Connect with the University of Central Florida BlendKit facilitators as they share research based strategies for the planning, development, promotion and delivery of a MOOC. This MOOC has had a total enrollment over the past three years exceeding 6250 participants. Discover the BlendKit hype and join this community of practice.
Garrison and Kanuka (2004) states that blended learning amalgamates the traditional face-to-face with online interactions. The amalgamation of the above learning modalities requires a critical decision making process, which should consider: students’ learning culture, technological tools available, flexibility of the learning population, physical location, and maximizing of the benefits of using face-to-face and online components for course design (Medgeid, (2014). Jowallah et al (2015) suggest the quality of a blended course will be influenced by the; design of the course; how the course is developed; how the course is delivered, and finally how the course is managed.
Over the past three years the University of Central Florida has delivered the Blendkit MOOC in collaboration with EDUCAUSE. The Blendkit MOOC is a five-week course, with online open access materials and an optional guided course experience assisting participants in planning and decision making process while developing a blended course. The total enrollment for BlendKit over the past three years exceeded 6250 participants, many of whom went on to complete the UCF/EDUCAUSE Blended Instructor’s credential. The successful delivery of this MOOC requires a team approach for planning, development, promotion and delivery with quality checks in place along the way.
This presentation will highlight how instructors can use BlendKit, an open education faculty development course, to assist them in their design, development, delivery and the management of a quality blended course at their institutions. Participants will also be given the opportunity to view the BlendKit site while we highlight strategies for locating and utilizing the open educational resources available. Also, participants will be guided on best practices for consideration when using the BlendKit resources and promoted to openly discuss their application of the resources and plans for applying these practices at their own institutions. Lastly, the presenters will disseminate research based findings that identified key quality indicators necessary in the planning, designing, development and delivery of a blended course.