1 Course Description

The Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) Blended Learning course introduces participants to research-based concepts, principles, and strategies that will make facilitating a course with both online and in-person components effective and engaging. This course will help you create seamless lesson plans that utilize the most applicable elements of both the online and in-person learning environments. The course is designed to provide you with:

• the experience of being a learner in a blended learning course.
• the opportunity to think about, practice, and develop lessons that include both online and in-person components.
• educational tools and technologies that can enhance blended-course delivery.
• practice designing and delivering student-centered authentic and flexible learning experiences.

In this course, you will:

• facilitate learning activities on topics of your choosing;
• integrate blended-learning theories and principles into activities you facilitate;
• experiment with a variety of facilitation techniques and strategies;
• give and receive constructive feedback on facilitation and engagement of online and in-person lessons/activities.

This course includes one synchronous online session and three in-person sessions on campus (one half-day, two full-days.) In addition to the planned synchronous sessions, participants should expect to spend 8-12 hours during each of the three weeks reviewing course content, preparing activities, facilitating, and engaging in course activities. Those with no prior online teaching and learning experience can expect to invest more time. Continuous, active participation is necessary to make this course successful for everyone.

FLO Blended is a complementary course to the FLO Fundamentals course, which supports facilitators to learn how to facilitate in online environments. Like that course, FLO Blended builds on the fundamental principles of the Instructional Skills Workshop. These principles are:

• participatory and learner-centered – participants form a learning community and support each other’s learning
• a safe, respectful learning environment – you will be encouraged to take risks, be creative, and learn from your mistakes
• feedback-rich – you will be encouraged to give and receive feedback with fellow participants
• reflective practice – you will analyze and critically reflect on the art of facilitation and your facilitation skills
• relevant and meaningful – you will explore the future application and transferability of your learning in this course