Dear Commons Community,

I spent most of my day presenting at three sessions at the ELI meeting.  I had been scheduled for two sessions but did a third because a presenter could not rebook a cancelled flight to New Orleans.  My session titles/abstracts were as follows.

Featured Session:  Seeking Evidence of Impact in Blended Learning: New Models, Designs, and Results

Presenters: Chuck Dziuban, Charles Graham, and Anthony Picciano

Abstract

The presenters will describe their work over the past two years with 53 researchers in blended learning from all over the world. The result of the project was the book Blended Learning Research Perspectives: Volume II that summarizes the evidence of impact in blended learning in numerous educational settings and extends the scope of research this area. Topics include: scaling blended learning, long haul impact in specific disciplines, improved pedagogy, non-traditional settings, and international perspectives on blended learning.

This was followed by a “learning circle” session where participants were able to engage in a dialogue with the panel on the issues raised in the above featured session.

For the fill-in session, I gave a presentation similar to one I had given at the CUNY IT Conference in December 2013.

Featured Session:  Blended Learning Meets MOOCs:  Education’s Digital Future!

Presenter:  Anthony G. Picciano

Abstract:
The purpose of this presentation is to examine the influence of two developments in online learning namely blended learning and massive open online courses (MOOCs) on the future of education.    The major thrust of this presentation is that the pedagogical value of blended learning combined with the scalability of MOOCs will be major drivers in education for the foreseeable future.

A busy but stimulating day of discussions on blended learning.

Tony