Supporting Sustained Faculty Engagement in Blended Learning

Introduction

Blended learning has developed into a thriving component of higher education with increasing evidence that it has a positive impact on the student learning experience. Indeed, as Halverson, Graham, Spring and Drysdale (2013) asserted, “blended learning is rapidly emerging as a domain of practice and of research. Across discipline and context, at individual instructor and institution levels, educators are experimenting with blended learning” (p. 20). Correspondingly, the breadth of literature regarding blended teaching and learning has expanded, with increasing documentation of the pedagogy’s many positive benefits (Halverson, Graham, Springer, Drysdale, and Henrie, 2014; Torrisi-Steel and Drew, 2013). For example, as Stein and Graham, in Essentials for Blended Learning: A Standards Based Guide (2014), emphasized:

Evidence of this positive impact has been widespread and can be witnessed across disciplines, particularly in terms of student performance. In “A Comparison of Traditional and Blended Learning in Introductory Financial Accounting Course,” Du (2011) found that a study of the impact of pre- and post-class online quizzes, online activities, integrated with in-depth face-to-face class activities, positively impacted student overall course performance. Likewise, Bezelai and Doleck (2018) provided evidence from a first semester college physics course that demonstrated how the “blended learning approach leads to more conceptual change, acquisition of more skills, and higher performance” (p. 67). McLaughlin et al. (2015) found that providing online modules with foundational content prior to face-to-face class sessions led to improved academic achievement in a cardiovascular pharmacotherapy class, while Kiviniemi (2014) identified a “statistically significant increase in student performance” in a health sciences course (p. 1). Similarly, Vo et al. (2017) found STEM student academic performance benefits from a blended learning approach. In concert with academic success, increased student satisfaction has been cited as yet another positive impact of both online and blended learning approaches (Dziuban & Moskal, 2011; Dziuban, Hartman, Cavanagh, & Moskal, 2011; Means et al, 2013; McLaughlin et al., 2015; Kiviniemi, 2014).