Choosing appropriate learning activities for blended and digital learning
The move to online delivery for the majority of our teaching means that we need to consider how best to support students’ learning, whether they are 'on campus' and having a blended learning experience, or are fully digital learners.
While this presents a considerable challenge in terms of logistics, including, and not least, staff workloading, there are also some positives: many aspects of good practice translate readily to online learning, with programme level approach’s concentration on the student experience, its conception of a 'whole programme' and its intention to streamline assessment being just three.
This guidance explores the types of learning activities you can select to best meet the needs of all your students.
For more in-depth guidance, you can also watch our video on Planning Activities For Digital Teaching.
The value of synchronous and asynchronous activities
While synchronous (set time) activities have the advantage of building a sense of community and belonging and of offering instant feedback, asynchronous (any time) activities are more flexible and familiar, with better accessibility. Asynchronous learning also supports a wider range of 'types'* of learning. The following table compares the four main learning environments we will be able to offer -with examples, and notes which types of learning are best supported.
Synchronous and offlineExamplesFace to face teaching: lectures, seminars, tutorials, lab work, practical work FeaturesLess demanding, semi-flexible. Good social aspect and community building for those present, instant feedback for those present. Provides structure for students learning. Excludes those not present. Main types of learning supportedacquire, collaborate, discuss, practice |
Synchronous and onlineExamplesWebinars, streaming, presenting, screen sharing, proctored or invigilated examinations, chat, Q&As, multiplayer games, quizzes, polls and group work, proctored or invigilated examinations FeaturesProvides structure to student learning. Possible social aspect and community building for those present. Instant feedback for those present. Main types of learning supportedacquire, collaborate, discuss, practice |
Asynchronous and offlineExamplesIndependent study, project work, revision, reading, watching, listening, programming, writing, drawing, music / audio, rehearsing, building, creating, open-book assessments, downloads of synchronous sessions. FeaturesLeast demanding, most flexible, familiar, accessible. Main types of learning supportedinvestigate, acquire, produce, practice. |
Asynchronous and onlineExamplesResearch, searching, browsing, discussion forums, messaging, email, social media, online courses, independent study, project work, revision, reading, watching, listening, programming, writing, drawing, music / audio, building, creating, open-book assessments, recordings of synchronous sessions. FeaturesLess demanding, semi-flexible, accessible. Main types of learning supportedinvestigate, acquire, produce, practice. |
Adapted from FutureLearn resources
*There is a longer list of learning activities based on the * ‘ABC’ types of learning: investigate, collaborate, discuss, acquire, produce, practice.
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Alternatives to lectures
The immediate response to the pandemic of moving live lecture slots to Blackboard Collaborate sessions allowed us to provide emergency cover. While the occasional large group live session might be effective, it is neither the only, nor the best, solution to your students’ learning needs. Where contact time is limited, your students need interaction with staff and peers: using it to transmit information one way might not be the best use of that time.
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Chunking up learning
Chunking is a concept that originates from the field of cognitive psychology. It’s the idea that breaking up text and multimedia content into smaller chunks helps users to process, understand, and remember it better. It is common practice in online courses to consider the whole week’s work, and then, guided by the learning outcomes, break it into ‘content/test your learning pairings’ that are appropriate to the topic. You then plan a succession of these throughout the week. These activities are necessarily asynchronous, and complement the synchronous sessions dealt with in the previous section.
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Managing live sessions where some students are on campus and others are not (hybrid teaching)
For more information on hybrid teaching, visit this page.
Activities that work well for remote learning
Many useful activities are mentioned earlier in this guidance. You will need to consider your own workload and timetable as you plan for blended and digital learning: it is likely that more time will be needed in both planning activities, and being available to moderate online discussions etc.
Not all students will have access to a strong internet connection and this may be an important factor in planning what you do, so you will need to find out about your own students. The table below shows the relative bandwidth demands of different online activities, with the highest on the top row, and lower ones below.
A blogpost on bandwidth immediacy gives more information.
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Further information
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