![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/alt-key.png\" "\\"alt-key\\"")
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The College offered a number of blended learning classes during the summer session, marking the first time in the College\u2019s history that students could select courses designed to have fewer classroom sessions and increased online instruction. Early indications suggest the new approach was a success; however, there is no plan at this point to offer blended learning classes during the regular academic year.<\/p>\n
Blended learning is a pedagogical approach that combines traditional classroom instruction with online teaching and learning activities. Students in TCNJ\u2019s blended learning courses met as a class once a week, and completed online work independently on their own time.<\/p>\n
Mark Kiselica<\/strong>, former vice provost and current interim dean of the School of Education, and Beverly Kalinowski<\/strong>, assistant dean of summer programs, proposed the blended learning initiative last fall as a way to increase enrollment in the College\u2019s summer session. The courses offer greater convenience for students who can\u2019t stay on campus during the summer because of work or family obligations, but want to continue their studies, Kiselica said. There is also a demand for these types of courses, he noted.<\/p>\n \u201cStudents who go to college today were raised in the age of the Internet [and are] accustomed to seeking information through online resources,\u201d said Kiselica, adding that many high schools are incorporating blended learning courses into their curriculums.<\/p>\n Last fall, Kiselica and Kalinowski submitted a report to President Gitenstein<\/strong>\u2019s advisory council indicating that 79 percent of U.S. public institutions offer at least one undergraduate blended learning course. The report also highlighted research that has shown blended learning courses can produce favorable results in terms of meaningful classroom discussions, student drop-failure-withdrawal rates, student grades, and performance on term papers, thanks to the combination of consistent teacher interaction with flexible, self-directed online learning.<\/p>\n The challenge of implementing a blended learning program at TCNJ while staying true to the College\u2019s mission of offering a high-quality educational experience with close faculty-student interaction was made easier by the fact that \u201ca portion of our faculty was already using distance-learning activities in their courses,\u201d Kiselica said.<\/p>\n During last summer\u2019s pilot program phase, blended learning classes were offered in Financial Accounting; Principles of Microeconomics; Principles of Macroeconomics; Multicultural Management; Culture and Communication; Women, Culture, and Society; Multicultural Children\u2019s Literature; and Stress Management. Student feedback on their experiences in these classes needs to be further analyzed before there is any discussion of offering blended learning courses during the regular academic year, Kiselica said. But he added, \u201cPreliminary feedback from professors indicates that the courses went well and that the learning objectives were achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n Jody Eberly<\/strong>, an associate professor of elementary and early childhood education who taught Multicultural Children\u2019s Literature said the blended format allowed for a greater level of student participation. \u201cThe online aspect of a course requires that all students participate in classdiscussions and blogs. It\u2019s not possible for a student to opt to sit quietly and listen,\u201d said Eberly.<\/p>\n \u201cStudents seem to like the flexibility that blended courses offer,\u201d added Anne Farrell, assistant professor of health and exercise science, who taught Stress Management.<\/p>\n Farrell, who concurrently taught Stress Management using both a traditional and blended learning approach, said that while the lecture material was \u201ceasy to deliver for both learning environments\u2026the traditional setting is preferred when performing the variety of stress management techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe appropriateness of this delivery method is dictated by the discipline and subject matter,\u201d noted Kalinowski. \u201cBut I think that what happened this summer will begin the discussion, and that\u2019s good news. The intention was for this to only happen in the summer, but where it goes from here will really depend on what happens with these conversations with faculty. They\u2019re the ones who are teaching and who have the expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A blended learning pilot program let students choose computers over classroom learning this past summer, marking the first time TCNJ students could select courses designed to have fewer classroom sessions and increased online instruction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":4651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-november-2011","category-on-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}