Welcome back, everyone!

I wanted to let you all know about some changes to the workshops in the Digital Learning track that are being implemented this semester. In an effort to make these workshops more accessible, convenient, and meaningful, I’m piloting a new hybrid (blended) format for three of the DL workshops this fall. The first one (Introduction to Digital Learning) opens in Brightspace at 5:00 p.m. this evening (you can register for the online course on the Eventbrite page).

For the new hybrid format, a self-paced online course (which goes over the content that would normally be included in the face-to-face workshop) will be available online for a two-week period (in this case from 5:00 pm on August 18 to 11:59 pm on September 4); those who successfully complete the assessment for the online course will be given access to a Doodle poll in order to schedule a follow-up face-to-face workshop over the next few weeks at a time that is convenient for everyone. The face-to-face workshop will provide an opportunity to go into the topic in more depth, address any questions from the online course, and (when applicable) get some hands-on practice. Note that you will need to complete both the online and face-to-face sessions in order to receive a badge for the workshop.

The other workshops that will be available in the new hybrid format this fall are the Introduction to Virtual Reality (September) and Introduction to Augmented Reality (October) workshops. We’ll also be offering workshops on Digital Presence, Digital Video, and Digital Storytelling in the traditional f2f workshop format, along with the Introduction to the Academic Commons and Digital Portfolios workshops (which will be facilitated by Dr. Pat Huey this semester). If this little experiment in blended learning is successful, I’ll move more of the Digital Learning workshops to the new hybrid format next semester.

The idea behind the move to blended learning is intended to accomplish several things. First of all, it will make the foundational material more accessible to more faculty; rather than setting an arbitrary time and date for the workshop, the material will be available online in a self-paced course that you will be able to complete according to your own schedule. This will allow us to go into the topic in more depth (incorporating more active learning techniques and hands-on practice) in the face-to-face workshop, which can be scheduled according at a convenient time for everyone who participated in the online session.

Let me know what you think about the new format, and please sign up for one of the workshops to try it out! I hope to see you online and in person this semester.  🙂