1. Faculty Course Redesign Experience
Dr. Susan White
Jun Yang
University of Maryland
Sloan-C Blended Learning Conference
April 24, 2012, Milwaukee

2. University of Maryland
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Carnegie Doctoral/Research University
Member Association of American Universities (AAU)
Flagship of the University System of Maryland
37,000 students
4,000 faculty
5,000 staff
Division of Information Technology

3. UMD- Blended Learning Initiative
Community
Development
Implementation
Ongoing
Support
Division of Information Technology

4. UMD- Blended Learning Initiative
Division of Information Technology

5. UMD- Blended Learning Initiative
Community
Development
Implementation
Ongoing
Support
Community
• Blended Learning Fellows
• Initial full day retreat
• Blended Learning Fellows
meet twice a month
Ongoing Support
• a team of instructional
designers
• the Center for Teaching
Excellence
• the departments and colleges
Division of Information Technology

6. Three Corners of a Blended Classroom
Pre-Class
Online
Instructors alternate
learning activities in both environments
In a logic flow and sequence
In-class
Post-class
online
Blended &
Integrated
Closing the loop

7. A Blended Course
Synchronous
Face to Face
Online
Asynchronous
Supported by instructional
technologies
Instructional
Strategies
Pre-Class
Online
Instructional
Objectives
In-class
Content
Delivery
Interactivity
Assessments
Student-content |Student-student |Student-Instructor
Student
Support
A Blended Course
Post-class
online
follow-up
Closing the
loop

8. BMGT 340 – Why Blended?
 Professor for BMGT 340, Business Finance,
for 11 years at Maryland
 Taught in large lecture classes (250
students), plus 50 minute discussion
sections with TA until Spring 2011
 Now 60 student sections, with no discussion

9. An Idea for Technology
Enhanced Course
Make sure that
you’re not just
adding an
online, extra
component
 Spring 2010 – Center for Teaching Excellence
New(er) Technologies Fellow
 Fall 2010 – used Camtasia to provide technology
enhanced teaching materials in preparation for
small classes coming the following spring
 Group project changed to individual project with
instructions in Camtasia videos replacing some
Friday discussions
 Students experienced a course and a half and TAs
thought the grading would never end!

10. Enhanced to Blended
Chronology
 Spring and Fall 2011
Try to have less
emphasis on exams
and have shorter,
more frequent
evaluations
 Scaled down individual project a little more each
semester
 Three instructors teaching 7 sections of 60 students
 Highly coordinated course – joint exams, syllabus,
lecture notes, project
 Spring 2012 – Semi-blended
 Officially 2 sections of BMGT 340 became “blended”
in the course catalog
 Unofficially, the classes are really semi-blended

11. Pre-class Online
Design incentives
to encourage
students to do
pre-class
activities
 Watch videos
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
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Made with Camtasia, enhanced by technology TA
Cover basic concepts, simple problems
Quizzes in SurveyMonkey
Students receive points for completing quizzes
 So far, completion points, not for right answers
 Typically completed by 50-60 of the 75
students
 Increase points in fall?

12. In Class
Make classes, even
large classes, as
interactive as
possible
 Start with SurveyMonkey questions
 Highlight good essay question answers
 Call on students (with right answers) to work problem
questions
 Brief review of concepts covered in videos
 Cover material better suited for face to face
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More difficult, multi-stage problems
Concepts students in the past have had difficulty with
Small groups working problems
Ethics mini-cases
Clickers – questions related to course material, both
online and face to face

13. Post-Class Online
Big challenge is
making
connections
 End face to face class with “next steps”
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What material will be covered next
How it relates to chapter we just covered
How it relates to future chapters
How it relates to class projects
 Issues
 Students prefer homework to projects
 Homework questions are more exam-related
 Need to better motivate benefits of projects

14. Next steps?
Big challenge of
motivating and
engaging nonmajors
 Fully blended in Fall 2012?
 Greater consistency (less need for students to worry
about the schedule)
 Greater room availability
 Concerns: covering all the material
 Discussions take time – more engaging, but fewer
chapters covered
 High degree of course coordination – exams count
more than is suggested in a blended course

15. Survey Results
 Most took the class because it fit into their
schedule or was required by their major
 Answered by about half of 340 students
 Answered by students in 10 blended courses in
the pilot program
 Most took the class because it fit in their
schedule or was required
 Percent “wanting to try a new type of course or
interested in blended learning
 All courses: 19.6%
 BMGT 340: 17.6%

16. W ha t a re y o ur time e xp e c ta tio ns fo r this b le nd e d c o urs e ? (fa c e -to fa c e , o nline , a nd ho me wo rk time )
This course will require more time
compared to a traditional face-toface course.
This course will require less time
compared to a traditional face-toface course.
This course will require an equal
amount of time compared to a
traditional face-to-face course.

17. Fo r the fo llo wing sta te me nt, p le a se ind ica te yo ur a g re e me nt.
I expect to have a better
learning experience in a
blended learning course.
I feel that I will be better
able to allocate my time in
this course as compared
to a traditional, face-toface course.
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0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00

18. Student Comments
 Video lectures are very helpful
 I can watch the videos whenever I have time
 There are a lot of resources available to study and practice
online
 I like being able to stop and start the videos on my own
 I love being able to pause the lecture, write more slowly
 No classes for watching videos about the lectures
 It's VERY helpful to have the lectures up online in addition to
the in-class lectures for studying purposes. I think every
lecture should be recorded in video.

19. And they also said  The videos are something boring and I have to watch them even if I
know the material from a previous class
 It can be difficult to learn the material through the online videos
 Many times I have to re-watch the videos when completing the
homework and still have to meet with a TA to make sure I am
understanding
 Homework is hard. Sometimes it comes from chapters we haven’t
covered.
 I do not like that I cannot ask questions to the teacher during the online
section.
 Many times by the time that I get to see the teacher next, I have
forgotten what I was confused about.
 I wish they would have done a better job of explaining the exact details
of blended learning during course signup.

20. Questions & Comments?
Contact us
Dr. Susan White
swhite@rhsmith.umd.edu
Jun Yang
junyang8@umd.edu
Division of Information Technology