William Swart is a Professor of Marketing and Supply Chain Management at East Carolina University. He received his BS in Industrial Engineering from Clemson University and his PhD in Operations Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has held leadership positions in industry, including Corporate Vice President, and in the academia, including Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. He is the recipient of a NASA/JFK Group Achievement Award, the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) Operations Research Practice Award, and the Achievement in Operations Research Medal from the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS).

This workshop is about blended learning as a strategy to systematically and purposefully improve student learning. During the workshop, the knowledge accumulated during four years of hands-on experience in implementing this strategy in actual university classes will be shared.

In part 1 of the workshop, participants will learn to view blended learning in the context of Deming’s Plan, Do, Study, Act (P-D-S-A) cycle for achieving continual improvement of learning outcomes. The Plan step consists of developing the blended course syllabus, the DO step consists of teaching the blended course according to the syllabus, the Study step consists of measuring the results, and the Act step consists of incorporating improvements suggested by the measurements into the next syllabus.

In part 2 of the workshop, the considerations required to prepare a blended course syllabus will be discussed. These include the preparation for out of class learning materials, in class interactive group learning exercises, the configuration of the learning space, the changed roles of instructor and students, and assessment materials that are consistent with blended learning.

In part 3 of the workshop, some of the unanticipated issues associated with day to day delivery of blended learning, both inside and outside of the classroom, will be discussed. These include student and team satisfaction, group issues such as size and composition, as well dealing with students who are less eager to engage and learn.

In part 4 of the workshop, techniques used to measure student outcomes will be presented. These measures are based on Dr. Michael G. Moore’s Theory of Transactional Distance and are designed to identify and measure obstacles that students encountered to their active engagement with the blended learning environment. Examples will be given on how the measurements can be used to identify improvements to the syllabus that could reduce these obstacles when the course is taught again.

In part 5 of the workshop, the interpretation of information received from subsequent cycles will be discussed. Participants will learn to distinguish between continuous and continual improvement and to identify the Transactional Distance factors that are significant predictors of student satisfaction (which in turn measure outcomes). This provides valuable information as to where to focus future improvement efforts.

The workshop will conclude with an open discussion of issues associated with blended learning encountered by participants.