Hi Judith,

As promised another moment to blog on the BlendKIT course activities I am doing. After reading chapter one, which I gave my comments on in the previous blog on BlendKIT2017  I also had to do some Do It Yourself assigments. I delivered a Course Blue Print and mix map for a course that I am making blended. The Blue Print gives an overview on al the course activities, course goals and course description. The discussion on learning outcomes (in Dutch) still is going, but for now I’ll manage. The Mix Map is a combination of Face 2 Face and Online elements and forces you to be aware when to choose which form.

The reading of week 2 is on blended interactions.  In this chapter a brief summary on interactions within a blended course is given. As I am trying to redesign my current course: Design Science Research, I need to keep in mind at every step how I want to interact with my students or how that I hope that the students will interact (with me/each other). Design Science Research isn’t the first topic students have in mind when they want to receiver their ICT Bachelor degree. So in the first steps of my course I need some inspiring interactions. Perhaps by experts in the field with great research examples. If the expert is an inhouse expert I can make that meeting face to face, but if it is an internationally known expert I can also consider to do a online Q&A.

Thinking about interaction all the time and designing all the parts with interaction in mind let’s us also think on which role we want to play in our course. From the literature several models are presented in which a teacher can act in such an environment: Atelier host (showing the examples of the students), network administrator (connecting people/resources), concierge (showing people where to find stuff), curational (being a knowledge keeper and collector). I believe in the participating student, who is a coach that is playing on the field. I don’t know any examples in real American sports (Baseball, American Football, Ice-Hockey, Basketball) but in soccer sometimes you see a player/coach. A trainer who is also able to play on the field himself. He takes the role of teacher/mentor on and off the pitch. In a blended course that should be the spirit, in my opinion, for a teacher to work in.

The tools that a teacher uses (not mentioned in the readings) seems to be important to. This is a rather personal question. Some like to use whatsapp or a Phone based messaging tool in a “24/7-but-only-if-I-have-the-opportunity-and-energy” agreement with the ‘class’. Others only want to communicatie through mail, fora or other communication tools delivered in a learning environment (chatbox). A teacher should be able to choose the tools in which he/she has intrinsic motivation to use. A team of teachers that is working within the blended course should be aware of each other preferences, but also be configured as a team in a way that different styles are combined. In this way more students can be reached within their own interactional comfort zone.

Interaction between students en between students and teachers delivers engagement. The readings of week 2 conclude with the question how this engagement can be measured. You can imagine Judith that seeing that question made a big smile on my face. I hope that my PhD research can help with that question. Learning Analytics, especially with regard to the learning activities can not only make the engagement, satisfaction and efficiency visible, it perhaps also can change the behavior of the student and the teacher to improve these factors.

But first things first, next step in de BlendKIT course is to work on the Course Documents of my Design Science Research course with interaction on top of my mind and I am going to make a Module Interaction Worksheet.

I will keep you posted.

Marcel