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Design, Learning Experience, Uncategorized

Bisk’s Top 4 Distance Models

Apr 26, 2022

Your college or university can move quickly online without leaving any faculty member or learner behind during the transition from in-classroom instruction to the online learning environment. Previously, we described 10 steps that will help you transition existing courses online, expand remote learning programs optimize your technologies, and prepare your faculty and learners for the adventure ahead.

Here are the definitions of four used frequently to describe distance models.

  • Online: Takes place via the internet and a learning management system (LMS) rather than in a traditional classroom.
  • Remote: The face-to-face class migrates online, on the same meeting date and time, using a video conferencing platform.
  • Synchronous: The instructor and learner come together at a specified meeting date and time, either face-to-face or remotely.
  • Asynchronous: Self-paced, self-guided with no specified date or time expectations.

Let’s dive deeper into these four learning modalities, including pros and cons.

100% Online, Asynchronous
Online learning is just one type of distance learning that occurs via the internet and an LMS rather than in a traditional classroom. The assumption for the fully online course is that the instructor and learner will never see one another face to face. Therefore, the syllabus, presentations, lecture notes, assignments, discussion board prompts, readings, and so on need to be uploaded and easily identifiable in the LMS.

Bisk’s best practices for online instructors is to consider the LMS as the living, digital syllabus; it should leave no question for learners about course activities, assignments, assessments and due dates. The most challenging element to transition to the fully online model is the delivery of lectures. Online lectures can occur asynchronously with video lectures typically presented as PowerPoint presentations with the instructor’s voice narrating the lecture and offering more detail than what is seen on each slide.

  • Pros: Learners work independently, can learn anywhere and anytime, and never travel to campus.
  • Cons: Learners must work harder to stay engaged, organized, and connect with the instructor and classmates.

Remote, Synchronous
Remote learning is when a face-to-face class migrates online using a video conferencing platform, such as Zoom. The remote classroom operates at the same face-to-face meeting times, but now as a virtual classroom.

Often, instructors make the false assumption that since the learner will regularly join the virtual classroom, the LMS is not as important. This is not true. As much attention must be paid to the LMS as in the 100% online model. That is, the LMS must serve as a living, digital syllabus — the GPS coordinates on the learning journey.

  • Pros: Learners never travel to campus.
  • Cons: Learners are bound by required synchronous meeting dates and times.

Blended Learning
Blended or hybrid learning can be a combination of online, in-classroom, and remote learning occurring synchronously or asynchronously. There are several blended models, with the majority including an in-classroom component.

With social distancing a real possibility for the unforeseeable future, limiting the opportunities for in-classroom learning, Bisk’s favorite blended model combines online and remote into a flipped classroom. Learners spend time away from the classroom to study independently through online video lectures, and in-classroom time is used to guide supervised application-based learning activities.

For online/remote blended learning, learners use the LMS to work independently online but join the virtual classroom for application. The virtual classroom is where the instructor can leverage tools in video conferencing platforms to promote learner engagement through breakout rooms, screen sharing, video recording and whiteboard instruction.

  • Pros: Learners never travel to campus and work independently on foundational content which is applied during synchronous sessions.
  • Cons: Learners are bound by required synchronous meeting dates and times.

Flex Model
Bisk refers to this model as 50/50 because half of the learners are seated in the physical classroom, while the remaining 50% join remotely. In some cases, the groups alternate to allow all learners to travel to campus and have face-to-face contact with the instructor.

This model is popular in higher education since it addresses the need for social distancing. Though instruction is delivered synchronously with variable contact with the instructor and other learners, the LMS should still serve as the living, digital syllabus to keep all course activities on track.

  •  Pros: Some learners never travel to campus.
  • Cons: Some learners must travel to class. All learners are bound by required synchronous meeting dates and times.

About the Author. Dr. Jennifer King is a formerly tenured professor, academic dean, and author with more than 25 years of experience in higher education. She is currently the Academic Program Director for Bisk, and has helped more than 40 colleges and universities reimagine their online instruction, strategic program planning, and pathways toward accreditation.

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