Blended Learning: A Strategic Action Plan for a New Campus

Opening a new campus presents a unique opportunity for innovation and "thinking out of the box." A college campus is an ideal learning organization and therefore a complex dynamic system. (Drucker, 1998) (Senge, 1998) The best approach to examine a college is a systems analysis that begins with strategic planning needed to guide growth and development. Strategic plans need to be aligned to an institution's mission and vision. Blended learning has evolved as a faculty-based strategic action plan for a new technology-rich campus. The concept of blended learning is not new in the sense that educators have always been eclectic in mixing a variety of mediums and methods in presenting knowledge and information, however, blended learning takes on new dimensions and possibilities in the information age of the 21st century.

At the Seminole Campus, blended learning began with the integration of computer-mediated technologies in its new "smart rooms" enhanced by interactive technologies. Blended learning provides a model for gradual design and implementation of Web-enhanced environments, addressing the campus theme of enriching education through technologies. Its success as a strategy for change stems from its pedagogical value in interactive student learning, as well as its alignment with the campus mission and student needs in an information age of advanced telecommunications.

A Setting for the Future

The Seminole Campus of the St.Petersburg Junior College was designed to be a technology-rich, community- focused campus, which is dynamically poised for the 21st century. It opened in the fall of 1998 with a 24,000-sq. ft. Learning Center or Information Commons with 128 networked computers, smart classrooms, interactive Tele-classes and

a multimedia conference room. The campus serves as a hub of distance learning and instructional technology college-wide. Its theme is to provide programs and services via advanced technologies, environmental harmony, and community partnership (Seminole Showcase, 1998). Because the Seminole Campus is in its first stage of growth, its mission and purpose lie in the future rather than the past traditions. The shared vision of the new campus is predicated on innovation and change reflecting a part of the college mission.

The goal of blended learning is implicit in the St. Petersburg Junior College mission statement, which specifically addresses "the educational enhancement through advanced technology, distance learning, and innovative teaching techniques to create a climate for student success and continual improvement". Other goals include distance education programs as a way of reaching target populations beyond the county and the implementation of "appropriate forms of existing and evolving technology..." Another goal is to prepare students for a global citizenship. Finally, but most importantly, is the ultimate goal of preparing students for a lifelong learning process in the pursuit of personal, intellectual and career development. (Mission Statement, 1999-2002) All of these goals are addressed in the Seminole theme of technology and are embodied in the concept of blended learning.

The Seminole Campus is preparing for the 21st century by simultaneously planning and implementing these processes which produce excellence in teaching, learning, and technology. As an agent of change, Seminole will create the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Technology (CETLT). This center will explore effective integration of technology with an Internet-based "Cyber-Compendium" for research, training, and exploration of model practices and current theories. The strategic plan for the campus includes a University Center to offer upper level courses and degrees with other institutions via advanced telecommunications and online delivery. Innovative programs will be developed at the Seminole Campus and demonstrated to other institutions, consortiums, and industry seeking to initiate new ways of enhancing learning through technology. In essence, the new campus will be a showcase for technology.

Colleges and universities are both engaged in the information business, which is being transformed by technology. For the past four decades the speed and capacity of computers has doubled every 18-24 months (Huff, 1995). The bandwidth of computer networks has increased a thousand fold in the past decade and the network grows 500% annually (Huff, 1995). These trends will continue into the future decade, and hold great promise for learning. Networked information will eliminate many of the obstacles and impediments to gathering information while enhancing communication in quality discourse. Change implies opportunity and specifically the opportunity to improve learning. Professors need to take proactive roles as change leaders and designers of enriched learning environments. Blended learning can provide a transition for both instructors and students in this dynamic period of transformative change. Blended learning is one of many possible models which will connect students with the knowledge needed for the 21st century.

