This is the first of a series of five posts that look at the following:
deciding whether a whole course or program should be offered wholly face-to-face, as a blended course, or wholly online
if a course is to be offered in a blended mode, how to decide on what’s done face-to-face, and what online.
This will form part of Chapter 10 on modes of delivery for my online textbook Teaching in a Digital Age.
Today I start by looking at the decisions instructors are now facing regarding what kind of course to offer. The following post will look at the problems in comparing delivery modes, then there will be three more posts on making decisions.
In Chapters 8 and 9, the use of media incorporated into a particular course or program was explored. In this chapter, the focus is on deciding whether a whole course or program should be offered partly or wholly online, and to what extent the course or program should be restricted to registered students or open to anyone.
Decisions, decisions
Online learning, blended learning, hybrid learning, flexible learning, open learning and distance learning are all terms that are often used inter-changeably, but there are significant differences in meaning. More importantly, these forms of education, once considered somewhat esoteric and out of the mainstream of conventional education, are increasingly taking on greater significance and in some cases becoming mainstream themselves.
We saw in Chapter 1, Section 7 that in recent years there has been:
major growth in the number of fully online course enrolments, now constituting almost one third of post-secondary enrolments in the USA;
a move towards blended learning, where on-campus students combine classroom or lab teaching with online work;
the development of the flipped classroom, where students study a video recorded lecture online then come to class for interaction with instructors and teaching assistants.
growing interest in developing and delivering MOOCs, which are open to anyone but do not directly lead to specific qualifications other than a badge or certificate
growing availability of open educational resources and open textbooks.
These developments open up a whole new range of decisions for instructors. Every instructor now needs to decide:
what kind of course or program should I be offering?
what factors should influence this decision?
what is the role of classroom teaching when students can now increasingly study most things online?
if content is increasingly open and free, how does that affect my role as an instructor?
when should I create my own material and when should I use open resources?
should I open up my teaching to anyone, and if so, under what circumstances?
Each of these questions will be addressed in this chapter.
The continuum of technology-based learning
We saw in Chapter 1, Section 7 that there is a variety of ways in which online learning is being used in education, and as teachers and instructors become more familiar and confident with online learning and new technologies, we will see more innovative methods developing all the time. At the time of writing though it is possible to identify at least the following modes of delivery:
classroom teaching with no technology at all (which is very rare these days).
blended learning, which encompasses a wide variety of designs, including:
technology-enhanced learning, or technology used as classroom aids; a typical example would be the use of Powerpoint slides and/or clickers
the use of a learning management system to support classroom teaching, for storing learning materials, set readings and perhaps online discussion
the use of lecture capture for flipped classrooms
one semester on a residential-type campus and two semesters online (the Royal Roads University model)
a shortened time on campus spent on campus hands-on experience or training preceded or followed by a concentrated time spent studying online (an example is apprenticeship training for mature students at Vancouver Community College, or what UBC calls the compressed classroom experience)
hybrid or flexible learning requiring the redesign of teaching so that students can do the majority of their learning online, coming to campus only for very specific face-to-face teaching, such as lab or hands-on practical work, that cannot be done satisfactorily online (for examples, see below.)
fully online learning with no classroom or on-campus teaching, which is one form of distance education, including:
courses for credit, which will usually cover the same content, skills and assessment as a campus-based version,
non-credit courses offered only online, such as courses for continuing professional education.
fully open courses, such as MOOCs
open educational resources, which either instructors or students can access to support teaching and learning
There is an important development within blended learning that deserves special mention, and that is the total re-design of campus-based classes that takes greater advantage of the potential of technology, which I call hybrid learning, with online learning combined with focused small group face-to-face interactions or mixing online and physical lab experiences. In such designs, the amount of face-to-face contact time is usually reduced, for instance from three classes a week to one, to allow more time for students to study online.
