Current Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts projects are offered through the College’s new Digital Bryn Mawr Seed Grant program, which covers digital research and scholarship, as well as teaching-related projects. Blended Learning projects from the Digital Bryn Mawr Seed Grants Awarded 2017-2018 include:
- Blending ECONB253 Introduction to Econometrics
- Data Science with R: Development of R-Programming Teaching Resources
- Digital Projects for SOCLB102: Society, Culture and the Individual
- A Global Classroom for Bryn Mawr College and Chilean Students
We’ve also been working with various departments on blended learning at a program, rather than the course, level, including:
- Blending LILAC Summer Funding Orientation
- Capacity-Building for Hybrid Curricular Offerings at the GSSWSR
- Digital Storytelling Facilitation Training
- Encryption for Everyone: Training and Outreach for Data Security
We’ve also been using what we’ve learned in these blended learning projects on a multi-year project with the Undergraduate Dean’s Office to blend undergraduate advising. This has involved creating online checklists that students and their deans keep track of advising- and enrollment-related deadlines and task completion, and getting the dean’s office set up to host online informational webinars and hold one-on-one online advising meetings for entering first-year students in the summer before they come to campus and for continuing students who may away for study abroad, internships, etc. Student engagement has been strong — just over a third of this year’s entering first-year class
had an online academic advising appointment with their deans before coming to campus next week! We believe the blended advising approach will significantly reduce student anxieties and improve the quality of interactions between advisors and advisees.
Additionally, Educational Technology Services has lead or collaborated on several grant-funded projects. To get a better sense of what sort of work we do, or to get ideas for your own class or project, see the following collection of our projects past and present:
- FITW Just-In-Time, Blended Math: Online, interactive math modules for students to take as needed during introductory science courses.
- Educational Applications for the Microsoft HoloLens: Bryn Mawr partnered with Pearson Education to provide faculty and students with the opportunity to explore, develop, and test educational applications for the Microsoft HoloLens.
- Mellon Liberal Arts for the Digital Age: Wide-ranging, included small classroom “seed grants” for the liberal arts.
- Teagle Courseware Development: Open, blended training in psychology research and statistics.
- TIDES Computational Skill-Building: Computational modules for physics, with an emphasis on incorporating stories that highlight the careers and work of non-Western, women, and under-represented minority scientists.
- NGLC Study: The precursor to our current initiative, exploring benefits of blended learning in a liberal arts context.