Abstract
This paper describes a three-stage process of developing a webinar integration tool to enhance the interaction of teaching and learning in blended environments. In the context of medical education, we emphasize three factors of effective webinar integration in blended learning: fostering better solutions for faculty and students to interact virtually; enhancing blended learning using webinars as flipped mini-lectures; and promoting the 4Es Learning Cycle (engagement, exploration, explanation, and extension) through webinars. With the development of a webinar integration tool, we propose an implementation framework based on four guiding principles: (1) technology considerations: matching the tool features with tasks, (2) planning with the perspective of participatory theories of learning, (3) promoting active learning with the 4Es Learning Cycle model, and (4) identifying factors for effective learning through webinar. The three-stage process includes: conducting a needs assessment and training sessions to ensure prerequisite skills for attending and hosting a webinar session, collecting baseline data on overall uses and perceptions of webinars, and applying the results of stages 1 and 2 to the development of a webinar integration tool. Our goal is to identify best practices for integrating webinar technologies in medical education, and assist faculty in aligning course objectives with appropriate webinar activities. Through formative evaluation and continuous improvement of our framework, our broader goal and contribution to the field is to encourage the development and sharing of domain-specific practical strategies for webinar integration, and strategies for designing compelling blended learning and teaching experiences.
Highlights
The infrastructure of modern technology has leveraged the power of digital connectivity
Lieser et al: The Webinar Integration Tool technologies available to enhance learning interaction and engagement, we suggest that webinar technology has the most potential to impact student learning in blended environments
We described why webinar technology is a great tool to add learning resources through modularizing the learning process, enhancing synchronous communication, and repurposing the recorded webcasts for asynchronous learning
Summary
The infrastructure of modern technology has leveraged the power of digital connectivity. Increasing connectivity fosters information process and delivery, including emerging learning technologies that transform how students learn. As many educators are using online learning and teaching in various ways, the trend in curriculum development is experiencing a dramatic change. Some notable changes are the redesign of fully online and blended courses. This pedagogical transformation resulted, in part, from a study by the U.S Department of Education, “Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies” (2009). Key findings in this study describe a stronger support for blended learning applications with additional collaboration opportunities and learning resources, as illustrated by these statements: “students in online conditions performed modestly better, on average, than those learning the same material through traditional face-toface instruction”; “effect sizes were larger for studies in which the online instruction was collaborative or instructor-directed than in those studies where online learners worked independently”; “instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction”. (Means et al Revised 2010, pp. xiv–xv)
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