According to a survey conducted a few years ago, over 80% of higher education institutions in the United States offer courses in a blended format (Arabasz, Boggs & Baker, 2003) and the projection is that in the near future over 80% of all courses in higher education will be blended. In the words of Gladwell (2000), we have gone over the "tipping point"; blended learning has become an educational epidemic. The three societal forces that have converged (the perfect wave) to drive this epidemic are technology, financial constraints, and quality concerns. The blended approaches to learning that have arisen to address these forces have lead to three major non-contradictory affordances - effectiveness, efficiency, and convenience. The result is an era of engagement and sustainable communities of inquiry. Blended learning has become the dominant paradigm in 21st century higher education. In a recent edition of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks dedicated to blended learning, Laumakis, Graham & Dziuban (2009) state "the impact of blended learning is potentially monumental - permanently changing how students interact with higher education " (p.86). An inquiry-based approach to learning is based on John Dewey's (1933) philosophy that education begins with the curiosity of the learner. This workshop will provide participants with a "hands on" opportunity to design inquiry-based learning activities that engage students and align with the learning outcomes for a blended course or program.

Can a blended learning approach to literacy help disadvantaged elementary learners close the achievement gap?

An engaging look at how institutions can leverage their campus culture and technological infrastructure to capitalize on the promise of blended learning despite dwindling resources.

How, on a shoestring budget, can your institution implement a cutting edge 24/7 blended learning support portal?

As blended learning emerges, as an important teaching and learning model in higher education certain issues appear to be impacting its implementation in a number of contexts. The presenters will share results on three of those issues. Implications for scaling blended across multiple institutions, how students evaluate their blended learning experience under varying conditions of ambivalence and how institutional level analytics may impact blended learning. Each of these issues appears to be developing rapidly as blended learning gains traction in higher education.

Come and hear the results of this interesting ethnographic study into how corporations are using blended and online learning.

Through dynamic case studies the presenters will show how their model for blended and online courses has improved their information literacy program.