Improving Your Blended Teaching

Northwest Nazarene University
Summer 2020

Purpose

Our Vice President for Academic Affairs, Brad Kurtz-Shaw, communicated in May that the Academic Continuity Task Force and the Deans Council felt it best that all faculty and adjuncts prepare their Fall 2020 face-to-face courses with the flexibility to be taught in blended modalities. The task force established that instructors should complete these three activities:

Training on creating a blended learning course (DUE: August 10)
A course readiness checklist
A peer debrief discussion

We have adjusted the expectations for the course readiness checklist and peer debrief discussion. The course readiness checklist will be available in Module 8 to use as a resource for preparing courses. You do not need to turn in anything to complete the checklist. The peer debrief discussion will be a part of our regular faculty workshop schedule in August.

Goals

A. Summarize what students value in remote learning.

B. Identify what barriers students encounter in remote learning.

C. Select ways to engage students successfully.

D. Outline effective ways to structure a course in the learning management system (Canvas).

E. Begin building a blended course.

Activities

This course is set up in modules, with the following elements:

✔️ View: Quotes from the student interviews and course evaluations, and an overview of the module topic

▶️ Faculty Voices: Videos of individual NNU faculty explaining their instructional methods and lessons learned during the remote teaching in the spring semester

📌 Task: An opportunity to prepare an item for your own course

💻 Support/Resources: Information, how-tos, and tips about the topic and platforms

In addition, you will see a list of references and a reflection survey at the end of Modules 4 and 7.

Canvas has features that you may have never yet discovered. We will be using some of that functionality so you may decide whether you want to use it in your own course(s). One such feature is Module Requirements, an accountability tool that calls for students to interact with the content—view a page, contribute to a discussion, submit an assignment, receive a minimum score, or mark an item as complete. Related is Module Prerequisites, which "lock" further modules until the requisites are met.

Schedule

Estimated Time: We have planned this fully online training to take approximately 15 hours. However, the time required will vary depending on your familiarity with Canvas, certain instructional tools, and your current instructional approach. Applying the training to your course(s) will take additional time.

Deadlines: Aside from a single task—to participate in a live virtual meeting—this training course is asynchronous and self-paced. The other tasks have no individual deadlines. The training course should be completed by Monday, August 10. Adjuncts who do not teach in Fall 2020 may complete this training in the semester prior to their teaching obligations.

Module	Topic	Task
1	Getting Started and Resources	Create an Introductory Video
2	Student-Instructor Interaction for Instruction	Create a Canvas Studio Video
3	Student-Instructor Interaction for Support	Participate in a Google Meet Meeting (11 a.m. to Noon on July 15)
4	Student-Student Interaction	Develop a Student-Student Activity
5	Clear and Consistent Structure	Write a Course Outline
6	Weekly Overview	Create a Course Plan
7	Use of Canvas	Build a Week's Module
8	Reflection and Next Steps	Reflect on Your Learning

Participant Evaluation

Tasks are worth 10 points possible, "graded" on a Complete/Incomplete basis. Please allow up to five days from submission to receive feedback on each Task, as we are also still responding to submissions from participants of prior cohorts. To complete the training, receive "Complete" on 7 of the 8 tasks listed in the schedule above.

Communication

Please use the 1.5 ASK - Q & A Discussion Forum under Module 1 to ask logistical questions about the training, as others may have the same question. Feel free to email your designated facilitator and/or Instructional Design & Technology to discuss course design ideas, teaching strategies, and the like.

We have been responding to queries from faculty and adjuncts since the training course was first offered. Visit the Frequently Asked Questions page as desired; you will need to be logged in to your NNU Google account.

Technology Requirements

Computer: 3 or more GB RAM and 2 GHz or faster Processor
Operating System: Windows 10 or newer, or Mac OSX 10.6 or newer
Internet Connection: 2 or more mbps
Word Processor: Microsoft Word or Google Docs
Virtual Meeting Hardware: Webcam plus microphone and speakers, preferably in the form of earbuds or a headset

Technical Skills

To succeed in this course, you should be able to do the following:

Open, read, and send email
Use Canvas to view pages, write discussion posts, upload assignments, complete assessments, and other possible tasks
Follow links to other websites
Play online videos
Create and submit files using a program such as Microsoft Word or Google Documents
Download software and install it to your computer
Use a headset to participate in a virtual meeting

If you need assistance with any of these skills, contact Information Technology Services (the NNU help desk) at https://help.nnu.edu or (208) 467-8111.