Weblog Entry by: Group Ocotillo In Weblog David's Hodge Podge modified at Nov 29, 2006 05:17 AM
Published on Nov 29,2006 05:17 AM
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To click or not to click...

Four or so years ago, I decided to offer all of my classes in a blended (hybrid) format. I even wrote an article about it in the MCLI Forum. One of the things that caused me to stop the experiment was that I had to be so organized, ahead of time, and that was contrary to my teaching MO. I've used a mental analogy (and what analogy isn't?) of music styles... to do a significant online piece, I think of orchestral music: all the pieces play a specific part and are prepared (ahead of time) to join at the proper time. My teaching method is more akin to improvisational jazz. I might play a rift in class based on a news story I heard on the radio as I drove in to the school parking lot. I'm sure there are excellent on-line and hybrid instructors that can integrate such extemporaneous, contemporaneous information into their courses, but that was a skill I didn't develop during that year.

Another mitigating factor in my decision was the time requirements of doing a blended course. If the last quarter decade is any model, I tend to change significant components of my courses every semester. I change projects, add whole new grading categories, etc. on a regular basis. My first semester of teaching the hybrid courses required nearly 50% more of my time than teaching F2F. The second semester that dropped down to around 49.9% more time. I thought I saw a trend there. But I digress!

The title of this posting suggested a posting about personal response systems and we haven't gone there yet. I started the semester using our brand new Interwrite PRS systems. My goal was to have at least one question at the beginning, middle and end of each of our ~3 hour classes. I like to track tardies, earlies (when students leave before class is dismissed) and absences. Absences are part of my grading scheme (and 3 tardies/earlies = 1 absence). I'd also read/heard quite a bit about some positive pedagogical impact of using clickers. However, like my experience with hybrid teaching (see, there is a connection!), it requires better planning and forethought than I typically bring to the table. I know I can ask improvisational questions with this system, I just haven't habitized their use yet.

I use a couple of nationally-normed pre/post-tests for both content and scientific attitude and I've decided that I'm going to use the PRS system for students to answer the questions and then show the response distributions and talk about the results. I've always used paper-based responses so I've never had the opportunity for immediate feedback. I'll let you know how it goes...
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