Designing blended synchronous learning sessions
The following pages introduce blended synchronous learning (BSL) activities and will assist you in implementing these activities in your BSL lesson plans.
It is highly recommended to provide student guidance in your LMS subject on the necessary student-facing information and guides on any specific online tools that will be used in your BSL sessions. This is a requirement for the recipients of the Designing BSL Sessions LTI. The student LMS guides page is a good start and there are guides for every solution in the University’s online toolkit.
Furthermore, as students may not be familiar with dual delivery it is also important to clarify what this means for them. To assist you with this step import the dual delivery welcome page from Commons. To do this, go to the Commons link on the left-hand side menu in the LMS and use the search function to search for ‘Welcome information for students in dual delivery’.
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Introduction, warm-up and ice-breaker activities for BSL sessions
Introduction, warm-up and ice-breaker activities are individual, pair or group activities that perform a number of diverse functions, typically at the beginning of a lesson.
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Pair and groupwork activities for BSL sessions
Pair and groupwork activities comprise a broad and substantial range of learning activities.
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Whole class discussions for BSL sessions
Class discussions are an effective way to encourage informal social interactions, within and between online and face-to-face cohorts. They develop a sense of learning community and class cohesion.
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Peer review activities for BSL sessions
Peer review activities are an integral part of academic endeavour. Benefits of students engaging in peer review activities include improved assessment literacy, critical thinking and professional practice.
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Whole-class activities for BSL sessions
Class discussions are an effective way to encourage informal social interactions, within and between online and face-to-face cohorts. They develop a sense of learning community and class cohesion.
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Student-led activities for BSL sessions
Student-led learning (or peer-assisted learning) is when students facilitate their own learning by guiding other students in (mostly) group activities to discuss materials and solve problems.
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Reflection and consolidation activities for BSL sessions
Reflection is an important activity for students to be able to make sense of and grow from a learning experience.
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Student presentations for BSL sessions
In these activities, individual students or groups present in front of their peers for a set period of time.