2-Days In-house Workshop on Designing Blended Learning for Better Student Engagement

Date: 22^nd & 23^rd December, 2021
Time: 09:00 AM – 17:00 PM UAE Time
Two Days In-house Workshop

Workshop Overview

The massive increase in use of online learning due to COVID-19 has brought several challenges as well as many benefits to the educational sector. Instructors who switched to remote learning have learnt from experience that their teaching style had to change to promote student engagement. Academics realized the urgent need to implement new ways of designing and delivering their courses; they had to familiarize themselves with new technologies and to re-think the means and approaches through which they can engage their students and build learning communities in virtual spaces.

Going forward many have been considering the numerous benefits offered by online learning and how these can be combined with the benefits of face-to-face learning to enrich the learning experience. The challenge remains around how to determine the best blend for your course and how to plan your students’ activities when parts of your course is in-person and others are online.

Blende learning integrates thoughtfully structured online activities into face-to-face courses. Students engage in a range of online activities that may involve taking online quizzes, contributing to discussion forums, maintaining a digital portfolio or blog or interacting with online course materials. These activities when meaningfully planned can promote the transfer of knowledge, enrich the in-class activities and foster a better sense of community within the course.

In this 2-day intensive and highly interactive ‘hands-on’ workshop; the aim is to develop participants’ knowledge and skills to design and plan effective learning activities suited for blended learning and to provide them with a practical understanding of how blended learning can help students develop competencies such as autonomy, problem-solving, critical thinking, as well as a sense of self-efficacy.

Participants will work with colleagues to plan backward their courses and to construct learning outcomes, identify assessment strategies, and plan course content and learning activities. They will explore ways in which they can blend online and face-to-face activities enriched with the use new tools and strategies, which will positively impact student engagement. Topics and concepts discussed will involve: course design principles, constructive alignment, active learning, course organization, feedback for learning, etc. Participants will also actively explore a variety of useful, free digital tools and discuss how they can be integrated as part of the course learning activities. They will also come up with examples of activities which effectively integrate various principles taught. 

 

Workshop Structure

Session (1): Blended learning: An Introduction

• Workshop overview and introductions
• Icebreaker activities
• What is blended learning: challenges and opportunities
• What and how can we blend?
• Different kinds of blended learning
• Online Learning Environments
• Personal experiences

Session (2): Designing for Blended Learning Courses

• Backward Design
• Constructive Alignment
• Learning Outcomes, Assessment, Content & Learning Activities
• Considerations for Designing Blended Learning Courses

Session (3)

• Selecting & planning your blend
• Organizing your course – modularization
• Preparing your course content: Key Principles
• Engaging student through assessment: Thinking out of the box
• Feedback for learning

Session (4&5): Implementing Active Learning in Blended Learning

• What is Active Learning?
• Reflection in Active Learning
• Planning Learning Activities
• Active Learning Strategies and Techniques – from simple to more complex
• Tools to Engage Students (Discussion forums, Portfolios, Quizzes, Blogs, Wikis, Padlets, etc.)
• Challenges for Implementing Active Learning

Session (6)

• Choosing blended good practices
• Creating your course plan for blended delivery- Summary of Activity
• Course evaluation & reflections
• Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance;

Who is this Workshop for?

• Faculty members and teaching staff working in the Higher Education Sector
• Directors, Managers and Staff working in Teaching and Learning Centers
• Deans of Colleges/ Faculties and Heads of Departments
• Instructional Designers and Educational Technologists

COVID-19 Health and Safety Measures

• All participants should have tested negative for COVID-19. Negative 48hrs COVID Test will be requested for all participants and should be presented at registration desk
• Wearing a face mask and ensuring safe distance will be mandatory throughout inside the workshop room. Non-compliance may result in government enforced penalties.
• Capacity will be limited in session rooms and regular hand washing is recommended and sanitizers will be provided in all key areas

Workshop Facilitator