In this module you will:

• know how to prepare yourself before starting on making blended learning;
• learn what 'High level goals' are and how to describe them;
• learn what 'Course objectives' are and how to describe them;
• learn how to identify your audience.

What do you need to know before starting making blended learning?

High-level goals

What problem do you want to clarify in this course? Focus on what your students already know. Think about how they are facing this problem and how your course could help them with this problem.
Write down the high-level goals of your course in one or two senses from the students' perspective. But also think about the areas you will not address in this course.

Courses objectives

What are course objectives?

We encourage communication on lesson content. Nowaday education lists lesson content in ‘course objectives’. There is a certain model for formulating course objectives.

Taxonomy is the science (and practice) of classification. In an educational context such as this one, we refer to taxonomy to precisely name what learners will do in order to acquire a particular skill or a specific piece of knowledge. Setting the scope of a particular lesson, or series of lessons, enables the student to become owner of his own learning process(es) and makes the teacher/instructor reflect on a good way to get to the course objective(s).

All courses begin with an overarching goal.  Assuming that the but is clear, you build learning objectives to meet the goal.

Make sure that when you design your course you have very clear goals.  What do they hope the course will accomplish?  From that conversation, you’ll be able to discern what the learning needs are.  This helps you to design your objectives.

The main area of focus is to understand where you currently are and where you need to be.  Then map out the activities and learning experience to get from one point to the next.

Three basic questions:

1. What needs to be learned?
2. Who needs to learn it?
3. What do they need to know before they can start?

How to formulate course objectives

Once you have determined the ‘what’, it is time to set the course objectives as clear as possible. You write them learner oriented (‘You will be able to …’). A good rule is to include:

• The learner
• The requisite
• The lesson

Good objectives accomplish several things. Information is precise and concise.

Tell your students what they are going to learn

Clear objectives answer the “What’s in it for me?” question.

Keep the content concise and specific

Identify your audience

“Everyone” is not a practical audience. At the very least, limit the audience to people interested in your topic. The more specific you can be, the easier the rest of the process remains.

Think about what you expect your audience to already know. For example, assume you plan to teach a course on how to knit a sweater. Will you focus on people who are new to knitting? Is it people who have learned enough knitting to create a scarf? Depending on your answer, you would cover different material in the course. If your audience is made up of beginners, you should cover the basics of knitting in addition to the specifics of knitting a sweater. However, if your audience already knows the basics, you can skip directly to the specifics.
(https://edu.google.com/openonline/edukit/plan.html)

• Inverde: Balancing economic and ecological goals in forest management

• Centre Forestier: Sustainable forest management and certification

• KWF: Soil compaction

• CTFC: Climate change, fire risk

• BFW: Extreme weather events, storm & windfall

Selecting a teaching strategy

Fink distinguishes overall teaching strategies from particular instructional strategies or techniques. A teaching strategy involves combining and sequencing a number of different instructional activities to help students accomplish the learning goals of the class. To determine an effective teaching strategy, think about what you want students to be able to do when they leave the course (e.g., apply certain formulas? create an interactive animation? debate the merits of particular policies? create a stage design that reflects a critical reading of an historical play?).

Having identified the broad learning objectives, work backwards, asking yourself: What particular skills and knowledge will students need in order to accomplish these objectives? Then address the following questions:

What kinds of activities will students need to engage in to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge?

Examples of the Kick-off days

See the result of the Padlet below.

Taxonomy of Bloom

Read more

Good orientation

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_07.htm

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/learning-strategies/

https://teaching.berkeley.edu/active-learning-strategies

https://www.instructionaldesign.org/concepts/learning-strategies/

http://esl.fis.edu/eltern/advice/styles.htm