Universal Design for Learning: Strategies for Blended and Online Learning

Section 2.3: An Example of Blended Learning

INDC-1110 Essential Skills for Training & Facilitation is a blended course at JIBC. In this course, participants are asked to do 3 hours of pre-work before attending 3-days of face-to-face in-class instructions. The course is structured in the following ways:

  • Prework includes reading articles about adult learning principles, watching videos about the course, and posting online introductions to the cohort in the learning management system (LMS).
  • 3-day face-to-face activities include participants taking turns practicing facilitation skills, and opportunities to critique and evaluate each other’s facilitation techniques.
  • Throughout the course, recordings of facilitated sessions during the day are posted in the LMS for review and additional reflection.

Short Analysis

This blended course has the appeal of working independently online and with peers face-to-face where learners could gain valuable social connections. Learners also have the chance to engage with course content, peers, and the instructor in multiple ways.

But we must not forget that any pedagogical approach has its strengths and weaknesses. Blended learning can remove certain barriers but also create new ones. These barriers can be technological, social-emotional, and cognitive.

Read the example again, and ask yourself:

Reflective Question:

  • What may be some of the barriers in this blended learning course?
  • If you are the instructor, how might you address the barriers using UDL framework?

License

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A Comprehensive Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning Copyright © 2022 by Dr. Seanna Takacs; Junsong Zhang; Helen Lee; Lynn Truong; and David Smulders is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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