Presentation given by Gail Matthews-DeNatale during a pre-conference gathering of Sloan Blended Learning grant recipients prior to the 2009 Sloan-C Conference on online learning.
Outcomes evidence of student learning in a blended program
1. Outcomes: Evidence of Student Learning in a Blended Program Gail Matthews-DeNatale, Ph.D. Interim Director, Academic Technology 2009 Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning
FOCUS ON THE LAST BULLET POINT – THE HIGH TOUCH Private institutions of higher education have been slower to adopt blended learning. We hypothesize that this has to do with institutional culture, particularly that of liberal arts institutions, which values a personalized or “high touch” approach to teaching and learning. In fact, our Sloan proposal was titled “High Touch in a Small Footprint.” What does this mean? Characteristics of “high touch”: A welcoming and highly supportive learning environment Everyone knows your name Faculty and peers care about your success As opposed to increasing the sense of distance , Simmons’s blended programs will increase the sense of presence that our College has in the lives of our students. We realized that, for the blended learning initiative to be successful, our model for faculty professional development needed to also model this high touch approach