Blended Learning
Our organization has introduced a cutting edge method of teaching students the art of being an automotive technician. We have a blended learning that incorporates online web based training, instructor lead training, and hands on training. With the addition of web training it allows our students to have more "hands on" training due to the fact they can complete their online training the day before the lecture and have knowledge of the subject matter before the instructor even opens his mouth. This leads to more time in the lab with hands on experience.
That is a great teaching technique to have students come to their scheduled class time with having some knowledge about the lesson. Thanks for sharing this with the group Jimmy.
I find blended learning an excellent way to have students ready (covering topics and subjects) before they participate in the instructor lead training.
One key aspect I have found when students have not reviewed materials and subjects before the instructor lead training is their inability to be able to have enough understanding on a topic to ask questions. If they are seeing the materials and topics for the first time, they are not prepared to asked questions.
Having students be prepared to discuss the daily assigned has always been a challenge for instructors. Certainly having a hybrid format in which the students are assigned the content before the class meeting is a way to relieve this problem. Thanks for your comments Daryl.
I am a Medical Assisting Instructor and our school is just introducing blended classes. I am very excited because I think it will give the students more of opportunity to work independantly and think for themselves. Plus it will give some of the students who are not so computer savy the opportunity to get more comfortable on the computer. I believe that as long as the instructor is giving very interactive lectures on line and great critical thinking questions, then the student will definately benefit. Plus they will be with their instructors the other days during the week so if they are having trouble they can ask on the days they are in class. It also gives them more lab time since some of the classroom time will not be needed for lecture.
There is a great deal of research that shows that the blended environment is really the best of both worlds, for some of the very reasons you discussed in your post Janine.
