Dr. Swapna Kumar who was a Fulbright Fellow at the Center for Teaching and Learning in Spring 2017 returned to the Center to work with CEU faculty on blended and online course design. As Dr. Kumar studies the design, implementation, and impact of online and blended learning in higher education and has robust experience in online mentoring in graduate education, she provided an in-depth perspective to pedagogical strategies and dilemmas that derive from the most recent research in the field of blended and online education.
In her introductory session with CEU faculty, Dr. Kumar discussed specific approaches to the design of blended and online courses. She focused on how to overcome the transactional distance when blending in-person and online teaching strategies. In the session, participants could explore the different types of interactions and formats of group work that can be included to engage students. Dr. Kumar offered one-on-one and small-group-based consultations to CEU faculty where colleagues could share their plans for blended and online courses and received expert feedback on them.