EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative 2010 Online Fall Focus Session

The goal of this focus session is to revisit the potential of blended learning instructional models, student learning outcomes, and successful implementation practices. The maturing of online learning practices and engagements has opened new possibilities for curriculum design, including both face-to-face and online learning opportunities. The ability to design a course that uniquely blends face-to-face and distributed interaction allows institutions to address learners’ specific needs and customize the learning environment rather than rely on a “one size fits all” approach. But these options lead to a variety of questions:

• What’s the right mix of face-to-face and online?
• How do you decide when to employ an online activity or interaction?
• How can you best map the mix of blended elements to student needs and requirements?
• How can these elements be orchestrated to meet a course’s learning objectives?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of various online techniques and methods?

Join us September 15 and 16 for “Blended Learning: The 21st-Century Learning Environment,” the 2010 ELI Online Fall Focus Session. Hosted inside an Adobe Connect learning environment, this virtual event will be much more than your typical online seminar. You’ll exchange ideas and collaborate interactively with the ELI community—all without leaving your campus. You’ll also receive all the resources and guided activities you need to help frame discussions and organize team events locally in your department, college, or institution.

During this two-day online event we will:

• Revisit the status of blended learning today—what we’ve learned and how this instructional approach continues to evolve to support learning across many disciplines
• Create a framework for the successful design and deployment of faculty development for blended learning
• Explore successful implementations of blended learning across different types of institutions
• Reflect on the potential for blended learning to promote critical thinking, student engagement, and success
• Consider assessment strategies for blended learning, both at the course and program levels
• Identify the role learning technologies—synchronous and asynchronous—can play in blended learning
• Engage in dialogue with a community of professionals focused on how to design and deploy blended learning across the curriculum

Why you should participate:

This online event will bring together a variety of professionals to examine how today’s model of blended learning can help institutions design and deploy successful blended learning offerings at many levels. This session will be valuable to numerous groups:

• Information technology professionals
• Learning technologists
• Faculty members
• Administrators
• Librarians
• Others functioning in related roles

To get the most from this online session, it’s best to attend as a member of a team or host a group event on your campus. Team participation can help your institution advance a current or upcoming project or encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration. Team members find that energetic discussion and engagement with each other during focus session activities builds rapport, solidifies plans, and enriches group effort. By sharing a common focus session experience, participants can reflect on the implications for their campus.

Preparing for the online focus session:

Please visit the Getting Ready for the Focus Session page to read more about technical requirements and informal networking opportunities before the event begins. We recommend that teams consider the ways they can interact both inside the online learning environment and together on campus. Resources and guided activities will be provided in the Learning Commons to help you frame discussion on campus and organize team events.