Here we go!

So I enrolled in this course because:

1) I sit on a Teaching and Learning Resources Committee that approves online courses.
2) We have no Instructional Designer here at Lynchburg College.
3) I am extremely interested in learning about building blended course.

After reading the first Chapter, "Understanding Blended Learning" it became clearer that my thoughts and beliefs about how teaching should/can be fall in line with blending courses.

I have been the Instructional Technology Specialist here at Lynchburg College for three years now and I have spent most of my time helping people learn how to do things on Moodle, our learning management system. But I haven't been able to really get in and help professors transform how they are setting up their classes.

Even in face to face classes we are way too reliant on the instructor centered classroom. This is supposed to be about learning. They way we learn is to do and try and fail and then try again. and this is where I see the blending courses fitting in. Even if it is simply flipping the class and allowing the student to watch lectures for homework online and then applying those concepts to solve problems (not just math and science) in the classroom as a group or as individuals is a start. But we need to go above and beyond this. We need to remember that the student is the one that we should center the course around and that not all students are the same. Give the students problems/situations/assignments etc.. and then let them figure out how they can best meet the required parameters. And Technology may or may not be the answer for that student. But blending will allow for greater flexibility on the part of the student as to how the figure their own way thru this experience. Just break free from the structure of I talk you listen model!

In our reading this one sentence spoke the most to me: ,"By recognizing learning as a messy, nebulous, informal, chaotic process, we need to rethink how we design our instruction." (https://blended.online.ucf.edu/blendkit-course-blendkit-reader-chapter-1/)

Realizing that learning is not a neat compact structured experience that is the same for every student is the key and now let's figure out how to design a course that best allows for active participation and learning from each and every student.