In Hybrid Learning: The Perils and Promise of Blending Online and Face-to-Face Instruction in Higher Education (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger-ABC-CLIO, 2010), Jason Allen Snart, Associate Professor of English at the College of DuPage, defines terms, discusses the challenges colleges and universities face that might lead them to consider offering hybrid classes, examines the history and future of hybrid learning, presents examples of blended learning, and introduces technology that is used to build community and promote collaboration: course management systems, blogs, wikis, social bookmarking applications, Second Life, and Exit Reality.
Unfortunately, Snart does not offer suggestions for actually developing a blended course.
If you don’t have time to read the entire book, at least peruse the appendix: “At a Glance: What It Takes to Make Hybrid Learning Work” (147-50).
I totally agree with his statement that “Often, what is gained pedagogically when faculty are able to customize the look and feel of a course and when they are able to include applications beyond institutional course management systems far outweighs the benefits of the standardized look that those course management systems can provide” (108).
I thought the following resources listed in his endnotes might be worth reading:
- Anthony G. Picciano and Charles D. Dziuban, Blended Learning: Research Perspectives (Needham, MA: Sloan Consortium, 2007).
- Margie Martyn, “The Online Blended Model,” Educause Quarterly, no. 1 (2003): 18-23.
- Catherine Gouge, “Conversation at a Crucial Moment: Hybrid Courses and the Future of Writing Programs,” College English 71, no. 4 (March 2009), 338-362.
- “Writing, Technology, and Teens,” Pew Internet and American Life Project, April 24, 2008, http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/Writing-Technology-and-Teens.aspx.
- “The NCTE Definition of 21st-Century Literacies,” National Council of Teachers of English, February 5, 2008, [http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentdefinition].
- Henry Jenkins, Convergence Where Old and New Media Collide (New York: New York University Press, 2006).
- Alfred P. Rovai and Hope M. Jordan, “Blended Learning and Sense of Community: A Comparative Analysis with Traditional and Fully Online Graduate Courses,” The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning 5, no. 2 (2004), http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/192/274.
- National Survey of Student Engagement: Promoting Engagement for All Students (Bloomington, IN: Indiana Center for Postsecondary Research, 2008).
- Tom Funk, Web 2.0 and Beyond (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008).
