Blended and Online Learning Retreat

Each year in May, the Center for Educational Technology and Curricular Innovation (CECI) hosts a Blended and Online Learning Retreat. The goal of the retreat is to help participating faculty intelligently and creatively integrate technology into their face-to-face, blended or online courses.

Through online activities, discussions, and hands-on activities, participants are introduced to technologies and methods that facilitate student learning and enhance critical engagement inside and outside of the class. The retreat is comprised of two weeks of online activities, which are held in the first two weeks of May (5-7 hours per week), and a three-day face-to-face workshop held the following week. There is usually a brief introductory face-to-face meeting in the last week of April.

Topics covered in the retreat include:

• Developing effective learning activities and modules for a technology-enhanced, blended class, or online class.
• Using online writing and discussion strategies to increase student engagement and participation.
• Simple-to-use tools that students and faculty can use to create and share multimedia.
• Moving lecture content online to free up face-to-face class time for active learning activities
• Creative uses of Moodle to support traditional courses.
• Effective in-class teaching strategies that make the most of the online technology.

Attendance is kept small to ensure that each participant can to fully engage in all of the activities. In the past, participants have received a small stipend for attendance and lunch has been provided each day of the face-to-face retreat.

If you would like more information about the Blended and Online Learning Retreat, please contact Al Weiss (alweiss@pacificu.edu).