Syllabus - Teaching in Online and Blended Classrooms

Course developer and facilitator:
Karen Fasimpaur

Preferred contact methods:
email: karen at k12opened dot com
chat or skype by appointment
online office hours - TBA

We will also be having several synchronous web sessions, schedule to be announced.

Webinar #1 - What works and what doesn't?
This webinar will include several online course facilitators and will give participants a chance to ask questions about what works best in online and blended learning.

Webinar #2 - Online learning showcase
This webinar will give participants a chance to show what they're working on and exchange ideas with others.

Hack this syllabus - Here is a copy of this syllabus in Google Docs. Please add comments about to what you would like to see changed in the syllabus. (Highlight a section and use the Insert menu -> Comment.)

Also, if you'd like to create a customized syllabus for yourself with varied activities to meet your own goals, please do so by going to the File menu and selecting Make a Copy. Save with your own name, and share a link with us if you'd like.

Remember, P2PU is all about customizing the learning experience for your needs!

For each week's goals and tasks, see individual week's content for more detail.

Week 1 (Sept. 26-Oct. 2) - Creating your customized plan for this course

Goals:

• Get to know each other
• Make your own plans for this course, including identifying the online instructional materials you will develop
• Discuss possible team collaborations
• Explore the benefits and challenges of blended and online instruction
   

Tasks/assignments:

• Introduce yourself
• Set your own objectives for participating in this course, including specifying the materials you will develop in this course
• Identify others you might collaborate with

Week 2 (Oct. 3-9) - Thinking about effective instructional design for blended learning

Goals:

• Think about how learning goals, content, activities, instruction, learning, and assessment work together to make an effective instructional design and begin to formulate a design for your own materials
• Identify the learning goals for the instructional materials you will develop in this course
• Begin setting up the course that will house your materials
   

Tasks/assignments:

• Think and write about your target learners and what instructional design elements might best serve them
• Write learning goals for the instructional materials you will develop in this course
• Set up your course in the platform of your choice (if you haven't already)

Week 3-6 (Oct. 10-Nov. 6) - Developing your online instructional materials

Goals:

• Develop your online instructional materials
• Learn more about the following topics and apply them to your materials development
  • Content (especially open-licensed content that you can use in your course)
  • Student engagement, including the use of Web 2.0 tools
  • Student-centered learning and learner independence
  • Differentiation
  • Assessment
  • Other topics of your choice
• Collaborate with others to discuss these topics as they relate to your instructional environments and to evaluate your course materials and iteratively improve them
   

Tasks/assignments:

• Work on your online instructional materials
• Explore one or more of the special topics in this section and apply the information you learn to your own materials
• Participate in collaborative sessions with others in the course to talk about what is working well for you and what is not and critique each others' course materials
• Reflect on what you've learned and developed in their course