In hybrid learning the whole learning experience is re-designed, with a transformation of teaching on campus built around the use of technology. For instance:
Carol Twigg at the National Center for Academic Transformation has for many years worked with universities and colleges to redesign usually large lecture courses programs to improve learning and reduce costs through the use technology. This program has been running successfully since 1999.
Virginia Tech many years ago created a successful program for first and second year math teaching built around 24 x 7 computer-assisted learning supported by ‘roving’ instructors and teaching assistants (Robinson and Moore, 2006).
The University of British Columbia launched in 2013 what it calls a flexible learning initiative focused on developing, delivering, and evaluating learning experiences that promote effective and dramatic improvements in student achievement. Flexible learning enables pedagogical and logistical flexibility so that students have more choice in their learning opportunities, including when, where, and what they want to learn.
Thus there is a continuum of technology-based learning:
Figure 10.2 The continuum of technology-based teaching
(adapted from Bates and Poole, 2003)
Thus ‘blended learning’ can mean minimal rethinking or redesign of classroom teaching, such as the use of classroom aids, or complete redesign as in flexibly designed courses, which aim to identify the unique pedagogical characteristics of face-to-face teaching, with online learning providing flexible access for the rest of the learning.
Over to you
Other than recognising the increasingly significant choices that instructors now need to make regarding the design of courses, and particularly the range of blended learning designs that are emerging, there is nothing particularly new or challenging in this section, but it is necessary as preparation for what comes. However:
1. Is this classification of different modes of delivery helpful? If not how would you do it?
2. How is it decided in your institution whether a course is to be blended or online? Is this the personal choice of the instructor, is it a program decision or does the institution decide? What are the guidelines or criteria for making this decision?
3. I know the U of Ottawa and UBC have institutional plans for ‘flexible’ learning/blended learning. Any others? How are they going?
The discussion here on curricular, programmatic, and pedagogical decision is all good. I just wish we could find a better term than “delivery” to frame it. We deliver packages, pizzas, babies, and speeches. We deliver information. I don’t think we should describe the act of teaching, however, as delivery, because delivery is a one way act. “Here, I’m giving you this. Take it.” That might be a reasonable way of describing the transmission model of teaching, but clearly that is not what you advocate. And therefore I think it’s important to look for a better term than “delivery.”
Great point, Jim. I myself am not altogether happy with the word ‘delivery’ but couldn’t think of a simpler or better way to describe the way we organise teaching that incorporate different degrees of online learning (I actually struggled not only with ‘delivery’ but also with ‘modes’. I used ‘mode’ to distinguish it from ‘methods’ which I’ve tried to use for ways of teaching/teaching approaches.)
Would anyone like to suggest a collective word to encompass the options of classroom, blended or online learning that still keeps the distinction with ‘teaching methods’, because you can have different methods of teaching within each ‘mode’?
Hello, friends,
Jim has the fixed image in mind of a pizza delivered to your door, but I think his mental image leaves out the richer sense of the word. Consider the exchange between farmers and the market, the transit of goods across state lines, the transfer of ideas across wires via the Internet. Any form of commerce implies an exchange, and that exchange is predicated on expectations and, often, a mutually agreed-upon value. Dialogue is necessary for checking learning objectives, for participation in the learning process.
Perhaps the reason I’m willing to defend “mode of delivery” is because that is the very set of keywords I used to locate this delightful information. So, Tony, I think you’ve captured it well for now. Language is constantly evolving, so perhaps somewhere down the road when the primacy of learners in the process of learning (see Paolo Friere and Jane Vella) we may find better descriptors!
I appriciate the initiatve todeliver some sort of lesson at home using the technology available due to the problem the pandemic. But do you think we can teach KG-12 grade? What is your solution for students who do not have access to the online facility. They also lack gagets and skills.And can we convert the formal curriculum in to distant learning?
There are two main problems: access and pedagogy.
