BLENDED AND ONLINE LEARNING AND FLIPPED CLASSROOM

 Assalamualaikum everyone!

This week I would like to share information related with blended and online learning also flipped classroom. Recently, this term have become quite famous among students in schools and higher education institution.

What is online learning?

Online learning is education that takes place over the Internet. It is often referred to as “e- learning” among other terms. However, online learning is just one type of “distance learning” - the umbrella term for any learning that takes place across distance and not in a traditional classroom.

What is blended learning?

A style of education in which students learn via electronic and online media as well as traditional face-to-face teaching. This is the practice that used by my institution in order to ensure students can adapt with the online learning slowly. Besides, blended learning is important as some subjects needs face-to-face lessons such as practical and demonstration sessions.

What is Flipped Classroom?

A flipped classroom is a type of blended learning where students are introduced to content at home and practice working through it at school. This is the reverse of the more common practice of introducing new content at school, then assigning homework and projects to completed by the students independently at home. This is a practice used by public schools in Malaysia during MCO all over Malaysia. I am not really sure the impact of this practice as I have never used this practice for my students. I am pretty sure some students will have difficulty in understanding the lesson without a teacher teach them directly.

All of these 3 types of learning have their own advantages and disadvantages. It is the roles of teacher and educators to ensure when they decided to used any type of learning stated above, they should enhance the advantages that it has and reduce the impact based on disadvantages it has.

When teaching students online, there are methods that can be used by educators in order to engage them online. It can be done by using method as below:

1. Online Communication
2. Online Collaboration
3. Web Design and Development 
4. Online Design, Creation and Making

Online Communication is a communication channel is a website that allows you to talk and communicate to other people around the world through the internet. Among types of Online Communication are Blogs, Vlogs, Podcast, Social Media and Web Pages.

Online Collaboration can help students understand how the web works with web design and development tools. Learning HTML, CSS, and PHP will help your students learn the basics of a website which could serve as a platform for them to share their knowledge. Learn from scratch or use web design tools. Among the Online Collaboration are:

1. Edmodo
2. Google Drive
3. Google Doc/Sheet/Slides
4. Bubbl.us
5. Twiddla
6. Cacoo
7. Titanpad
8. Padlet

Web design and development help students understand how the web works with web design and development tools. Learning HTML, CSS, and PHP will help your students learn the basics of a website which could serve as a platform for them to share their knowledge. Learn from scratch or use web design tools. Among web design and development tools are:

1. Roblox Academy
2. CodeAcademy
3. Wix
4. Wordpress
5. Codemoji
6. Adobe Spark
7. Google Sites

Online Design, Creation and Making

In order to bring out your students’ creativity in completing tasks in class or at home, expose them to online design sites. They can use it in their presentation, designing posters, infographics and even booklets. Among website that provide design services are:

1. Canva
2. Freepik
3. Flaticon
4. Picsart
5. Slidesgo
6. Venngage

Enhancing Learning with Multimedia

Multimedia is a combination of:

• Audio
• Video
• Text
• Visual

Advantages of using Multimedia in class are:

• Motivates Students to Learn
• Improves Teaching Efficiency
• Enhances Interaction among Students and between Teachers and Students
• Creates a Conducive Teaching Environment in the Classrooms

As a conclusion, using technology is a MUST for all educators in these days. Teachers should use all possible teaching aids and techniques that can enhance the lessons to be delivered and suitable with the situation and environment of students. However, teachers should not overuse multimedia technology as it can create divider among students especially students with tech-savvy and non tech-savvy. So, some bright students might be hindered their potential due to limitation of technology that they have.