How to Decide Which Technologies Will Boost Blended Learning in the College Classroom

Lim says the clickers boosted students’ exam reviews and the interactions between his long distance classes.

“We were excited about the students’ perception of the clickers,” Lim says. “For our purposes, it’s really helped our two locations feel like one classroom. The students in Denver don’t feel like they’re not part of our group because the graphics on the screen, their contribution. It also becomes a competition between our classrooms in Orlando and Denver. It can be hilarious and competitive. It adds fun, and the students in Denver don’t feel left out or ignored because they see their contribution.”

Sean Brown, Vice President of Sonic Foundry says other technologies, like lecture capture technologies, can also help instructors better blend their teaching strategies.

Like Lim, Brown says lecture capture solutions can bridge the gap between distance learning classes and unify student learning.

“We know that people are looking at lecture capture as a separate discipline as distance learning; technically, they are, from an industrial perspective,” he says. “Lecture capture is about recording something, getting something on demand in its consumption. With the advent lecture capture…it massively grew in blended learning.”

Brown also says lecture capture enables an instructor’s lecture to be an easily obtainable object for students, especially since lectures can be archived in systems like Mediasite.

He says this eases learning for distance learning students, and takes some of the pressure off of instructors to find new ways to keep students engaged.