I tried to answer your questions with two later posts: https://www.tonybates.ca/2020/04/01/corona-virus-and-online-learning-in-k-12-schools-my-unadvice-excellent-advice-from-elsewhere/https://www.tonybates.ca/2020/04/21/2-emergency-online-learning-and-inequity-developing-countries/In short, using online learning for k-12 students is a much greater challenge, especially for younger students, than for university students. And even for university students, online learning is not an adequate solution ON ITS OWN for many students, especially in developing countries.
However, in an emergency it may still be a good but not perfect solution. The problem though is that even if students have access, most teachers are not adequately prepared or trained to teach successfully online. In future we need to prepare our teachers better for online learning as it is a key educational tool for the future.
Dr. Tony Bates is the author of eleven books in the field of online learning and distance education. He has provided consulting services specializing in training in the planning and management of online learning and distance education, working with over 40 organizations in 25 countries. Tony is a Research Associate with Contact North | Contact Nord, Ontario’s Distance Education & Training Network.
Dr. Tony Bates is the author of eleven books in the field of online learning and distance education. He has provided consulting services specializing in training in the planning and management of online learning and distance education, working with over 40 organizations in 25 countries. Tony is a Research Associate with Contact North | Contact Nord, Ontario’s Distance Education & Training Network.
The discussion here on curricular, programmatic, and pedagogical decision is all good. I just wish we could find a better term than “delivery” to frame it. We deliver packages, pizzas, babies, and speeches. We deliver information. I don’t think we should describe the act of teaching, however, as delivery, because delivery is a one way act. “Here, I’m giving you this. Take it.” That might be a reasonable way of describing the transmission model of teaching, but clearly that is not what you advocate. And therefore I think it’s important to look for a better term than “delivery.”
Great point, Jim. I myself am not altogether happy with the word ‘delivery’ but couldn’t think of a simpler or better way to describe the way we organise teaching that incorporate different degrees of online learning (I actually struggled not only with ‘delivery’ but also with ‘modes’. I used ‘mode’ to distinguish it from ‘methods’ which I’ve tried to use for ways of teaching/teaching approaches.)
Would anyone like to suggest a collective word to encompass the options of classroom, blended or online learning that still keeps the distinction with ‘teaching methods’, because you can have different methods of teaching within each ‘mode’?
Hello, friends,
Jim has the fixed image in mind of a pizza delivered to your door, but I think his mental image leaves out the richer sense of the word. Consider the exchange between farmers and the market, the transit of goods across state lines, the transfer of ideas across wires via the Internet. Any form of commerce implies an exchange, and that exchange is predicated on expectations and, often, a mutually agreed-upon value. Dialogue is necessary for checking learning objectives, for participation in the learning process.
Perhaps the reason I’m willing to defend “mode of delivery” is because that is the very set of keywords I used to locate this delightful information. So, Tony, I think you’ve captured it well for now. Language is constantly evolving, so perhaps somewhere down the road when the primacy of learners in the process of learning (see Paolo Friere and Jane Vella) we may find better descriptors!
I appriciate the initiatve todeliver some sort of lesson at home using the technology available due to the problem the pandemic. But do you think we can teach KG-12 grade? What is your solution for students who do not have access to the online facility. They also lack gagets and skills.And can we convert the formal curriculum in to distant learning?
Thanks, Teshome
There are two main problems: access and pedagogy.
I tried to answer your questions with two later posts:
https://www.tonybates.ca/2020/04/01/corona-virus-and-online-learning-in-k-12-schools-my-unadvice-excellent-advice-from-elsewhere/https://www.tonybates.ca/2020/04/21/2-emergency-online-learning-and-inequity-developing-countries/In short, using online learning for k-12 students is a much greater challenge, especially for younger students, than for university students. And even for university students, online learning is not an adequate solution ON ITS OWN for many students, especially in developing countries.
However, in an emergency it may still be a good but not perfect solution. The problem though is that even if students have access, most teachers are not adequately prepared or trained to teach successfully online. In future we need to prepare our teachers better for online learning as it is a key educational tool for the future.