Best Practices for Teaching a Blended Course

• Inform your department chair of your intent to offer a blended course; her or she, in turn, will inform the department’s scheduling officer that this course is a blended course, one that should be described as such in the “Course Notes Field” of the relevant course section.
• A welcome message that introduces students to the course and to the structure of the blended learning experience is emailed to students one week before the start of class.
• A statement in the course syllabus and/or in the myCourses news area should provide a clear and compelling rationale for adopting a blended format; reasons include:
  • Students have greater time flexibility, freedom, and convenience by working part of the time online from home due to decreased commuting.
  • Students have more time to reflect and refer to relevant course and other research materials when working and writing online than when responding in classroom.
  • Students can acquire useful skills from using the Internet and other computer-mediated communication technologies.
• Students are provided with a complete schedule of the various online and classroom learning activities and assessments.
• Netiquette expectations with regard to online discussions and email communication are clearly stated.
• All audio materials used in the course comply with RIT’s ADA policy.
• Feedback to student assignments and questions is provided in a timely manner.
• The instructor has established contact information and office hours (virtual and on-campus).
• Instructor informs students of his/her expected presence in the online discussions—e.g., whether he/she will respond to each and every student post, a select number of posts, or a summary of all posts in any given thread.