Blended approaches and collaborative visualizations

Abstract

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) are gaining international currency as a new and potentially liberating form of global online education. However, blended approaches that provide the thoughtful inclusion of educational technologies to enhance student learning can support, among others, key University aims of critical intellectual inquiry and collaboration. The challenge in adopting a blended approach is how one draws upon emerging trends and new affordances in a principled and integrated manner to enhance both face-to-face, in-class and online, out-of-class learning experiences. In this talk, I examine some of the opportunities of blended approaches for inquiry-based professional curricula and expand upon examples of the use of visual tools across the health sciences.