When looking up other examples of hybrid blended courses withing the University, I thought of our other Fig courses. In a way, they also combine a "hybrid" or "blended" approach. For example, our LIS 301 course allows us to create online games and YouTube videos to learn from while allowing us to learn from other peers. LIS 301's approach isn't distantly different from LIS 201 approach. They both so very similar activities. However, without com arts class, we don't incorporate as much virtual activities as we do in LIS 301 and LIS 201.
For this class, I felt that it really depended on what the assignment or topic was. I think that the best results would be a combination of them together. Neither of them was more effective over the other. The reason why is because in person, I can learn visually and understand as well as communicate more effectively. But the virtual world helps because if I were to forget something that was said in a discussion or in lecture, I could always refer back to a blog or Wiki. I think that through the virtual world, I was able to learn more about my peers because on the online blogs, they put themselves into what they write and it shows their personality more.
After this course, I would have to say that I definitely feel a lot better with blogs and wikis because I never did anything with them before I came to the university. I wasn't too interested in them but after this course, it made me realize that it was actually kind of fun. Overall, I think that UW instructors should use online components depending on the type or kind of course. For example, incorporating online activities to courses like the FIG is a great idea. For classes like Math or Sciences, online components would be harder to put into the course.
1 comment:
Mendy,
Great post. I thought the same thing about the relationship between discussions and the virtual world. The blogs allowed people to say things that they forgot about in discussion or didn't want to share at the time. It also allowed me to find out more about everyone in the FIG, because people divulged more about themselves through their blog posts.
I also agree that it depends on the course. It wouldn't make any sense to have to post on a blog about topics like math or chemistry. However, I think that it would be helpful for instructors to update a blog on the assignments and specific instructions for assignments, papers, and exams.
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