Design of Activities/Courses in e-learning and blended learning

• Reflect on the issues surrounding distance learning in its digital form: e-learning and b-learning;
• Become familiar with distance learning environments, contexts and platforms;
• Use distance learning platforms, particularly those used at the HEI where you work;
• Mobilise concepts related to e/b-learning in higher education;
• Transform a face-to-face course into a distance learning course;
• Critically analyse e/b-learning experiences in higher education institutions;
• Be familiar with and use synchronous and asynchronous communication tools;
• Be familiar with and use content production and dissemination tools;
• Implement assessment strategies in distance learning modalities;
• Design and develop a prototype of an e-learning or b-learning course, with a view to its actual implementation in a higher education context.

Topics:

• Distance learning: assumptions and implications
• E/B-learning: from virtual learning environments to communities of practice
• Learning management systems: from environments to models
• Developing an online course: from needs to implementation
• E-learning kit I: synchronous communication tools
• E-learning kit II: asynchronous communication tools
• E-learning kit III: content production tools
• E-learning kit IV: content dissemination tools
• Current and emerging trends in e-learning
• Case studies
  Final self-reflection

The course has been designed and organised to be delivered in a blended learning format, through face-to-face and online sessions. As such, it is divided into modules and complies with e-learning specifications and standards. All course modules are available on the e-learning platform of the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation.

Through plenary sessions, communication and practical workshops with a clear focus on problematising the theories underlying distance learning, an analysis of e-learning/blended learning practices and experiences will be carried out, using case studies, and strategies for transforming/converting face-to-face courses into online courses will be highlighted.

Given that the aim is for trainees, who are higher education teachers, to be able to reflect on their teaching professionalism, the focus will be on: a) self-diagnosis of the practices they use, both in terms of the strategies employed and the resources mobilised, including literature and technology; b) proposing the reformulation or redirection of actions developed in relation to distance learning; c) final self-reflection on the productivity and relevance of the paths traced throughout the training course.

The use of e-learning technological solutions allows training to be carried out:

• synchronously, through the Zoom videoconferencing tool;
• asynchronously, through the e-learning platform of the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation.

Assessment is based on three components: a) diagnostic assessment to be carried out at the beginning of the course, b) formative assessment (to be developed during the course) and summative assessment to be carried out at the end of the course.

The final grade for the course will be calculated as the weighted average, on a scale of 20 points, of the partial grades, taking into account the following weightings:

• Work carried out during the course: 50%
• Quality participation in synchronous and asynchronous sessions: 20%.
• Final self-reflection: 30%

All trainees who achieve the defined objectives will obtain a Certificate issued by the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto.

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