Needs Analysis

A needs analysis of the new Seminole Campus must first consider both its mission and its students' needs. A recent student survey conducted college-wide serves as the most recent data of student needs. Over one third of students surveyed are adult learners who must juggle multiple roles as full-time workers, parents, spouses and students (SPJC Student Survey, 1999). These students demand flexible alternative learning environments. The same study has revealed that 78.2% of SPJC students had access to the Internet outside of their classroom environment, either at work or at home (SPJC Student Survey, 1999). This years student survey revealed that 89% of SPJC students have access to the Internet outside of their classroom environment, either at work or at home (SPJC Student Survey, 2000). This number is predicted to rise as high as 95% in the next year by one college researcher.

Blended Learning

Blended delivery is a mental model for combining web-enhanced instruction and face to face instruction. It also can transform the learning environment, as Web-enhanced

learning became increasingly Web-based. Some stages can be identified in this process for moving from the traditional classroom space to cyberspace. The first stage is searching and gathering content-relavent Internet sites. Quality sites can be

evaluated and then saved as bookmarks to enrich course content. These links can be collected weekly, over a semester, or in advance. Instructors can organize references for assignments, research, and evaluation for each unit of content. These sites can be toured by the instructor and students during class or be assigned as activities to complete online.

By linking physical and cyberspace, blended learning provides students with a comfort zone to facilitate the transition to distance learning. It also can be used as a model for moving from traditional to online learning environments. As more complex online activities are developed, Web-enrichment leads to Web-based activities, shifting the focus of learning from teacher to student. Blended learning can be gradual or rapid depending on the content, the instructor and the technological literacy of the students. As a model, it permits multiple venues of learning, which can be randomly mixed to find the optimal blend for any given discipline.

Research: Blended Learning

Some preliminary studies are already showing significant advantages in blended learning as a preferred method of educational delivery. Murray W. Goldberg, the founder of WebCT, conducted an experiment with 70 students taking a third-year course in Computer Science, who were divided into three groups. Because of the small sample, no statistically significant outcome can be reported, but the anecdotal results are of some interest, especially to web-based instruction and blended learning. The classes were

grouped as: those taking the course using only the WWW-based resource (no lecture), those taking the course by attending lectures (no access to WWW) and those with access to both lectures and the WWW. Both academic results were evaluated and qualitative student impressions were solicited. The WWW-only method of course delivery was an equal success compared to the lecture only delivery, both in terms of academic results and in terms of student acceptance. Students in the combined lecture and WWW-based delivery or blended class performed better academically than students in the other groups. (Goldberg, 1997) This preliminary finding matches students' preference for blended learning with academic achievement.

Classes, which mix real and virtual time offer the best of both worlds for now, but one must always be open to new and better worlds as technological innovation makes other combinations possible. Providing both real classroom experience and cyber experiences seem to be the best combination for now. Blended delivery offers today's students both cyber and physical space. They have the comfort and familiarity of a real class and can slowly learn the skills needed for web-based communication and learning. Students may be reticent at first to use technology, but given some time, they become more familiar and at ease with user-friendly telecommunications.

Blended learning also can also be used as a means to the end of online or distance learning. The future of distance learning becomes more promising daily with the growth and sophistication of the Internet. Students can use blended classes as an intermediate step to successful online learning, while professors can also use blended classes as a first step in designing classes for distance delivery. Blended delivery offers the designer the opportunity to obtain continuous feedback from students who are also physically present. This method gives students time to change from passive to active learners and instructors time to develop an online environment which can be enhanced by feedback, follow up and growth. Web-enhanced learning leads to active learning as students become empowered to direct their own activities in richly interactive environments. Although the instructor designs the learning environment, the online student must take an active role in the learning experience. Blended learning can be the first step to self-directed and independent learning, as students become empowered to construct their own experiences aided by the interactive online technologies.

