Blended Learning in Higher Education: Policy and Implementation Issues
Special Issue Editor: Ron Owston, Ph.D.
Assistant Editors: Randy Garrison, PhD; Walter Archer, Ph.D.; Norm Vaughan, Ph.D.
Blended learning is an instructional approach that substitutes online learning for a portion of the traditional face-to-face instructional time. Institutions of higher education have used the model now for over a dozen years and its advantages are well known. For example, student satisfaction and achievement appears to be higher in blended courses as compared to traditional face-to-face or fully online classes; faculty who redesign their lectures to use blended approaches report being reinvigorated; and the institutions themselves are often able to increase their enrolments without the need for new construction because classroom space can be better utilized. Moreover, few downsides are reported for blended learning save for the need to upgrade existing technology infrastructures and to support faculty as they engage in course redesign. Why then have so few institutions adopted the instructional model? How can institutions scale up the number of blended course offerings? Are the cost savings/cost avoidances substantial enough to warrant an institution.s strategic investment in blended learning? What institutional policies and practices lead to successful implementation and what are the barriers that hinder institutionalization of blended learning? These questions are representative of the range of themes this special issue of the The Internet and Higher Education (INTHIG) seeks to address.
Manuscripts that describe both successful and unsuccessful practices in implementing and scaling up blended learning at the institutional level are encouraged. All should provide a thoughtful analysis, based on the literature, as to why the initiative succeeded or failed and the impact institutional policies or strategies had on the initiative. Particularly encouraged are manuscripts that provide cost analyses of successful institutional blended learning programs. Manuscripts that describe course level implementations by individual instructors are not appropriate unless they can be set in a context of wider institutional blended learning initiatives and policies. All submissions should follow the usual format for INTHIG submissions and should adhere to existing INTHIG Author Guidelines.
Authors are requested to submit manuscripts via the Elsevier Editorial System no later than March 31, 2012. To ensure that manuscripts are correctly identified for inclusion into the special issue, it is important that authors select Blended Learning Policy when they reach the Article Type step in the submission process. Contact the Special Issue Editor if additional information is required:
Ron Owston, PhD
Director, Institute for Research on Learning Technologies
York University, TEL 1029
4700 Keele St., Toronto, ON Canada M3J 1P3
Phone 416-736-5019
email rowston@edu.yorku.ca (email preferred)
Join us for our next event on Tuesday, February 7, from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm. This is a hands on workshop in collaboration with the Knowledge Mobilization Unit at York on how to use Twitter as a research tool. More details to follow.
Emerging Frontiers of Play, Learning and Work: The Multiple Realities of Virtual Worlds
On Thursday, December 8 from 10:30 am to noon in TEL1009, Dr. Nick Taylor introduced a 3-year international study of online game-based environments, the aim of which was to determine the connections between players’ real-life characteristics and their online practices and identities. He provided an overview of the objectives, successes and challenges of this study, now entering the final year.
Ron chaired a group that drafted a business case for significantly increasing the number of e-learning courses at York. The report, prepared at the request of the Provost, is aimed at providing guidance in implementing the recommendations related to e-learning. Other IRLT members in the group were Jean Adams, Avi Cohen, and Ros Woodhouse. An updated executive summary of the Provostial White Paper is available online.
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