Course Review

Although I wasn't able to find other courses that were as much as a "hybrid" course as LIS 201, I have had courses in the past that have blended online activities with in class lectures and discussions. For example, many of my classes are starting to use online websites as discussion boards and to post lectures or questions. Although I think this is very useful because it allows students to discuss the class outside of discussion, I think teachers should better coordinate what types of sites they use. For example, this year alone I have over five different websites I use for different classes. It is very hard to keep track of which website is used for what. I think this type of learning would be more efficient if there was a general type of website all teachers used. However, in this class I think this type of teaching is effective because students who don't normally like to participate or use their voice in class definitely feel more confident on the computer, so students share more. I think that is definitely true for me. I feel like I can express my ideas better while typing them, and also I can do this anytime of the day whenever I have a new thought on a topic. I really enjoyed this course, and I think it taught me a lot about the information society and its importance today.

Course Review

I found a hybrid course I am required to take as a business student here in Madison. General Business 301 is a business law class that is three credits with an online lecture and a 50 minute discussion section. It is interesting that the class has online lectures, it probably is set up like this because the content is better suited for an online lecture.

Reviewing the class over the semester I found that the online components connected well with the in-person lectures and discussions. It provided an alternative method to fully understand the content of the class with an opportunity to learn about content that relates to our interests. Many of the assignments gave a database to find a video or article to choose. This allowed me to be creative with the course and find ways to comprehend the material and integrate it with content that interests me. Compared to the offline components of the class, it was effective in a different manner than that of the lectures and discussions. Offline components of the class gave me a more direct understanding of the material. The readings provided examples of the lecture material to demonstrate a better understanding and that helped make lecture material clear.

The class did provide me with a broader prospective of the information society and showed that there is a lot more to the internet. It makes me think more about how I use the internet and how my usage can impact other users. I also learned that there are many channels of information than the internet and print media. The class shows that information is always around us and in a immeasurable volume and that there are several factors to consider in evaluating the information presented to us.

My Experience in the Course

From my online search, I found out that UW-Milwaukee offers a couple hybrid courses. Some of those examples are “Buy Me! Ads and Shopping in American Culture” and a graduate level course: “Advanced Nursing Practice Interventions”. Two thirds of the class meetings are face to face, while one third of the class meetings are online. LIS 201 also differs from those two courses because it lets the student explore into different types of tools such as blogs, wikis and create unique projects that require different types of skills besides just writing.


Looking back to the beginning of the semester, I definitely have learned a lot in LIS 201. It is an interesting class that is informative and provides me the opportunity to practice hands on learning. The online portions of the course connect with the in-person portions. It gives me the opportunity to apply and reflect what I have learned in lecture and encourages me to be more creative. Being a student today is really different due to the availability of the internet and the other technologies that support our education. Sometimes, I may need time to be able to adapt to the online tools with the course. But once I get used to them, they all becomes easier and fun to use. There are a lot of classes in UW-Madison that already have an online component. Most of them assign online homework with automatic grading through certain software. Some of them even have online exams and quizzes. I think UW professors should apply the appropriate online components in their classes to facilitate better learning outcomes. 

The substantive material from the lectures and readings on the information society bring a better perspective to my online experiences in my life. One of the most interesting thing I learned from the class is about the rapid development of information technology and their effects on the environment. From these issues, I understand that often times there is no black and white answer to a problem. There are important tradeoffs to consider and it is useful to achieve a sustainable balance.  