Benefits: Web-Enriched Learning

There are a plethora of benefits involved in Web-enriched education. Online learning can enhance communication, enable student-centered activities, provide unlimited access to course materials, while providing prompt evaluation and reduce the administration of course management. Web-based communication tools can increase student motivation and participation. Some students are "more willing to participate [with] a measure of anonymity" (Kubala, 1998) Some students become empowered using Web-based communication tools. Shy students have an equal opportunity to express their ideas via e-mail, bulletin postings. Even chat rooms can be less intimidating than discussion in the physical classroom.

Another benefit of Web-based learning is the economy of cyber space over physical space. A physical need facing the new campus over the semesters ahead will be available space. The student population is expected to outgrow the rate of construction. Blended learning enables the reduction of physical space because it enables students to do much of their work outside the classroom. Students value the flexible access of asynchronous delivery methods because they can learn from any place and any time. With the shift of student activity to Cyber space, students demand more online activity and require less classroom time. This can result in the reduction of class time for much needed online time using campus facilities or completing work from home. Students relish the convenience of online courses, which enable them to complete many activities without coming to class. Administrators can offer twice the amount of blended classes as their traditional counterparts. With an open or revolving system students could enter and exit classes at their own pace, opening up even further possibilities for physical time and space.

Another benefit of blended learning is preparing students for the high-tech industries of the information age. Technology enhanced learning may be used to bridge the gap between industry and higher education (Bochi, Weyand, and Watson (1999). Distributive knowledge systems such as the Internet provide students technological fluency as they acquire information, literacy, communication and technology skills using Web-based systems. The new focus is shifting from skills to fluency, as industry needs workers who are technologically savvy (Bocchi, Weyand, & Watson, 1999). Industry and higher education have traditionally used technology-enhanced learning (TEL) and Web-based training (WBT) in basic course content teaching computer and technical skills. The potential for enhancing high-level cognitive skills and organizational competencies is now being realized in "learning through technology" (Bocchi, Weyand, & Watson,

1999). Technological fluency occurs in the higher-level learning and entails: (a) finding information from a variety of sources and disciplinary perspectives, (b) making critical judgements about information: value, reliability, and validity, and (c) creating and distributing information and knowledge in technological mediated communications formats (Bocchi, Weyand, & Watson, 1999).

Blended learning encourages student-centered activities, while addressing many different learning styles. Individual students have unique styles and levels of learning which can be found in Web-enriched multimedia environments. Students can explore external links of related information which introduce them to a variety of expertise and often offer multi-media formats and other related links. Students value the "real world" learning communities they discover on the network and the practical value of navigating in this promising new world of information. This is combined with the benefit of any time accessibility. This continual access gives students more control over their learning by replacing physical presence with active learning, which certainly requires more cognitive engagement. Consequently the transition from physical presence to cyber-activity has promising pedagogical value for learning as well as convenience for student needs.

Many students prefer distance or on-line methods of delivery for convenience, but its promise to educators lies in the academic value of enhancing education. The World Wide Web has a great intrinsic power according to Brooks. This power encourages branched, non-linear instruction. Students can choose relevant course materials created by the instructor, access materials created by others, and even create their own sites. One of the major benefits of the Web is the interconnectivity of knowledge communities.

Better designed cites on the Internet, encourage branched or non-linear learning in their organization of materials (Brooks, 1997). Students no longer have to follow tables of content in a linear and chronological manner. Instead they can explore clusters of related ideas. Using hypertext, every student can connect with countless networks of learning communities already organized by themes and topics.

The instructor is responsible for designing a content-rich and exciting learning environment, but the student is now responsible for the learning experience. The very existence of links in hypermedia has created the expectation of purposeful, important relationships between linked material (Landow, 1995). Instruction can aid students in their departure, but the learning experience is centered in the autonomous choices in destinations and synthesis of information. The role of the instructor has not diminished but changed from the "sage on the stage" to "guide on the side." The most important role is the creative design of new content-rich and interactive educational environments.

The process of leaning and education transforms teaching to learning, which is student centered and student directed.

