Bryn Mawr College

Thanks to everyone who made the May Blended Learning Conference a success! Over 80 people participated, including 20 Bryn Mawr faculty and staff members, 11 Bryn Mawr students, and over 50 representatives from other institutions.

Participants, in alpha order | Participants, by institution | Participants, by field

Schedule of Events

Monday, May 7

9:30-11:45 — Computer Lab Open House (Dalton 20)

Students demonstrated the software they used in courses that were part of the project for small groups of participants. Dan Damelin was also on hand to demonstrate Molecular Workbench.

12:00-1:30 — Welcome Luncheon (Ely Room, Wyndham House)

President Jane McAuliffe welcomed participants with an address on the importance of exploring the role that technology will play in the future of liberal arts colleges.

1:30-3:00 — Project Overview and Research Findings (Dalton 300)

Provost Kim Cassidy and Jennifer Spohrer presented a bird’s-eye overview of the project and summary of preliminary research findings. | Project Overview Slides |

3:30-4:30 — Introducing: Classroom Salon (Dalton 300)

In 2008, Professors David Kaufer, a humanist, and Ananda Gunawardena, a computer scientist, wondered if it was possible to design software that would encourage social reading and annotation. The result is Classroom Salon, and Professor Gunawardena will demonstrate how to you can use it to create an interactive online learning environment in which learners simultaneously build and benefit from collective intelligence of the group, using tags, questions, annotations, and really cool analytics. | Classroom Salon presentation slides | link to Classroom Salon |

4:45-6:00 Concurrent Sessions

Students on Computers and Learning (Dalton 300). A panel of students who took courses in our study will discuss their expectations and experiences with computer-based learning in college and beyond.

Open-Source vs. Commercial Materials (Dalton 2). David Ross, a Bryn Mawr economics professor, who has experimented with both kinds of materials for in his own blended courses, will facilitate a discussion of the pros and cons of each.

DIY Blended Learning Resources (Dalton 25). Selby Cull, a Bryn Mawr geology professor, will present some of her own materials and facilitate a discussion of technologies, practices, and considerations for faculty who want to develop their own computer-based materials.

Blended Learning in Quantitative Reasoning and Developmental Math (Dalton 212E). Eric Gaze (Bowdoin College) will facilitate this discussion for instructors interested in developing a blended approach to developmental math courses.

Tuesday, May 8

9:00-10:45 — Faculty Panel Discussion (Dalton 300)

Faculty who developed and taught courses for the project will talk about their experiences, their pedagogical approaches, and implementation strategies for blended learning.

11:00-12:00 — Introducing Molecular Workbench (Dalton 300)

Molecular Workbench is a both a simulation tool and an authoring system for creating and publishing interactive, simulation-based curriculum materials. Dan Damelin will show us some of the free, open-license instructional materials that he and his colleagues have made available using MW, and how to use the software to customize or make your own. [link to Molecular Workbench]

12:00-1:00 — Lunch (Dalton 300)

1:00-2:30 — Concurrent Sessions

Blended Learning in the Humanities (Dalton 25). Is blended learning only for mathematically heavy disciplines with problem sets and single correct answers? Alicia Walker (medieval art) and Guiliana Perco (Italian) present blended approaches they are developing and facilitate a discussion of blended learning in the humanities.

Teaching Blended Courses Using OLI Statistics (Dalton 2). A session is for faculty who have used or are interested in using OLI Statistics in a blended course. Some topics of interest include the pros and cons of OLI, alternatives, and best practices for a blended approach to statistics.

Brainstorming Cross-Institutional Collaborations (Dalton 212E). How will we sustain and cultivate this collaboration around blended learning forward? What do liberal arts colleges, as a community, need with respect to blended learning and which of those needs can we best address collaboratively?