The first thing that popped up when I searched hybrid or blended courses was a site for UW Milwaukee. It characterized these courses by web-based learning activities to complement face-to-face work, reduced seat time, though not eliminated altogether, and web-based and face-to-face components designed to interact pedagogically to take advantage of the best features of each. One way that this is different from LIS201 is that an example is a course that has online, recorded lectures.
In my personal opinion, I thought that I was a more effective student in the physical world. there was a disconnect between the online portions and the in-person portions of the class. I don't feel like I got to know my peers in this class very well because everyone had two different identities and it was very difficult to keep straight, and I got to know them best by face to face interaction. However, I do have a better understanding and am more comfortable with online resources, but I believe that UW instructors should proceed with caution.
I do think that online course components work differently in a course that wasn't all about the information society. The online components in this course were used as another means to learn new material. In other courses, in math for example, online components are used to reinforce material as opposed to teach new material. The transition to online content will definitely be interesting to watch how courses change over the next few years, and is something to look out for.
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI really agree with your point about people being able to have two different identities and how that could be seen between the blog and the in person reactions. The problem with online identities is that people tend to edit their thoughts and form them to fit the assignments. Because of this we do not get to see people's real identities. In class we were able to see people's identities better, but because of time constraints it was hard for everyone to be able to participate, so we could not see everyone's true identities.