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Tips for Faculty Who Want to Get Started with Blended Learning

Submitted by blendedlearning on Mon, 01/26/2015 - 4:12pm

Blending a course can be daunting. Jennifer Spohrer has collected advice about how to get started that faculty have shared at the annual Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts conferences that Bryn Mawr hosts in this guest post on the Next Generation Learning Challenges blog. 

Breaking Again

“Tell me a story…”

Lighthousekeeping

 

Thank you for taking me to the Moth last night. I do have money for you for my ticket. I’m

sorry I forgot to give it to you.

 

Wil’s breaking project essay is as much a reflection of him as you as me. I am beginning to

break old habits.

 

At the start of my life and at the start of the summer, I said no to you. I held you at a distance.

How does a double negative mean differently than a yes? I think double negative implies change

and counterfactuals. Not no, in silence’s stead.

 

I am afraid you will break my brain, the red and gray place in my head.

 

Holding Pattern is the name of a series of poems in my dissertation. They are old love poems

(baltic isopods). I have been avoiding them this summer. They need revision, I know, but I was

afraid of confronting old feelings. I have been avoiding the old man (object) of the poems as

well. He is on island; we have been friends. After listening to you last night, I feel less afraid.

Even braided and soldered sterling silver will unravel now and again.

 

I love how responsive you are to my writing. I love how responsive your body is to mine. I love

that you said, “Descartes was wrong,” in bed.

 

“This is not a love story, but love is in it. That is, love is just outside it, looking for a way to

break in.”

Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?

 

Cinematic pan out

as I run to the train

fleetingly wondering if I packed my inhaler,

weighed down by textbooks

and the nagging backwards pull of tardiness.

I n s l o w  m o t i o n

the last passenger climbs the steps and is swallowed by the metal mouth.

What about me?

I have my ticket.

Bought it online

so I could be on time.

 

Dramatic close up

as I grab the handle of the silver door.

It's cold with November kisses

yet I can still feel the pink warmth of human flesh that lingers there.

I lingered too.

That's why I'm late.

A swell of orchestral violins and cellos

(Medoza's Theme: Always One Second Behind)

as I beat sense into its skin

trying to grab someone's attention .

 

A montage of faces of passengers

as I am dragged along, legs following someone else's orders

stop. go. Run faster. There is still hope.

They crescendo, but the violins have dropped away, the cellos only a tremolo,

background buzz for sneers.

Or are they pitied sighs?

 

Zoom back to me,

setting the beast free

grabbing at a fistful of hair

molding curses from puffs of air

and the credits roll away on the rail.

 

        The safest way to travel is by train. A train is solid and familiar, never straying from the old

blendedlearning's picture

What Makes an Online Instructional Video Compelling?

Submitted by blendedlearning on Fri, 01/09/2015 - 1:26pm

This question was a hot topic at last year's Blended Learning Conference, which featured several faculty presentations about their experiments and experiences with blended learning. In particular, faculty debated the importance of using videos that they created themselves and/or in which they were visible speaking.

In a recent article in the Educause Review, Melanie Hibbert, a media producer at Columbia University's School for Continuing Education and a doctoral candidate at Columbia's Teachers College shares findings from a internal study that the former conducted in order to answer this question. This study combined media analytics -- analysis of the viewing data collected by the school's video-hosting platform -- and follow-up interviews with 10 students. Although the courses analyzed were online, and the students were master's level students, their findings correlate with some of the feedback we've received from undergraduate students in blended liberal arts college courses and from our own internal analysis of viewing data at Bryn Mawr College.

Meiosis and Fertilization – Understanding How Genes Are Inherited

In this hands-on, minds-on activity, students use model chromosomes and answer analysis and discussion questions to learn about the processes of meiosis and fertilization.

Students first analyze how the processes of meiosis and fertilization result in the alternation between diploid and haploid cells in the human lifecycle. To learn how meiosis produces genetically diverse gametes, students analyze the results of crossing over and independent assortment.

As they model meiosis and fertilization, students follow the alleles of a human gene from the parents' body cells through gametes to zygotes.They learn how the outcomes of meiosis and fertilization can be represented in a Punnett square.

A final brief section contrasts sexual reproduction with asexual reproduction.