Independent Learning

Independent learning is the goal of web-based and distance learning. Cognitive theories of knowledge favor students actively constructing their own meaning and learning experiences. Studies show, "Teachers who demand active learning are likely to bring about substantially greater learning successes than those who do not" (Brooks, 1997, p.12). Web-enriched learning is interactive. Online activities can be structured for students to actively learn and transfer knowledge from one domain to another. Some

subjects require more complex cognitive skills than others do. Subjects such as literature, medicine, and history are examples of "ill-structured domains" (Spiro, 1993). Learning in such fields demands an active transference of knowledge from superficial content to more complex conceptual applications to unknown and new situations. These unknown and new situations are ill-structured domains because they require critical analysis. "Single perspectives are not false, but inadequate" (Spiro et al. 1993, p.164). Ill-structured domains require multiple perspectives. Exposure to hypermedia will push students to go beyond merely reproducing knowledge to more complex constructions of knowledge which students can build for themselves. The activity in which students gather, synthesize, and process information lies at the heart of higher education and independent learning.

To participate in the comprehensive hypermedia of the World Wide Web, students must be prepared with skills to utilize computer-mediated learning, Web-based communication, and online methods of navigation and research. Students also need learn how to evaluate the prodigious amount of information available in cyberspace. To enable students to succeed in the new learning environments of the future, they will need to become cyber-learners in a brave and promising new world. Although most SPJC students say they have access to personal computers (SPJC Student Survey, 1999, 2000), they may not be academically prepared for online learning. These students need a transitional step such as blended learning, which combines traditional and web-based methods of delivery. These classes introduce students to navigational skills in new online environments and can make them independent, life-long learners.

Assessment

Assessment needs to be continuous in an atmosphere open to experimentation and reflection. It begins and ends in reflection, which leads to innovation and modification of the course. Student evaluations begin on the first day of class and continue through every activity. Beyond the careful observation of student interaction with the course, instructors should be open to student feedback on an informal basis. Students offer informal feedback to instructors in their comments and activities during each class. Formal assessment, such as course evaluations can be customized to measure the course's successes, failures, and unexpected learning outcomes. Because students are the center of the online learning experience, their feedback provides much qualitative data to consider in design and modifications of web-based courses.

Student Feedback on Blended Learning:

The following data was collected from my online "Course Evaluations" for Western Humanities I class during the spring semester of 1999 at the Seminole Campus. Thirty-six students took the online WebCT course evaluation for Western Humanities I. These students represented both a morning and evening sections. The morning class began using WebCT at the mid-semester point due to a change in instructors. Neither class knew the course would be use a blended delivery. Consequently the transition from traditional to Web-enhanced and finally, Web-based delivery evolved over the course of the semester. After giving presentations in class, students took both their midterm and finals and finished entirely online with prompt feedback via email.

Of the 36 students taking the course evaluation, 53% responded that they were very comfortable with computers prior to the course. Another 42% students responded that they knew how to use computers, but were not very experienced users of the Internet. Only 5% expressed a strong discomfort to computers, comprising two students out of thirty-six. One student described himself or herself as a complete technophobe who had never touched a computer or had been on the Internet prior to class. It is significant that over 95% of these students felt comfortable using technology and willing to learn new Web-based communication (Course Evaluations, 1999). Most students surveyed preferred blended or distance learning to traditional classes. Only 5% of the students surveyed prefer traditional methods of learning after taking a class using blended delivery. 89% of the students felt better prepared for distance learning, while 11% responded distaste for entirely online learning. Overall, 95% of the students polled approved of Blended Learning and would recommend the course to students who like using technology. These results increased to 100% in Western Humanities II. (Course Evaluations, 1999).

