Slide 1

Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learning

Blended Synchronous Learning Model

Nian-Shing ChenProfessor and Chairman

Department of Information Management

National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan

nschen@faculty.nsysu.edu.twhttp://www.nschen.idv.tw/

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learning

Traditional Learning

• Traditional schools remain fixed…– same time, same place, everyone– not accessible to those on the move– not accessible to those at remote

locations– not geared for situated learning– no formal support for peer-learning

outside classroom– fail to retain context in out-of-class

learning situations– external expert participation a pain!

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learning

E-Learning (few years ago)

• E-learning an enabler for instruction in ways not possible in traditional education environment

• Remote participation• Archiving for revision and remedial

studies• Self-pace study• ….

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learning

Problems of past!

• Learner isolation and alienation because of their physical separation

• Lack of “social presence”• Lack of immediate interaction even

if lecture videos available

Blended synchronous learning →

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learning

Blended synchronous learning

• Integrates physical face-to-face and cyber face-to-face learning

• support for pedagogical strategies such as– team-teaching– collaborative learning– peer-learning

Blended synchronous learning model →

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learning

Blended synchronous learning model

Employs various strategies combining three attributes:

– Role– Place– Number of participants

to achieve synchronous interaction of Physical F2F and Cyber F2F.

14 blended synchronous learning modes identified

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learning

NotationsT: a teacher S: a studentP: a physical classroom C: a cyber classroomG: a group D: an individualn: many I: Internet access

nS: many students nG: many groupsnP: many physical classrooms

nP(T, nS): many physical classrooms of a teacher with many students

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learning

Mode 1: One teacher with students in physical classroom

• Traditional classroom• One teacher with

students in physical classroom

• Only in-class support material is available

• Disappearing fast• Mentioned only for

comparison purposes

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learningMode 2: One teacher (with Internet access) with students in physical

classroom• Still resembles of

traditional classroom• Allows teachers to record

the lectures on Internet for later retrieval

• Enables students to catch up and everyone to have revision possibilities

Still one of the most basic modes of using Internet technologies

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learningMode 3: Teacher with students in physical classroom, everyone with

Internet access• Location constraints remain• However, Internet

technologies are used for real-time collaboration activities with archival facilities

• Allows electronic instant polling• Better/automatic record keeping• Collaborative document creation and annotation• Simultaneous multiple student input• Persistency and reuse of resources

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learningMode 4: Teacher & students in physical classroom, individual students at remote locations, everyone with Internet access

• No location constraints any more

• Still maintains familiar traditional classroom

• Enables institutions to expand their cohorts to students from remote places

• authentic reporting of certain field phenomenon possible

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learningMode 5: Teacher & students in physical classroom, individual students at remote locations, groups of students at remote

locations, everyone with Internet access• Combines traditional

classroom with true remote access for both individuals and groups

• Remote students, who cannot afford individual computing resources, can also join in groups

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learning

Mode 6: One teacher & students in physical classroom, one or more

teachers at remote locations, everyone with Internet access

• Multiple expertise from anywhere in the world

• Still maintaining familiar traditional classroom

• Allows unique expertise to be available from international experts in ordinary classroom, which was not possible before

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learningMode 7: One teacher & students in physical classroom, one or more

teachers at remote locations, individual students at remote

locations, everyone with Internet access

• Not only brings multiple expertise from anywhere in the world, but also allows students to participate from anywhere in the world

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learning

Mode 8: Teacher & students in physical classroom, one or more teachers at

remote locations, individual & groups of students at remote locations, everyone

with Internet access

• Enables multiple perspectives of experts• Allows students to participate from

anywhere, either individually or in groups

• Situated learning possibilities by either experts at certain locations or sending students to certain locations

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learningMode 9: Teacher and individual

students at remote locations, everyone with Internet access

• Combines real-time authentic student experience from multiple locations

• Breaks away from traditional classroom paradigm

• Allows for teachers to be recruited according to their expertise rather than their physical location

Vocational students from multiple locations could relate their real-time experiences to make connection not only between

theory and practice but also between multiple situated experiences provided by other learners from different locations

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learningMode 10: Teacher & individual students at remote locations, groups of students

at remote locations, everyone with Internet access

• Allows for use of the best pedagogical practices by enabling peer-learning environment in small groups to provide better learning experience

• Teachers can do an authentic reporting in their teaching

• Enables students with limited individual resources to be in groups with shared computing resources

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learning

Mode 11: Multiple groups of teacher & students at remote locations, everyone

with Internet access

• Teachers teaching the same subject at different institutions/countries can join together to design some inter-institutional or inter-country activities to enhance situated learning experience

• Facilitates better mutual cultural understanding

• Enables multiple classrooms in different parts of the world to collaborate with each other

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learningMode 12: Multiple groups of teacher & students at remote locations, one or more teachers at remote locations,

everyone with Internet access

• In a way, the classroom is extended by the external expert to include situated learning

• Enables external experts simultaneously in multiple classes

• External experts can be in particular context, and can provide real-life experience to students

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learning

Mode 13: Multiple teachers at remote locations, individual students at remote locations, groups of students at remote locations, everyone with Internet access

• Team teaching a real possibility to increase quality, multiple perspectives, and reduced teaching load, without increased burden on financial resources

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learning

Mode 14: Multiple groups of teacher & students at remote locations, individual

students remote locations, groups of students at remote locations, one or more teachers at remote locations,

everyone with Internet access

• Combines benefits of all previous modes

• Provides real possibility of global classroom, multiple cultural exposures, and bringing multiple situated learning possibilities

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Joint Italy-Taiwan workshop on e-learning

Thank you!