This activity can be used to introduce meiosis and fertilization or to review these processes. 
(NGSS)

Download Student Handout: PDF format or Word format

Download Teacher Preparation Notes: PDF format or Word format

Mitosis and the Cell Cycle - How a Single Cell Develops into the Trillions of Cells in a Human Body

Cell cycle producing daughter cellsIn this hands-on, minds-on activity, students use model chromosomes and answer analysis and discussion questions to learn how the cell cycle produces genetically identical daughter cells.

Students learn how DNA replication and mitosis ensure that each new cell gets a complete set of chromosomes with a complete set of genes.Students learn why each cell needs a complete set of genes and how genes influence phenotypic characteristics.

To understand how a single cell (the fertilized egg) develops into the trillions of cells in a human body, students analyze an exponential growth model of increase in number of cells. The final section provides a very brief introduction to cellular differentiation. 

This activity can be used as an introduction to mitosis or to reinforce understanding of mitosis. 

In our follow-up meiosis and fertilization activity (/sci_edu/waldron/#meiosis) students learn how the movement of gene-carrying chromosomes during meiosis and fertilization results in the inheritance of genes.

blendedlearning's picture

CFP: 2015 Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference

Submitted by blendedlearning on Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:15am

The fourth annual Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts conference is scheduled for Wednesday, May 20-Thursday May 21, 2015, and will be held at Bryn Mawr College. These conferences are intended as a forum for faculty and staff to share resources, techniques, findings, and experiences related to blended learning. Our definition of blended learning is quite broad, encompassing any combination of online and face-to-face instruction with a focus on supporting the close faculty-student interaction and emphasis on lifelong learning that is a hallmark of American liberal arts education.

We are currently seeking proposals for individual presentations, sessions, and workshops. We welcome proposals from any academic discipline, but faculty in the humanities and those who have used blended learning for open-ended and/or authentic assessment are particularly encouraged to apply.

For more information about the conference, the CFP, and to view materials from past conferences, please see our website at http://blendedlearning.blogs.brynmawr.edu/conferences/.

The deadline for proposals is February 15, 2015. Conference registration will open on March 1.

Photosynthesis Investigation

cell diagramIn the first part of this activity, students learn how to use the floating leaf disk method to measure the rate of net photosynthesis (i.e. the rate of photosynthesis minus the rate of cellular respiration). They use this method to show that net photosynthesis occurs in leaf disks in a solution of sodium bicarbonate, but not in water. Questions guide students in reviewing the relevant biology and analyzing and interpreting their results. In the second part of this activity, student groups develop hypotheses about factors that influence the rate of net photosynthesis, and then each student group designs and carries out an investigation to test the effects of one of these factors. (NGSS)

How do muscles get the energy they need for athletic activity?

ATP in muscle cells

In this analysis and discussion activity, students learn how muscle cells produce ATP by aerobic cellular respiration, anaerobic fermentation, and hydrolysis of creatine phosphate. Students use their understanding of these three processes to analyze their relative importance when racing different distances.

Students learn how multiple body systems work together to supply the oxygen and glucose needed for aerobic cellular respiration.

Finally, students use what they have learned to analyze how regular aerobic exercise can improve athletic performance.

The Student Handout is available in the first two attached files and as a Google doc designed for use in distance learning and online instruction. The Teacher Notes, available in the last two attached files, provide instructional suggestions and background information and explain how this activity is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards.


jspohrer's picture

Thinking about the "micro-lecture" ...

Submitted by jspohrer on Fri, 09/19/2014 - 2:05pm

Many faculty are experimenting with reducing the amount of class time spent lecturing in order to devote more time to discussion, problem-solving, and other activities designed to engage students in active learning. Thanks to Salman Khan of Khan Academy, perhaps, the most famous example of this is the "flipped classroom" approach, in which lectures are partly or wholly replaced by short instructional videos designed to be viewed as "homework" outside of class. In Introduction to Key Concepts in Five Minutes or Less: The ‘Did You Know?’ Microlecture Series, Julia VanderMolen explains talks about the potential benefits of the recorded "microlecture," the tools and pedagogical approach she takes when recording them, and how she integrates them in to her classes. Although the focus is recorded lectures, the approach could be used for in-person "micro-lectures" as well. 

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Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities

Scanning electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2

Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities has 50 remote-ready activities, which work for either your classroom or remote teaching.

Narrative is determined not by a desire to narrate but by a desire to exchange. (Roland Barthes, S/Z)

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