I want to share something that I have used in the past to help myself and students be on the same page with what is expected and why. I teach business students that generally appreciate structure. organization of the first week
Maybe as students and instructors gain more experiences, such a structured approach will not be necessary. As a less experienced blended course instructor, I find the structure helps me organize my approach (design) and delivery. As I am better organized, it helps my students too. Having a structured format for what is going to happen each week, it helps me with the mix map too. If I first know what my desired outcomes are, I can design what is going to be learned online then applied in the classroom.
The key to me is having clear outcomes that I design to, and being very clear with my students what they are to accomplish before class time. This puts real pressure on me as the instructor to design the f2f time to really require that the online portion of the class was accomplished. If I don’t do this, students quickly learn that they can just show up without having done the online portion without consequence. It seems like this expectation can drive accountability, similar to our natural expectations with graduate students.
