UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA AND
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
blended learning toolkit
AT A GLANCE:
Long-Term Goal: Scale UCF’s
blended learning model across 20
AASCU member institutions and
beyond
Grant Challenge Area:
Blended learning
Resource:
Course redesign resources
Participating Institutions:
The College of Brockport (SUNY)
Columbus State University
Fayetteville State University
Grambling State University
Harris-Stowe State University
Indiana University Kokomo
Lincoln University of Missouri
Missouri Southern State University
Missouri State University
Northwestern State University (LA)
Southeast Missouri State University
St. Cloud State University
Texas A&M University Corpus
Christi
Thomas Edison State College
Troy University
University of Maine at Fort Kent
University of Missouri St. Louis
University of North Alabama
University of South Alabama
Winona State University
GRANT AWARD:
Funding Period: tools, strategies, curricula, and other
April 2011–July 2012
Total Award: $250,000
1 Charles D. Dziuban, Joel L. Hartman, and Patsy
D. Moskal, “Blended Learning,” research bulletin 7
(Louisville, CO: ECAR, March 30, 2004).
Far too often, course redesign occurs only in a single course or even single
section, leaving the institution substantially unchanged. We believe that blend-
ed learning can be a vehicle for broader and sustainable institutional trans-
formation by using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches
to course redesign.
Thomas Cavanagh, Associate Vice President of Distributed Learning, University of
Central Florida
The University of Central Florida materials continues to grow. When
(UCF), a blended learning pioneer, the resource originally launched in
and the American Association of July 2011, 20 AASCU institutions used
State Colleges and Universities it, but now universities, colleges, and
(AASCU), an association of nearly K–12 schools from around the world
420 public institutions and systems, access the Blended Learning Toolkit.
created the Blended Learning Toolkit
to foster blended learning course DESIGN DETAILS
development. Blended learning The Blended Learning Toolkit, an
combines face-to-face sessions online, Creative Commons–licensed
with online learning, creating a clearing house of blended learning
course where students experience open educational resources (OER)
structured class time and flexible contains:
completion of online course material. • Blended learning strategies, mod-
Research points to blended learning’s els, and course design principles.
benefits: improved student learning • Two prototype blended course
outcomes and lower attrition rates templates in composition and al-
when compared to both face-to- gebra, available via an IMS-zipped
face and fully online learning, as archive that can be uploaded into
well as direct instructional cost any standards-compliant LMS and
reduction by as much as 50%. The a simple MS Word file that can be
most successful blended courses used to re-create the content in the
are wholly redesigned, rather than format and platform of choice.
simply moving some components • Directions and suggestions for
of a course online while leaving the applying the toolkit resources to
remaining activities unchanged.1 The create original blended learning
Blended Learning Toolkit supports courses in disciplines other than
the course redesign approach, and composition and algebra.
interest in its openly available online • Assessment and data-collection
protocols for all participating in-
“The reach of the Blended Learning Toolkit and especially the
BlendKit2011 course has far exceeded the team’s expectations.
In fact, we have heard anecdotally from a number of partner
and nonpartner participants who provided positive feedback
about their use of the materials, which leads us to suspect that
a far greater number of participants are using the materials
without sending us comments. ”
NGLC Partners in the U.S.
The College of Brockport
(SUNY)
Columbus State University
Fayetteville State University
Grambling State University
Harris-Stowe State University
Indiana University Kokomo
Missouri Southern State
University
Missouri State University
Northwestern State University
Southeast Missouri State
University
St. Cloud State University
Texas A&M University Corpus
Christi
Thomas Edison State College
Troy University
University of Maine at Fort
Kent
University of Missouri St. Louis
University of North Alabama
University of South Alabama
Winona State University

1. United 2. Canada 3. United 4. Australia 5. India 6. Philippines

States Kingdom

7. Malaysia 8. Indonesia 9. Netherlands 10. Brazil 11. South

Africa

The Blended Learning Toolkit’s online access and Creative Commons licensing provide a freely available, globally respected resource for blended learning
course development and deployment, used by institutions in these representative countries. Source: Cavanagh.

