Managing a classroom with face-to-face (F2F) can be different from managing a virtual classroom. It is easy to detect the level of concentration and interest of the participants in F2F session. Therefore, interacting with students can be more straightforward and objective in F2F class. Furthermore, the interaction become more challenging if the students in the online class are not responsive or lack of participation. Although poor response and lack of participation can also happen in F2F session, the teacher can identify the student and take appropriate action to get their attention.
Therefore, there is a need to understand the various models or approach for blended interaction. The traditional interaction approach of F2F cannot be simply used to manage a blended course. As mentioned in this chapter, educators must focus on connection-forming in learning and their role will be in guiding, directing, and evaluating the activities of learners. The critical success factor of blended interaction is on Techno Expression during course design.
Techno expression is to keep interaction in the front of an educator mind while designing a blended course. Educator should not focus on uploading materials and expect students to read and understand the materials by themselves but to create a threaded discussion for the students to review the materials/syllabus. This can be done in the form of assignment or extended discussion in the F2F session.
In summary, the blended interaction should be complimentary to the F2F interaction for the best learning outcome. I think this is very much referring to the flipped classroom approach in teaching.
