Mad about blending
Using quizzes in the classroom can be helpful for weaker students, and Blackboard contains many possibilities for activating the students. The Aarhus BSS conference on blended learning offered useful hands-on experiences with the blended form of instruction.
By Steffen Moestrup
“I am mad about blending,” enthuses Niels Lauritzen, the director of studies at the Department of Mathematics, as he enters the podium at the Aarhus BSS conference on blended learning. And you believe in his enthusiasm when the director of studies shows a picture of an overdrawn blackboard:
“This instrument is an invitation to lean back and drink a cup of coffee. The blackboard has been used as a teaching tool for at least 200 years. Honestly, wasn’t it time we tried something new?,” asks Niels Lauritzen, who then invites Professor Bjørk Hammer, the Department of Physics and Astronomy, to the stage to show what this “new” might be.
“We are seeing a definite academic improvement. For example, the number of students who failed their exam has fallen by two thirds compared to the year before where we didn’t use quizzes,” says the professor of physics.
At the department, it has been noted that students’ ability to work with basic mathematic tasks has decreased. That is why lecturers are now experimenting with two initiatives within blended learning. By incorporating video presentations into the Blackboard learning system and by attaching exercises to the individual presentations, the students’ competences have been trained. And with the sci2u.dk quiz system and by exploiting the gamification elements, many of the weaker students have been lifted academically: “The quiz is designed according to the principles behind the consequence pedagogy. If you give a wrong answer, you have to solve the exercises again. And if you answer correctly, you can move on quickly and even skip some questions,” explains Bjørk Hammer, who is responsible for developing the system.
The students’ results after the introduction of the quiz are indeed rather thought-provoking.
“We are seeing a definite academic improvement. For example, the number of students who failed their exam has fallen by two thirds compared to the year before where we didn’t use quizzes,” says the professor of physics.
Finding inspiration
Following the energetic input from the departments of the natural sciences, the conference participants move on to a series of practical workshops allowing them to explore the best practice within blended learning. How do you give the best feedback using online tools? How do you make the most of Blackboard’s many tools for activating the students? Questions like these fill the air, and it is clear to see that the participating lecturers are finding it very inspirational. Several of the participants immediately start changing their Blackboard page as they get a better idea of the possibilities offered by the system.
A recent study trip to the US arranged by CUL offered similar inspiration. Here, both management and teaching staff were given an insight into how blended learning is carried out in an American context: “It was very interesting to see how many American universities have a comprehensive strategy for blended learning. The management is supportive and there are clearly defined goals at organisational level which ensures that the initiatives are carried out on a daily basis,” says Torben K. Jensen, centre director at CUL, who was one of the participants on the trip.
The potential of blended learning is hard to miss when you walk around at the conference. And even Roy Owston, the keynote speaker of the conference and dean at the Faculty of Education at York University in Toronto, feels that he has learnt a lot during the day: “Great things are happening in your academic environment that not many people are aware of. I, for one, would really like to see that math quiz at home in Canada. In fact, you have a great potential for developing your work with blended learning even further, for example due to the brand new centre which is able to support the departments,” says Ron Owston, who also points out that you need a community around blended learning if you want to implement it properly: “Blended learning might be a buzzword and might be called something different in five or seven years, but the technology is here to stay, and if you want to reap the benefits of using technology in the classroom, it requires that someone takes the lead and that you agree upon a strategy which shows the world what blended learning can do.”
● The conference took place on 26 November 2015 at Comwell Aarhus
● 120 people from different departments at Aarhus BSS participated in the conference
● A series of presentations and workshops offered both strategic discussions and practical input for how to work with blended learning on a daily basis.
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Centre for Teaching and Learning is an educational research and development unit at Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University, Denmark.