stitutions, including survey instru-
ments and standards.
• Morning Blend, a blog dedicated
to blended learning research and
practice.
• BlendKit, a set of courseware de-
signed for self-study, cohort work,
and adaptation by faculty develop-
ers. Resources include modules,
readings, recordings, and hands-on
task guides. UCF personnel have
conducted national workshops on
adapting these resources for indi-
vidualized institutional contexts.
Over time, the BlendKit course ma-
terials have developed their own
following.
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
UCF and AASCU used NGLC funding
to produce scalable, online resources
to support the adoption of blended
learning worldwide.
• Building partnerships: The project
team selected 20 AASCU institu-
tions whose student demographics
best matched the NGLC target pop-
ulation of students who are low in-
come and under age 26 to serve as
scaling partners for the soon-to-be
developed resources. They facilitat-
ed partners’ participation by com-
municating project requirements,
fulfilling IRB requirements for data
collection and project evaluation,
and developing a centralized proj-
ect communication hub (now inac-
tive). In addition, the project team
leveraged AASCU Academic Affairs
meetings to strengthen partner
connections.
• Developing the toolkit resource:
A team of instructional designers,
graphic artists, and programmers
developed the Blended Learn-
ing Toolkit during the first three
months of the NGLC grant period.
• Conducting train-the-trainer ses-
sions: In the summer of 2011, the
project team provided three five-
week training programs—one
in composition via Blackboard’s
CourseSites platform, one in math
via webinars, and one on generic
design and delivery of blended in-
struction via a MOOC, BlendKit2011.
Interestingly, of the 200-plus par-
ticipants who enrolled in Blend-
Kit2011, over half were from non-
partner schools from around the
world.
RESULTS TO DATE
The UCF/AASCU team and SRI Inter-
national, an external evaluator of
projects in the NGLC grant program,
reported these project results:
• UCF/AASCU scaled the Blended
Learning Toolkit across 20 institu-
tions in 11 states during the project.
• Well over one hundred faculty
(131) developed 79 unique blended
courses, resulting in 217 new blend-
ed learning course sections offered.
• Nearly three-quarters of facul-
ty (74%) who used the Blended
Learning Toolkit during the project
indicated they would definitely or
probably teach another blended
learning course in the future, if they
had the choice.
• As of June 2014, the Blended Learn-
ing Toolkit has logged 119,462 site
visits, with 309,813 page views,
and approximately 2.59 page views
per visit. These site visits translate
into 74,520 unique visitors from
 OUTCOMES:
Student Participation Student Outcomes
6000 100%
5500 90%
5000
80%
4500
70%
4000
3500 60%

3000 50%
2500 40%
2000
30%
1500
20%
1000
500 10%

0 0%
Proposed Achieved Completion Rate Subject Mastery
The blended learning course sections reached 5,798 students, of which
almost half (46%) were low income. Source: External evaluation conducted Source: External evaluation conducted by SRI International.
by SRI International and the UCF/AASCU project team.

188 countries; approximately 70%
of which originated from within
the United States. The remainder
comes from all over the world, in-
cluding, in descending order, Can-
ada, the United Kingdom, Austra-
lia, India, the Philippines, Malaysia,
Indonesia, the Netherlands, Brazil,
and South Africa.
• Since July 2011, the BlendKit Course
materials have seen over 55,000
downloads.
• The BlendKit 2012 MOOC enroll-
ment of approximately 1,200 facul-
ty was six times higher than Blend-
Kit2011’s 200 participants. As of
June 2014, UCF offered the BlendKit
MOOC three times to a combined
registration of more than 4,200 par-
ticipants from around the world.
• The majority of respondents (79%)
to a BlendKit2011postsurvey said
the MOOC aided in the develop-
ment of their next blended learn-
ing course; 74% said BlendKit2011
helped them become more com-
fortable with blended learning.
• Anecdotal feedback indicates the
BlendKit course materials enabled
faculty development initiatives to
achieve outcomes that would have
been otherwise impossible within
their existing calendars and budgets.
PARTICIPANT IMPRESSIONS
Faculty appreciate the quality, com-
prehensiveness, and open accessi-
bility of the toolkit and the BlendKit
MOOC. “I found the toolkit to be a
comprehensive resource for any
institution interested in exploring
blended learning,” noted Tom Erney,
dean of distance learning at Colum-
bus State Community College. “I just
completed watching the final [Blend-
Kit] webinar,” said Ann M. Giralico
Pearlman, instructional design spe-
cialist, College at Brockport. “Thank
you for all your great work.  The in-
struction, readings, content, activ-
ities, and presentation have been
extremely beneficial.” An anonymous
commenter appreciated the materi-
als’ accessibility: “I am very grateful
that the content remains available
online for repeat viewing. Now that I
have the bare bones course up and
running, I have more time to learn
how to make the course better.”
NEXT STEPS
The project team continues to ex-
pand the Blended Learning Toolkit,
adding more resources and model
courses both from within UCF and
from other institutions. All the mate-
rials remain open and freely available
for others to use and repurpose un-
der a Creative Commons license. In
addition, UCF introduced changes for
BlendKit2014, offering the MOOC in
partnership with EDUCAUSE, with the
option of earning a Blended Learning
Designer certification.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
• Blended Learning Toolkit
• BlendKit2014 MOOC course mate-
rials
• Cavanagh, Thomas. “The Blended
Learning Toolkit: Improving Stu-
dent Performance and Retention.”
EDUCAUSE Quarterly, December 15,
2011.
• Millichap, Nancy. “UCF’s Blend-
Kit Takes Center Stage in MOOC
Launching April 21.” NGLC (blog).
April 2, 2014.
• Thompson, Kelvin. “Spinning Chal-
lenges into Increased Impact: The
UCF Blended Learning Toolkit.”
NGLC (blog). September 18, 2012.

Contact: Thomas Cavanagh, cavanagh@ucf.edu

http://nextgenlearning.org/grantee/university-central-florida-and-american-association-state-colleges-and-universities

© 2014 EDUCAUSE. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. nextgenlearning.org