5 Participant Facilitated Lessons
In this course, beginning in Week 2, you will gain experience as both a facilitator* and a participant of a blended-learning lesson. You’ll have an opportunity to view a number of different approaches and try out some ideas of your own, in a safe learning environment with supportive feedback.
Think of the lesson you deliver as a complete unit of instruction. You have 30 minutes in total: 20 minutes for the online content and 10 minutes for the in-person component. The topic you select must fit within that time frame. Here are a few things to consider:
- Many participants have found that selecting a topic from a personal (rather than a professional) pursuit or area of interest helps them to focus on the process rather than on the content.
- If you choose to use material you already teach, avoid “lifting” a section from the middle of a larger unit or attempting to condense a longer presentation (e.g., the third class in a course on interpersonal communications for nurses or a lesson on how to complete an entire risk assessment).
- This is NOT a role play situation in which participants are asked to assume an identity other than their own. When you select your topic, consider what you know about the learners who are in the room (rather than asking them to pretend they know more or less than they do, for example, or to pretend they normally behave in a particular way).
- Avoid topics that require highly specialized knowledge, advanced skills, or complex technologies.
- Ideally, you should be highly interested in and motivated by the topic you select.
In Week 1, on Monday, you’ll attend our initial online-synchronous session to learn about key elements of blended learning, review course content, and begin building our learning community. Over the week we’ll engage in asynchronous discussions about the challenges and benefits of blended learning, explore course resources in support of creating our own blended-learning lessons, and come together at the end of the week (Friday) in an on-campus session where we will consolidate our learning from the week and prepare for the week to come.
In Week 2, you will deliver a blended-learning lesson that includes both online and in-person components. You will also participate in the lessons created by your course colleagues and offer feedback. It will be important to have the online portion of your lesson posted in the discussion forum by noon on Tuesday. We will meet at the end of the week (Friday) to participate in the in-person portion of the lessons you’ve designed, to give and receive feedback, to celebrate what we’ve accomplished so far, and to prepare for Week 3.
In Week 3, you will each create another lesson (ideally a different lesson from week 2) taking into account your own insights from week 2, the feedback you’ve received, and any yearnings you have to experiment with a new tool or strategy. Again, the online portion of your lesson will be posted Tuesday morning and we will meet on Friday to share the in-person components, tie up any loose ends, and celebrate our work together.
Be sure to check the Course Schedule and put the dates and times for the synchronous and in-person sessions in your calendar.
Plan for the online portion of your lesson to take no more than 20 minutes for participants to complete and for the in-person portion to take no more than 10 minutes.
*You may choose to co-facilitate either or both lessons with a colleague.