Taken out of Context: Examining Instructors' Objectives in Synchronous Blended Learning Class Sessions

• In Event: 35.082 - Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 35.082-1 - The Design of Online and Blended Learning Environments

Abstract

This study examines instructors’ activities related to the design, implementation, and refinement of synchronous blended learning class sessions at the higher education level. Synchronous blended learning involves the use of technologies to join the interactions of face-to-face and online participants in real time. Activity theory is used as a framework to analyze interview data from 6 higher education instructors. The study focuses in particular on the types of goals and objectives that instructors have in mind when they teach in these technologically enhanced contexts, and what implications those objectives have during the design and implementation of the actual class sessions. Findings indicate instructors reference face-to-face instructional contexts as the standard by which to judge other types of interactions.

Author

• William Cain, Michigan State University