But first let me tell you another story that many of you may have heard before. There was a man walking along the beach and he noticed a boy throwing starfish back into the ocean. He asked the boy, “What are you doing?” The boy replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean.” The man said, “There are hundreds of starfish, you cannot make a difference.” The boy replied as he threw a starfish back into the surf, “It made a difference for that one.” Blended and Online

What does this story have to do with blended and online education What does this story have to do with blended and online education? I read a lot about how these modalities will be the savior or the demise of the entire educational system, as we know it. The boy represents one way to save a few students that may have washed up on the beach of higher education and cannot find another way back into the ocean.

But first let me tell you another story that many of you may have heard before. There was a man walking along the beach and he noticed a boy throwing starfish back into the ocean. He asked the boy, “What are you doing?” The boy replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean.” The man said, “There are hundreds of starfish, you cannot make a difference.” The boy replied as he threw a starfish back into the surf, “It made a difference for that one.”

What? What does this story have to do with blended and online education? The boy represents blended and online learning. It may not make a difference to all students however it may save a few that may have washed up on the beach of higher education and cannot find another way back into the ocean.

Blended and Online Education Who might these starfish represent? The average learner is 34, 82% are undergraduate and 81% are employed. So now on to my personal journey.

I am going to take you back to the 1960’s to when I was just seven years old. My mother was a teacher and decided that she needed to get her graduate degree further her career. Now in those days she had no alternative or choice for modes of education and she had a daughter to take care of on her own. So I ended up going to college. Back to School in the 1960’s

This was mainly my view from the back of class This was mainly my view from the back of class. Not ideal for a seven year old or for my mother, but she and I preserved and got that graduate degree. Fortunately, she was one of those starfish that made it back into the ocean with the tide. Grad School in the 1960’s

My Grad School Challenges Fast forward to 2003, when I decided to go back to graduate school. I was a stay at home mom who was looking for a way to re-enter the job market. I thought higher education was the door to my future. However, my children were five and seven and there was no way were they going to sit in the back of a graduate class for three hours.

Grad School in 2000’s Grad School in the 2000’s What I initially found was that school had not changed much since my mother attended in the 60’s. However there were some alternatives. Online degrees were just starting to make it to the main stream of higher education. Fortunately, I found a degree to fit my needs and enrolled.

My Grad School Experience This is what my graduate experience looked like. I was able to stay home in the evenings and still complete the necessary work to complete my degree. Without this option, graduate school would not have been possible for me. One Starfish back into the ocean.

Experimenting with Blended While I was in graduate school I started teaching at the local community college to support my nasty little higher educational habit. I brought some of the techniques used in my online courses to my face-to-face courses. I recorded lectures and class time was filled with engaging activities to apply the learning.

Paradigm Shift Well, this was a paradigm shift for many students who were accustom to the passive classroom. It took the first three weeks to get them into the rhythm of the blended learning environment. There was some resistance from students, but I found them to be more engaged and the conversations were deeper than in my traditional lecture environment.

Then I walked into the classroom one semester to find three deaf students and two interpreters. I thought, “What have I done?” None of by material in the online format is accessible. Luckily, there are many resources on campus and we worked through it, but it was a bumpy ride. However, these were three starfish that almost got left on the beach. Oh no! What have I done?

Challenges in Blended I tell you this story because there are some challenges to over come. These include: student expectations, student time management, students taking responsibility for their own learning and access to technology.

Then in 2008 I started working at the University of Arizona as an Instructional Designer. I get to unpack all that I have learned as student in online courses and as teacher in the blended environment. Most of the work has been at the graduate level. .

Now we are focusing on fully online undergraduate degrees Now we are focusing on fully online undergraduate degrees. We have started a General Education Academy, where faculty come together as a communities of learners. Our goal is to cross-pollinate these faculty and course development to create a richer general education experience for our online students.

Challenges in Online The challenges faculty need to overcome are: time commitment, professional development, environmental control and fear of technology.

What does the future hold? But even with all of the challenges that lay ahead in this changing landscape, I am excited to see what the future holds for higher education. I see us engaging students through new elements such as games, simulations, virtual worlds and augmented reality, even artificial intelligent. All of these will become part of the blended and online experience for students.

These are the many faces of the students taking blended and online courses. They are a diverse group coming from a multitude of backgrounds and situations. They are the some of the starfish that have washed up on our beaches, I am not sure that blended and online can make a difference to all of them, but it could make matter to those who need that extra help back into the ocean.

How many will your institution save? So my question to you today is “How many Starfish will your institution save by investing in blended and online learning? your institution save?