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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2014

How are f2f sessions and telecollaboration linked into a coherent blended learning course?

Résumé

If blended learning (BL) is defined as a mix of « classroom education » (Bersin 2004 : 85) and online learning (eg. Charlier et al. 2006, Garrison & Vaughan 2008, Neumeier 2005), telecollaboration can be considered as a specific type of BL where an online communication project with geographically distant partners is combined with f2f sessions. The manifold possibilities BL offers to enhance pedagogy in Higher Education, since it enables to take advantage of each of both learning modes, have been highlighted by many authors (eg. Deschryver & Charlier 2012, Garrison & Vaughan 2008, MacDonald 2008) and have made it to a widespread form of learning and teaching today. But, at the same time, the mix of learning modes that makes its richness is also what makes it difficult to design and to moderate. In despite (or maybe because) of this fact, the books providing guidelines and illustrating best practice most often simply show what kinds of activities should be done in each learning mode, but do not give hints on how to link the learning modes in a coherent way (Bersin 2004, MacDonald 2008). Or, if ever they do so (such as Garrison & Vaughan 2008: 105-141), they implicitly consider the f2f sessions as the dominant learning mode, completed by the online mode . But, in telecollaboration, where the design and preparation of a common project with distant partners is time-consuming (Guth et al. 2012), the online mode therefore presumably often becomes the central and dominant mode. Regarding telecollaboration, several publications focus on the challenges of setting up and running such a project (Ritter & O’Dowd 2006, O’Dowd 2007, Guth et al. 2012). But, here again, to our knowledge no specific emphasis is put on the parameters that determine efficacious integration of online interaction with distant partners and f2f sessions. Therefore, the question this presentation will tackle is: which parameters are used for a successful combination of telecollaboration and f2f sessions into a coherent course? Answering this question will help teachers to better integrate both learning modes. We will conduct an exploratory study in which we will interview five experienced teachers about their practice, in order to identify common approaches. The study will exclusively focus on language and/or intercultural training in Higher Education. It will be based on the parameters of existing BL typologies (Bersin 2004; Deschryver & Charlier 2012), but adapt them in order to meet the specific needs of this study. First, we will identify the dominant learning mode of these BL courses and see whether this choice is linked to the learning objectives (Nissen 2006), to the duration of the telecollaboration project, to institutional recognition (Guth et al. 2012) or to other aspects. Hence, does the telecollaboration project become central for course design or is it more an add-on activity? In addition, we want to find out which is the “thread” that determines the coherence of the course (is it task completion? Focus on form? A specific topic? etc.) Second, the study aims at analysing how the learning modes complete each other. Thus, which competences are trained in which mode (e.g. students benefit from proactive training of online discourse’s specificities, Thorne & Fischer 2012: §50; training that can take place f2f), when, why then, which role does the teacher play in each mode, and how does assessment take into account the contribution of two different learning modes to the course? Finally, based on the results of our study, we will highlight the basic parameters that make these language courses coherent in the eyes of their designer and tutor.

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Education
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Dates et versions

hal-01941376 , version 1 (30-11-2018)

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  • HAL Id : hal-01941376 , version 1

Citer

Elke Nissen. How are f2f sessions and telecollaboration linked into a coherent blended learning course?. International Conference on Telecollaboration in University Foreign Language Education, University of Leon, Feb 2014, Leon, Spain. ⟨hal-01941376⟩

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