Background
Today I'd like to talk about our blended learning pilot project. Those of you who have been here for 8 weeks know a lot about but let me explain for the new students.Traditionally there have been regular classes and correspondence courses for most levels and types of education including high school, college or university and career courses. If you took a correspondence course, you were shipped a lot of material and told to complete it.
My sons took a couple of these classes but were not successful. Then my older son took a correspondence course, but at his high school, he had to attend the tutorial room every day and had to complete a unit before he got the next one to work on. He was successful in this case.
The Current Situation
With blended learning, it's partly like a regular class and partly like a correspondence course. You are the first, and so far, only NorQuest LINC class to participate in this. Marilyn and I will continue to have independent learning units on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons where you will complete your work off campus and where one of us will be available for e-mail and phone calls from 12:00 - 2:30 on those days.The format will change somewhat as we want you to try other types of activities and web tools to see which ones are most popular and useful. I would like you to have more contact with classmates during this time
Blended learning is becoming more popular and there is lots of research and a lot of articles about this subject. We are lucky to have a LINC Manager who is willing to try new methods instead of doing the same thing year after year.
My Opinions
Here are some of my opinions about the topic. For students with your level of English and education, you do not need a teacher to stand over you in order for you to do your work. You need time to do the work with direction from your instructors. This is similar to what will occur in the workplace. So, having a designated time to complete some assignments with help available is one option.Also, everybody likes flexibility and these classes offer you the chance to slightly change when you do some of your work.
Your Opinions
Please comment on this blog posting by answering some or all of the following questions and excuse my lack of question marks as I have done something to the keyboard on my laptop and this is what I get instead - É- What do you like about the independent learning times.
- What don`t you like and why
- What do you find useful, even if you don`t like it.
- What do you think is not a good use of your time
- What else would you like to say about this topic
Linda
I likes independent learning because I could study by my own pace and schdule study time by myself. At the period time of independent learning, I don't have to worry about if my pace will slow down others' learning in the classroom, and I can refer to other sources when I need. Since there is no mentor in independent learning, I think that clear and detailed directions for the study materials are very important. Besides, how to manage your time is also a important issue in idependent learning.
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