This is a catchall term for all of the methods, venues and modes of delivery in place before the digital age: lecture, lab work, demonstrations, seminars, group discussions, field work, etc. The key differentiator of this category is that groups of students and their teacher meet together in the same place at the same time in order to conduct the majority of lessons.
In addition, old style Distance Learning (DL) in the form of the “correspondence course” would be included here: books and materials would be sent through the post to students, who would work independently and return written assignments in the post for assessment.
Online Learning
Online Learning refers to learning that is fully online and with no expectation for learners to be physically present in a group learning space. All of the requirements for the course are met by the learner having access to an online environment and online resources. The learning space is virtual.
Online learning interrupts the distinction between F2F and Distance Learning: no matter where students are, if they sign up for an online course, they will all work the same way. Students who may in the past have been isolated as Distance learners will have the benefit of interactivity and much improved support.
Blended Learning
Blended learning includes aspects of both traditional/F2F and online learning, taking all possibilities for delivering learning into account as a “toolkit” from which you can choose the best option for your circumstances. Blended learning allows an educator to put the aims and goals of learning first and then design the learning that fits best.
Flipped Learning (or Flipped Classroom) is a form of blended learning which considers that the F2F time is best spent doing those things that require teacher-student or student-student interaction, while time away from the classroom is best spent in reading/viewing and reflecting on learning materials and putting into practice what they have learned.
However, students can struggle to focus on videos or readings that are too long, and we will show you that practical activities, discussions, quizzes and collaborative exercises can make both online and face-to-face learning much more interactive and engaging for students.
Synchronous and Asynchronous Learning
Online Learning and the online elements in Blended Learning can be split further into two categories of delivery: Synchronous and Asynchronous.
- Synchronous learning takes place in a real-time environment, usually through an online classroom or webinar platform, such as Blackboard Collaborate or conferencing apps like Zoom, Teams and Skype.
- Asynchronous learning takes place at the convenience of the learner, without the need for the group to do the same thing at the same time, usually through a Learning Environment or suite of online tools. This course is an example of asynchronous learning.
Simply trying to replicate classroom experience in an online environment is often disappointing. Here is more information about pros and cons: Synchronous versus asynchronous learning.
Getting Interactive on Zoom (and other online conferencing systems)
Educators often say that they find synchronous teaching challenging because students do not always make their presence felt — they may be uncomfortable putting their cameras or microphones on, for example, and that can make it feel to a teacher like you are talking to yourself. There are many good reasons why we are all sometimes uncomfortable being seen in our homes: we might share our space with others, or we worry about our personal appearance or how our homes appear.
A solution to the need for engagement without requiring cameras could be making better use of annotation tools if your system has them. For example, you can enable the annotation tools in Zoom so that they are available in your settings. If you then share a slide, you can invite students to circle things, point to things, draw lines to connect things, etc.
This is a relatively low risk activity, so even shy students can take part. Here are slides you can adapt and use at the beginning of a synchronous session to create a warm atmosphere while you are waiting for everyone to arrive. They have the added benefit of enabling students to become familiar with the annotation tools so they know how to access them when you introduce your own activities.
slides for annotation in synchronous sessions
The Changing Landscape
In recent years, most HE institutions have been changing practice by growing their wholly online provision through Distance Learning programmes, and encouraging (sometimes requiring) academics teaching traditional face-to-face (campus-based) modules and courses to record lectures, take online submission of assignments and use the online learning system for other, often supplemental, learning activities and resources. Individual academics, enthusiastic about the possibilities for teaching with technology, have been bringing more blended learning into their teaching by choice.
Covid-19
When the Coronavirus began its global rampage early in 2020, online and blended learning entered the spotlight. Suddenly teaching staff were instructed to “put their courses online” almost overnight. In the case of online assignment submissions and recording lectures (albeit to an empty room) this requires little change.
However, anyone with experience teaching wholly online modules and courses knows that just “putting it online” is not enough. This article makes a strong case for The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning.
REF: PRACTICAL TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY