Preface and Acknowledgments

Curtis J. Bonk, Charles R. Graham

nstitutions of higher education as well as corporate and nonprofit training settings are increasingly embracing online education, especially blended learning (Allen & Seaman, 2003; Bonk, 2004). It is clear from the chapters in this handbook that the number of learners enrolled in distance programs are rapidly rising not only in colleges and universities within the United States (National Center for Education Statistics, 2003), but in higher education and corporate training settings around the globe. Given this enrollment explosion, many states, countries, organizations, and institutions are working on strategic plans for implementing online education (see, for example, NGA Center for Best Practices, 2001).

Purpose

This book highlights issues and trends within blended learning from a global point of view and then provides more specific information on individual blended learn­ing situations. Basically, this is a book about adult learning in the twenty-first cen­tury, illustrating dozens of learning options that combine aspects of face-to-face (FTF) instruction with online learning in formal academic settings and the work­place. Roughly half of the chapters focus on blended learning in higher educa­tion settings, and most of the rest address workplace learning. Consequently, the chapter authors include professors, provosts, presidents of for-profit

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universities, distance learning center directors, learning and strategy evangelists, general managers of learning, chief executive officers, chancellors, deans, and directors of global talent and organizational development. These individuals are in key leadership roles in higher education, corporate training, military training, government, and nonprofit settings.

This book clarifies where blended learning may find significant and effec­tive application given the vastly different opinions about the current status of online education in higher education and corporate as well as military training. It ranges from excitement to disappointment, as noted in a recent issue of the Chron­icle of Higher Education (Detweiler, 2004; Zemsky & Massy, 2004). Accordingly, ques­tions arise about where blended learning is headed. For instance, what will the blended learning scenarios and events look like in the next five or ten years? Clearly, a better understanding of the current state and the future direction of blended learning is warranted.

There are many other goals for this handbook. For instance, it is the first book to cover blended learning situations and scenarios around the globe. Second, it is likely that it is the first blended learning book to provide a broad picture of the ap­plications of blended learning in both higher education and workplace settings. Our goal is to get those involved in the adult learning arena, across a range of settings, to grasp their respective commonalities and differences, as well as the potential for innovative partnerships. Too often, instead of focusing on similarities, connec­tions, and relationships, the emphasis is on the differences in the learning goals and associated delivery mechanisms within higher education and corporate train­ing. This book therefore is meant to provide a connection between the providers of adult learning by using blended learning commonalities as the bridging mechanism. Third, the book is meant to start a conversation about what blended learning is. As is apparent throughout the book, there are a plethora of definitions related to blended learning. Typically, however, blended learning environments combine tra­ditional face-to-face instruction with computer-mediated instruction. Fourth, we hope that this book will inspire others to create innovative and wildly successful blended learning courses, programs, and training events, as well as graduate semi­nars, conference symposia, presentations, institutes, and panels that discuss and de­bate findings and ideas reflected in this book and extend beyond them.

The stories, models, and examples found here should provide a means to reflect on learning options and help foster intelligent decisions regarding blended learning. We hope that the many personal stories and reflections included in this book can serve as guideposts to others making similar journeys into blended learn­ing environments. At the same time, we hope that those reading this book will reach out to the chapter contributors for advice, ideas, and feedback. We truly hope you enjoy the book. In addition, we welcome your suggestions regarding follow-up volumes or themes.

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Audience

This book can provide valuable information to corporate executives, higher ed­ucation administrators, educators, researchers, trainers, instructional designers, and anyone else interested in how to blend traditional face-to-face and online learning environments. In particular, this handbook will be valuable to corpo­rate executives seeking examples of how to blend their training as well as in­sights into where such blending might be financially attractive, efficient, and strategically beneficial. Training managers might take advantage of examples from the book to help justify e-learning initiatives and strategic plans. This book should appeal to higher education administrators struggling with issues of where to place valued resources. Clarification of the range of blended learning models can help administrators and staff from learning and teaching centers on college cam­puses to train faculty members for a wealth of online teaching possibilities. Teach­ing in a blended fashion is a new experience for most college faculty, so having a range of examples is vital. Readers will see that in some instances, it may involve the creation of an elaborate online mentoring program; in other cases, it might simply be establishing online office hours or embedding online exams or review materials in one's course. Along these same lines, in order for instructional de­signers to be effective, they will also need information about blended learning op­tions. Those conducting research in blended learning environments will benefit from reading chapters on the state of blended learning in both corporate and higher education settings. Finally, and perhaps most important, politicians read­ing or accessing this book will discover that online learning is not an either-or de­cision. Instead, most of the time, online learning is blended or mixed. Hence, governmental spending for online learning needs to reflect this fact, as should poli­cies that governments establish related to student financial aid, institutional ac­creditation, and university budgets. We live in an age of university budget crises that are often resolved with part-time and clinical instructors. Corporate training budgets are also among the first to be slashed in tough economic times. Increas­ingly, blended learning is playing a significant role in such situations.

Handbook Overview

The chapter authors were selected because of their leadership roles within blended learning as well as the unique stories that they had to tell. With the mix of cor­porate and military training, nonprofit organizations, and higher education in­stitutions, a wide range of perspectives is covered in this book. The chapters are not necessarily organized by industry type. Instead, they are divided into eight key sections or themes: introductory and overview information as well as sections on

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for-profit universities, blended learning models (in both higher education and cor­porate training), case examples of blended learning from around the world, work­place and authentic learning, and future trends in blended learning. The chapters discuss topics such as access, flexibility e-learning partnerships, enrollment de­mands, return on investment, online interaction, and strategic planning for blended learning. At the start of each part, we provide a brief introduction of the theme for that section, along with chapter synopses.

The chapter authors share specifics about what is happening in blended learn­ing in their respective organization, institution, state, province, region, or country. They provide interesting data regarding trends in enrollments, new programs, technologies, and pedagogies. Some chapters discuss the unique or powerful as­pects of a particular blended learning approach, including specific information on what is being blended and how successful that blend is. Others put forth mod­els of blended learning that might be compared, adopted, and critiqued. And still others summarize the benefits, success stories, and return on investment from the blended strategies that they adopted, as well as the problems, challenges, and dilemmas still faced. In the end, this book contains a wide range of ideas, exam­ples, guidelines, success stories, models, and solutions.

Acknowledgments

We thank the people at Pfeiffer Publishing for their help and support on this project, including Lisa Shannon, Laura Reizman, and Kathleen Dolan Davies. They were truly fantastic to work with. We thank the book reviewers for their in­sightful and informative suggestions. In addition, we deeply thank Mary, Alex, and Nicki Bonk and Dawn, Bobbe, Julie, William, Bethany, and Daniel Graham for their love, understanding, and encouragement during this project. As is usual with a project like this, there were countless late nights and several missed events. The first author would especially like to thank Robert Clasen, who, twenty years ago, roused his interest in distance learning as his teacher in two correspondence courses that qualified him for graduate school at the University of Wisconsin. Serendipity occurred when Bob and his wonderful wife, Donna Rae Clasen, later employed him in the production of a television-based correspondence course, Teachers Tackle Thinking, during his first couple of years in graduate school. Given the trends of the past two decades in distance learning, the mentoring and mod­eling that Bob provided within this field were extremely timely and fortuitous. You are the best, Bob! Finally, we thank all the chapter authors who each shed some light on the world of blended learning and show us opportunities that we may not have previously been aware of. It was truly a joy to work with each of you.

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References

Allen, E. I., & Seaman, J. (2003). Sizing the opportunity: The quality and extent of online education in the United States, 2002 and 2003. Needham and Wellesley, MA: Sloan Consortium. Retrieved August 21, 2005, from https://www.sloan-c.org/resources/

sizing_opportunity.pdf Bonk, G.J. (2004). The perfect e-storm: Emerging technologies, enhanced pedagogy, enormous learner

demand, and erased budgets. London: Observatory on Borderless Higher Education. Detweiler, R. (2004, July 9). At last, we can replace the lecture. Chronicle of Higher Education,

50(44), B8. National Center for Education Statistics. (2003). Distance education at degree-grantingpostsecondary

institutions: 2000-2001. Washington, DC: Department of Education. NGA Center for Best Practices. (2001). The state of e-learning in the states. Washington, DC:

National Governor's Association. Zemsky, R., & Massy, W. F. (2004, July 9). Why the e-learning boom went bust. Chronicle of

Higher Education, 50(44), B6.
Bloomington, Indiana Curtis J. Bonk

Provo, Utah Charles R. Graham

October 2005

PART ONE

INTRODUCTION TO BLENDED LEARNING

s blended learning emerges as perhaps the most prominent delivery mech­anism in higher education, business, government, and military settings, it is vital to define it, as well as explain where it is useful and why it is important. This part, with chapters by Charles R. Graham, Elliott Masie, Jennifer Hofmann, and Ellen D. Wagner, does just that. These authors discuss the elements that are important to consider in blended learning while also touching on some of the emerging trends and issues.

In Chapter One, Charles R. Graham describes the historical emergence of blended learning as the convergence between traditional face-to-face learning environments and computer-mediated (or distributed) learning environments. He discusses four critical dimensions to interactions that occur in both of these environments (space, time, fidelity, and humanness) and presents a working defi­nition for blended learning systems. This chapter also addresses current trends seen in both corporate and higher education, including blends that focus on enabling access and flexibility enhancing current teaching and learning practices, and transforming the way individuals learn. The chapter ends with six important issues relevant to the design of blended learning systems, followed by some directions for the future.

In Chapter Two, Elliott Masie presents a brief and provocative perspective on blended learning. The central theme of his chapter is that all great learning is blended. In the predigital age, combinations of different learning contexts were

The Handbook of Blended Learning

used. Similarly, learning environments increasingly will incorporate " e elements" into varied instructional contexts. Masie outlines compelling reasons for why blend­ing has been popular and will continue to be so.

In Chapter Three, Jennifer Hofmann addresses several of the typical chal­lenges facing those who are attempting to implement blended solutions. She notes some of the common mistakes designers make: assuming that it will take less time to redesign an existing program than it would to design a blended program from scratch, putting too much emphasis on the " live" components of a training situ­ation, and assuming that traditional facilitators are the best choices for managing a blended version of the training. An emphasis is placed on the importance of training the design team as well as the trainers. In addition, she outlines an ex­ample of a blended train-the-trainer course.

In Chapter Four, Ellen D. Wagner shares a vision for the next generation of blended learning. She addresses the impact that personal and mobile devices are likely to have on emerging models of blended learning and suggests that inter­action strategies offer a useful means for enhancing individualization, personal­ization, and relevancy. She discusses current models of interaction and shares eleven ways that interaction can be used to focus on performance outcomes.

CHAPTER ONE