LIS Course Review

When Google searching "hybrid/blended courses", the first link that popped up was one from Oregon State University. The site was intended for future instructors of hybrid courses to learn how to properly teach and engage students with this style of learning. The OSU site provides a powerpoint giving helpful hints and describing what a hybrid course means to them. They mention how a course such as this is contains more than 50% online activities, which is quite similar to this course.
Reflecting on LIS 201: The Information Society, I do think that our online assignments coincided with the material learned in lecture, discussion, and through the readings. I did enjoy participating online because I feel that it gave us students more freedom to share our opinion without factual evidence like one would have to in a formal paper. And these online assignments got us to stretch the boundaries and apply the material learned to our own lives so we could see it firsthand. It was interesting to read of my classmates' opinions and experiences; through this, it opens up our minds to new ideas of the information society.
I do feel more comfortable working with blogs and wikis; before, I thought that I would never understand how to create my own webpage, but now, I realize that it is not as hard as it seems, and as mentioned before, they are spaces to express one's creativity and opinions. For this reason, UW-Madison could see benefits in academia, but then again I could only be speaking for myself. It is difficult to participate online all the time because there are instances when wifi is down, or a student's computer simply will not connect to the Internet, making it difficult to complete an assignment.
Online sources are not just for "tech-y" classes. For example, in the past, I have had a couple of classes in which we used McGraw-Hill Connect to complete homework assignments and quizzes. These are nice because today, we spend so much time on our computer already that it is easily accessible to do more assignments electronically.

Course Reflection

I did a google search for hybrid classes and found that many universities are using this approach. I have also had personal experience with many different class types such as online, distance, hybrid, and flipped classroom both in high school and here at the UW. In high school I had both History and English classes that were hybrid. In these classes 2 or 3 class days a week would be replaced with online actives and discussion boards. These classes utilized technologies such as Moodle and GoogleDrive and the assignments were similar in a similar structure to the ones that we have had in this course. Here at the UW most of my blended classes have been flipped classroom courses. Flipped classroom is where students watch lectures outside of class and then during class they work on practice exercises, homework, and projects. This style of class is much different from my experience in 201.
Overall, I thought that this class did a good job of combining the online and in-person portions into one cohesive course. Most of the online assignments were interesting and added to my understanding of the course material and how it relates to my life. I did, however, enjoy the in-person portions of the class more than the online. I feel like having people physically together in the same room cannot be replicated by online environments. As such I think that Professors should be hesitant to push too much into the virtual world.
In general I thought that this course was interesting, engaging, and relevant. The course covered interesting topics that raised questions about my person online and technological activity as well as society's integration of technology.

Go Big Read - Jen Erickson

The Go Big Read event that I had attended was held on December 3. It was explained in the introduction of the event how the series of Go Big Read has revolved around the book, "I Am Malala" written by a young woman who advocates for equal education offered to male and female. To conclude the series, students from the courses, Communication Arts 100 and 181 spoke of experiences they've had or are passionate about, and discuss how it has shaped their values. Some of the topics spoken about were anti-bullying, advantages of freight trains, and how America needs to conserve more water. I thought that each speaker was very articulate and encapsulated their main ideas extremely well. Each argument was persuasive, and discussed with true emotion.
I am happy that I attended this event, regardless of it being an opportunity for extra credit. It is inspiring to see individuals your age who are working towards leadership and advocating for advances in society.

Course Reflection

            When I looked up other hybrid/blended courses online, many search results showed up.  The first university that I looked at was the College of Southern Maryland.  They describe the courses as classes where, “Students meet on campus according to the published schedule of classes then complete approximately half of the course instruction and/or activities online.” They have a vast variety of classes ranging from math to science, business to literature.  There were also many classes at Columbus State Community College where they described the classes similarly, as a course that requires real-time, face-to-face interactions, as well as activities online.  Specifically, for our LIS class, I feel that the hybrid course was very informative but also a little confusing at times.  I think that the online and in class portions defiantly connected with one another, and helped to enhance the learning process.  At times, however, it was hard to keep up with the many assignments assigned in class and online and where to find the instructions for each assignment.  Now, compared to at the beginning of this course, I feel that I have a better understanding of how to work online platforms such as wiki and blogger.  It would be beneficial for other UW professors to incorporate some portion of their class online due to the increase use of technology in not only free time, but educational life today.  These online course components worked well with this course since it’s main focus is the information society.  In other courses it may not flow as well but some incorporation of work online could be beneficial.  Since many topics we discussed in class revolve around changes happening today, I have used the ideas in my daily life.