-Learning is rapidly becoming a key component of campus-based education as well as a cornerstone of distance learning. However, although e-learning is an increasingly essential skill for effective teaching, it remains challenging for most teachers in higher and further education. There are four major reasons for this: • Learners increasingly expect effective application of technologies; this can be intimidating to teachers/lecturers who are novices at using these technologies themselves. • Already under pressure for time, teachers need to understand how to design an appropriate blend of online and offline, otherwise their learners may end up working unproductively and unhappily. • Courses need to be created sustainably, so that learning materials can be easily generated, stored, retrieved and repurposed. • Teachers/lecturers are understandably uncertain about how to invest their time and effort in a fast-moving field. This exciting new series provides relevant guides for both newcomers to teaching in higher and further education and experienced teachers/lecturers who are developing their practice online. Featuring practical, accessible advice that draws on recent research and the experiences of expert practitioners, each book is structured, accessible and relevant to teachers and lecturers worldwide. Books in the series include: Preparing for Blended e-Learning Allison Littlejohn and Chris Pegler The Educational Potential of e-Portfolios: Supporting personal development and reflective learning Lorraine Stefani, Robin Mason and Chris Pegler The web site for this series is connecting-with-elearning.com Preparing for Blended e-Learning Allison Littlejohn and Chris Pegler First published 2007 by Routledge 2Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” ©2007 Allison Littlejohn and Chris Pegler All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, orother means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Littlejohn, Allison, 1962– Preparing for blended e-learning / Allison Littlejohn and Chris Pegler. p. cm. – (Connecting with e-learning) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–415–40361–8 (pbk.) – ISBN 0–415–40360–X (hardback) 1.Education—Data processing—Planning. 2. Computer-assisted instruction—Design. 3.Computer-assisted instruction—Planning. I.Pegler, Chris, 1956– II. Title. LB1028.43.L563 2007 371.33′44678–dc22 2006036689 ISBN 0-203-96132-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–40360–X (hbk) ISBN10: 0–415–40361–8 (pbk) ISBN10: 0–203–96132–3 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–40360–3 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–40361–0 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–96132–2 (ebk) Contents List of figures ix List of tables xi List of examples xiii Series editors’ foreword xv Acknowledgements xvii Introduction 1 The art of blending 1 The potential of blending 2 The problems with blending 3 1 What is blended e-learning? 9 Where did e-learning come from? 11 Definition of e-learning 16 Educational and not so educational e-drivers 17 Drivers to adopt e-learning 17 e-Learning in online, conventional and blended courses 24 The challenges of designing blended e-learning 27 2 Different approaches to blended e-learning 29 Blending in chunks 30 Why blend at all? 31 Before choosing an e-learning blend 34 Media and mobile manifestations 40 The significance of student location 43 Informal, work-based and just-in-time blends 45 Is blending bland? 47 vi Contents 3 Devising blended e-learning activities 49 Synchronous or asynchronous? 51 ‘Looking’ at student activity 57 Lurking with intent 59 How am I doing? Providing feedback to students and tutors 61 Assessing online activity 63 Social spaces online 65 Planning for accessibility and usability 67 Blending action and interaction online 69 4 Documenting e-learning blends 70 Finding the finest blend 70 Factors affecting blending 71 What is in the blend? 75 Orchestrating the blend: blending different approaches to teaching 76 Knowing the score: documenting learning and teaching practice 78 The LD_lite planning tool: three into one 82 Problems with blending 89 Framing the problem 93 5 Choosing e-tools for blended activities 94 An abundance of activities? 94 Mapping tasks with tools 96 Types of e-tools 99 Trends in the use of e-tools 101 Documenting activities using LD_lite 104 Blending old and new 132 Getting up to speed with blended learning 132 6 Environments to integrate activity blends 134 Problem-based learning: a case for complex blending 134 Electronic learning environments: who is in control? 138 Electronic learning environment tools 138 Commercial electronic learning environment systems 141 Open source electronic learning environment systems 143 Examples of complex blending 146 Documenting complex blends 163 Blending physical and virtual learning spaces 163 Electrifying or encumbering environments? 166 Contents vii 7 Sustainable blended e-learning designs 168 Tactic 1: Sourcing and reusing existing materials 170 Tactic 2: Making your own resources 177 Tactic 3: Repurposing resource materials 179 Tactic 4: Designing courses in small, reusable chunks 180 Tactic 5: Documenting courses within reusable templates 183 Tactic 6: Managing and moving materials 184 Moving and sharing across systems 190 8 Support structures for blended e-learning 192 Supporting blended e-learning: the impact of distance and experience 196 Web-based student support 198 The technical helpdesk 201 Librarians on call 202 Supporting staff to support students in blended e-learning 204 Online peer support 207 Where is student support heading? 209 9 Ethical issues in blended e-learning 211 Computing codes and controls 213 Privacy and confidentiality online 218 Digital rights 221 The ethics of access 223 The implications of teleworking and the 24/7 network 224 Glossary 226 References 235 Index 243 Figures 1.1 Increase in computing power, 1982–2002 12 2.1 Two approaches to ‘wraparound’ activity blending 30 2.2 Impact of location and experience on e-learning blend 44 3.1 Example of staff use of ‘social space’ 66 4.1 A lesson plan for a simple online learning activity 84 4.2 Revised lesson plan linking online and face-to-face activities 86 4.3 Apattern documenting the same scenario as in Figure 4.2 88 4.4 A learning design sequence map documenting the same scenario as in Figure 4.2 90 5.1a A narrative pattern of an information handling activity 106 5.1b Alesson plan of an information handling activity 107 5.1c A lesson plan of an information handling activity for geographically dispersed students 108 5.1d A learning design sequence of an information handling task 109 5.2a The ‘Exploring Chemistry’ lesson on balancing equations 111 5.2b A narrative pattern of an adaptive task 112 5.2c Alesson plan of an adaptive activity 113–14 5.2d Alearning design sequence of an adaptive activity 115 5.3a A narrative pattern of a communicative activity 117 5.3b A lesson plan of a communicative activity 118–19 5.3c A learning design sequence of a communicative activity 120 5.4a Anarrative pattern of a productive activity 122 5.4b A lesson plan of a productive activity 123–4 5.4c A learning design sequence of a productive activity 125 5.5a A narrative pattern of an experiential activity 128 5.5b A lesson plan of an experiential activity 129–30 5.5c A learning design sequence of the experiential activity 131 6.1 Blackboard at the University of Bradford 142