Course | Advancing With Blended and Online Learning

Meet Your Instructor

Dr. Catlin Tucker
Leading Blended Learning Expert, Author, and Public Speaker

Dr. Catlin Tucker is an education expert, author, and speaker. She has over 16 years of experience in education and is a leading authority on how to effectively use technology in the classroom to improve student learning and increase teacher and student engagement. Dr. Tucker has written numerous articles and books on education and blended learning. She is available to speak at conferences and events.

Dr. Tucker was the 2010 Sonoma County Teacher of the year and also earned her doctorate in learning technologies from Pepperdine University. Currently, Dr. Tucker is working as a blended learning coach, education consultant, and professor in the Masters of Arts in Teaching program at Pepperdine University.

Description

This course is designed for educators looking to advance in their ability to design and facilitate student-centered learning experiences that weave together active, engaged learning online and offline.

What is Valuable About the Shift to Blended Learning?

Blended learning models provide educators with a more flexible and dynamic skill set, empowering them to design with a high level of intentionality better to meet the needs of diverse groups of learners.

Blended learning seamlessly weaves together online and in-person learning experiences to boost student engagement and meet the unique needs of a diverse class by providing flexible pathways through learning experiences.

Blended learning leverages technology to do what it does well–information transfer–and frees teachers to do what they do well–support individual and small groups of students as they progress toward firm standards-aligned goals. As teachers use blended learning models to design their lessons, they can elevate the experience for students by prioritizing three pillars of high-quality blended learning: student agency, differentiation and personalization, and student control over the pace of learning.

Student Agency

Are you feeling frustrated by your students' lack of motivation?
It's crucial to understand that autonomy and agency are key to enhancing motivation. Blended learning offers a diverse range of instructional approaches designed to remove potential barriers and improve students' motivation and engagement levels.

Differentiation & Personalization

Are you feeling daunted by the diversity of skills, abilities, and language proficiencies in your class?
It is nearly impossible to meet the diversity of needs in a classroom with a one-size-fits-all lesson. Instead, teachers can leverage blended learning models to differentiate and personalize learning to ensure all students are progressing toward firm, standards-aligned goals!

Self-Paced Learning

Are you dealing with unproductive behaviors in your classroom that distract from learning?
Many classroom management issues that surface in a classroom result from the misalignment between the pace at which learning is moving and the pace at which learners actually need it to move. Blended learning shifts some control over pacing to students to combat the challenges presented by a teacher-paced approach.

Course Curriculum

• Getting Started: Pre-work for your Advanced Blended/Online Course
Welcome to the Advanced Course
Building Your Technology Toolkit
About Me

• Module 1: Metacognitive Skill Building – Teaching Students to Think About Their Learning
Lesson #1: Embracing a Partnership Model
Lesson #2: Goal Setting
Lesson #3: Monitoring and Tracking Progress and Communicating That Progress to Families
Lesson #4: Designing Simple Standards-aligned Rubrics to Guide Self-assessment
Lesson #5: Reflecting on the Learning
*Bonus Lesson: Making Time for Metacognitive Skill Building in the Concurrent Classroom

• Module 2: Next Level Station Rotation Model
Introduction to the Station Rotation Model
Lesson #1: The Teacher-led Station
Lesson #2: The Online Station
Lesson #3: The Offline Station
Lesson #4: Grouping Strategies
Lesson #5: Universal Design for Learning, More on Differentiation & General Tips
*Bonus Lesson: Adapting the Station Rotation for the Concurrent Classroom

• Module 3: Choice Boards & Choose Your Own Adventure Learning Experiences
Lesson #1: Design Strategies for Choice Boards
Lesson #2: Differentiating a Choice Board
Lesson #3: Choose Your Own Adventure Choice Boards
Lesson #4: Choose Your Own Learning Adventure Google Slide Deck
*Bonus Lesson: Using Choice Boards to Create Time to Conference in a Concurrent Classroom

• Module 4: Building a Playlist to Differentiate or Personalize Learning
Lesson #1: Select Target Standards and Skills & Articulate Clear Learning Objectives
Lesson #2: Build in Mechanisms to Collect Formative Assessment Data – Assessing Prior Knowledge
Lesson #3: Pre-teach Vocabulary
Lesson #4: Encourage Exploration & Engagement with New Information
Lesson #5: Teacher Check-ins/Conferencing Sessions
Lesson #6: Personalize Practice with Adaptive Software & Checks for Understanding
Lesson #7: Student Agency and Assessing Student Learning
Lesson #8: Record a Screencast Introducing Your Students to the Parts of the Playlist and the Protocols for Moving Through the Playlist
Lesson #9: Differentiating and Personalizing the Path of the Playlist
*Bonus Lesson: Using the Playlist Model in the Concurrent Classroom

• Module 5: Increasing Engagement and Student Agency with the 5Es Instructional Model
Lesson #1: Craft Your Essential Question
Lesson #2: Engage
Lesson #3: Explore
Lesson #4: Explain
Lesson #5: Elaborate and Extend
Lesson #6: Evaluate
*Bonus Lesson: 5 Es in the Concurrent Classroom