Reflections on Blended Learning: A Case Study at the Open University of Hong Kong

Anna Wing Bo Tso (School of Arts and Social Sciences, The Open University of HongKong, China)

Asian Association of Open Universities Journal

ISSN: 2414-6994

Article publication date: 1 June 2015

6561
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Abstract

Teaching presentation skills is by no means an easy task. To teach such skills effectively, a teacher must help the students to learn how to (1) design and organize the presentation contenteffectively; (2) strengthen their verbal and nonverbal communication skills;and (3) master the use of visual aids. Often, the traditional face-to-face classroom setting falls short when the lecturer has to teach more than 100 students how to observe small details of body language and vocal skills. In this case, a blended learning mode — a hybrid of face-to-face and online learning — may be a better option than a pure face-to-face learning mode (Fang, Chow & Soo, 2012).

The purpose of this paperis to demonstrate how blended learning can be implemented to teach university students' presentation skills. In the spring term of 2013, ENGL A122F: Presentation Skills, a five-credit course for full-time undergraduate students, was first delivered via a blended learning approach at the Open University of Hong Kong. Attempting to combine the best features of the online and face-to-face modes of teaching, the blended delivery course incorporated video and interactive web-based components into the course outline.

In this paper, I share my experience of how presentation skills can be taught through video lectures and assessed through the online learning environment (OLE), alongside traditional teacher-led lectures and tutorials. Also, I discuss how the blended learning approach, compared with the traditional face-to-face teaching mode, can not only facilitate propositional knowing, but also help learners to achieveexperiential knowing, and presentational knowing (Heron & Reason, 2006). Last but not least, the paper reflects on students'feedback, as well as the challengeswhen implementing the blended learning mode.

Keywords

Citation

Bo Tso, A.W. (2015), "Reflections on Blended Learning: A Case Study at the Open University of Hong Kong", Asian Association of Open Universities Journal, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 77-86. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAOUJ-10-01-2015-B008

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015 Emerald Group Publishing Limited

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License


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