Home About Us Media Kit Subscriptions Links Forum
APPEARED IN


View All Articles

Download PDF

DIRECTORIES:

Job Opportunities

Tutors

Workshops

Events

Sections:

Books

Camps & Sports

Careers

Children’s Corner

Collected Features

Colleges

Cover Stories

Distance Learning

Editorials

Medical Update

Metro Beat

Movies & Theater

Museums

Music, Art & Dance

Special Education

Spotlight On Schools

Teachers of the Month

Technology

Archives:

1995-2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

DECEMBER 2003

$1.8 Million for Blended Learning in NJ College
by Sebastian Vasta, Ed.D.

A five-year grant from the United States Department of Education is allowing New Jersey's largest community college to accelerate its goal of infusing technology into the instructional process while maximizing existing on-campus classroom space.

The $1.8 million grant that Camden County College received from the federal Title III Strengthening Institutions Program will fund the creation of 70 blended learning model (BLM) courses. The BLM fuses in-person instruction with online instruction, making each BLM course part traditional and part distance in nature. These courses truly offer the best of both instructional worlds. Because they operate partly in a physical classroom, they provide the clarity and camaraderie that comes with face-to-face interaction. Because they also operate partly in a cyber classroom, they provide the convenience and flexibility of distance education. Because they are split between these two delivery modes, the number of hours that they require classrooms is reduced and the number of hours that the classrooms are available for other courses is increased.

The grant also will support the curricula redesign and faculty development that is necessary to incorporate these courses into the college's established degree and certificate programs. Although BLM or ÒhybridÓ courses are not new features in distance learning, the Camden County College approach is unique in that the support mechanism actually is being built into the endeavor itself. Faculty members who participate in the project each semester will be required to invest a minimum of 45 hours in a series of professional development activities. With so much of the traditional lecture-based material being disseminated to students electronically, the dynamic of the remaining classroom contact time will change significantly.

As a result, Camden County College's professional development program will include workshops on topics that deal directly with instruction. These include the impact that different student learning styles have on teaching, the importance of connecting assessment to stated student learning outcomes and the implementation of strategies that transform classrooms into student-centered venues. Other faculty activities will include one-on-one sessions in which faculty familiarize themselves with the college's online platform, WebStudy, and the many unique instructional features that WebStudy provides.

Furthermore, the grant will fund initiatives to better orient students to the technology used in BLM courses as well as to better monitor student progress as they engage the technology on a regular basis. The goal is to provide the most intellectually rewarding and successful experience possible to an already eager group of students. After all, some students like that distance learning is easy to incorporate into their busy schedules but really miss the interaction of the traditional classroom. The blended learning model will allow Camden County College to provide them with both simultaneously.

As the BLM becomes integrated into the fabric of college offerings, there will be careful monitoring of exactly how much classroom space is being saved. Because of Camden County College's unique approach to teaching through the BLM, the value of this savings will be magnified by the fact this savings will have been achieved without sacrificing the quality of the educational experience.#

For more information about Camden County College's development of blended learning model courses, contact Dr. Sebastian Vasta at svasta@camdencc.edu.

 

COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE

Name:

Email:
Show email
City:
State:

 


 

 

 

Education Update, Inc.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of the publisher. © 2004.