One surprising result was the approval of the interactive quizzes using WebCT. Over 95% of the students found the quizzes a valuable learning activity, supporting the readings in the text, and preparing them for the midterm and final. Some of this approval was the ability to retake quizzes for mastery. This method reduced the test anxiety from which many students suffer. In another question, students also rated the interactive quizzes as one of the most valuable learning activities of the course. Interactive quizzes using WebCT were valued slightly above the Internet and lectures as the most valuable learning activities of the course content. These quizzes were seen as more valuable than bulletin board postings and other forms of multimedia. Although the process of making a data bank of weekly quizzes on WebCT can be very time-consuming, the payoff is great for student learning, and subsequent tracking. Both the midterm and final are now taken and submitted electronically. This can result in great convenience to both students and instructors.

Written Responses:

Thirty students out of thirty-six offered written responses. These responses covered a range of comments for improvement to overall evaluations of the course and its delivery. Some of the more salient comments are summarized below:

• The convenience of working online from home was a great benefit (driving time).

• I was not aware it would be a hybrid class, but it worked out OK.

• With quick response e-mail, it would be a good Internet course.
• The quizzes helped me study. I used them as notes.
• The newer technology can be effective in the classroom.
• It's hard to say school is fun, but I had a good time in this Humanities class.

My favorites were these.

• In everyday life, I am beginning to understand how things have been influenced by Western European culture and I have been able to assemble a timeline in my mind.

• I definitely like this style of teaching, it will prepare us in the business world.

The last student critique points to some interesting research in bridging the gap between higher education and industry. It was not an intentional learning outcome of humanities,

but it demonstrates a very important connection between higher education and industry. The student was really commenting on computer literacy developed in Web-based learning. Because this type of learning creates new technical skills and strategies, Internet literacy is an added bonus while learning traditional academic content in Web-based learning environments.

The first semester of blended learning in the humanities has been a relative success, considering many students were taken by surprise by the online learning component to their classes. Most students approve of WebCT and the added conveniences of Web-based and online learning. While some students are ready for completely online delivery, most prefer blended learning at present. Only a very small margin of students, (5%) seem to prefer traditional classroom delivery after exposure to blended delivery. This margin may reflect the same margin of students who expressed a discomfort using technology before taking the course. The vast majority of SPJC Seminole students already realize the benefit of Web-enhanced technology in their education. Some even realize the important connection between technological literacy and the job market for the information age of the 21st century.

Conclusion: Designing the Future

Because the Seminole campus is predicated on technological innovation, its situation is unique with new opportunities to "think out of the box". For instructors this will be creating new learning environments utilizing appropriate technologies. Mental models such as blended learning can be showcased for others to use, follow, or innovate in entirely new directions. Action Research is the appropriate method for such

educational models. New blended models can implemented with real students to begin the process of assessment. Assessment needs student feedback and reflection to lead to continual improvement and innovation in course design. In this manner, action research is never static or finished but is always evolving in new and dynamic combinations.

The transformation of education needs visible champions of instructional design within academe. For academic integrity, faculty-driven design is essential to innovation in the academic community. Blended learning is both an individual as well as a shared collective vision. For administrators, it offers a solution to reduce the demand for physical space while meeting the institutional goal of enriching education with technology. For students, it brings the new convenience of online asynchronous learning and leads to a technological literacy needed in the information. For educators, blended learning can be used in different combinations of face to face and online delivery, depending on the optimal learning conditions for a given subject. Blended learning can also serve as a laboratory for instructors to enrich content with technology and gain valuable feedback along the way. Fortunately the Seminole Campus of SPJC provides an infrastructure of administrators, technical experts and a team of support staff, to help designers create the vision of enhancing education with technology.

Instructors are content experts who can play valuable roles outside of designing. Individual faculty members have specific experiences and strengths, which can contribute to the mission. Some will be needed to research, some to edit, others to implement new models of learning. The new models and strategies must be guided by sound pedagogical practices. As designers, instructors can help construct a promising new global community of knowledge in the information age. Faculty leaders will arise from the ranks and forge new paths of innovation and change as the vision of new combinations of blended learning evolves. These pioneer designers will not only lead, but also create the brave new world of information technology in the 21st century.

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