Blended Learning Definition:

Activities

Activity 1: Take an Self-Directed Online Course

Take this course, called Designing Instruction for Web-Based Distance Learning at this address: http://www.dlrn.org/educ/course/unit1/index.html

Activity 2: Record Your Experience as a Online Learner

Write a short, reflective piece to list the positives and negatives of the online learning course, called Designing Instruction for Web-Based Distance Learning, from your perspective as a online learner. Write this piece for yourself, to serve your own thinking about instructional design for this online course and environment. Name anything that you think is important. Consider why or how you might supplement this online course with additional synchronous events.

Once you finish, you can submit this piece (saved as a MS-formatted file) as an attachment via mmartinez@trainingplace.com. Be sure to send this file before the next session starts.

Day 2 Activities

Activity 1: Create an HTML Page
Use the piece you wrote in the Day 1 Activity #2 to create a web page. Format your web page any way that you prefer. Use any authoring tool that you prefer or have available (e.g., Frontpage, MS Word, Dreamweaver, or others).

If you need assistance, look at the Resources page for help from one of the development guides. Once you finish, you can submit this web page (saved as an HTML-formatted file) as an attachment via mmartinez@trainingplace.com. Be sure to send this file before the next session starts.

Day 3 Activities

Activity 1: How Did This Course Deal with Blended Learning Requirements and Local Context?

Revisit the online course, called Designing Instruction for Web-Based Distance Learning. Write a short, reflective piece to describe the designer's assumptions about blended learning resources and the learner's local context and requirements. Use Questions 1 through 3 to help write your answer. Exemplify your perspective with specific references:

What are the requirements that learners must meet to take this course? Are these requirements stated explicitly? Or do you infer them from the content of the site? What support is provided for learners with respect to technology requirements? Are assumptions made about local context?
Do you see anything else in the design that relates to features or constraints learners might face in their local environments?
Does the designer anticipate individual differences or ability among learners? Does the designer assume anything about the learning orientations, preferences, or abilities of typical users? How does the designer accomodate such differences?

You can submit this piece (e.g., MS-Word formatted file) as an attachment via mmartinez@trainingplace.com. Be sure to send this file before the next session starts.

Activity 2: Using the Learning Management System (LMS) Demo
Take the product demo for an LMS at this site: http://corporate.viewcentral.com/product_demos.html#

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