Building Blocks for College Completion: Blended Learning

Ten projects funded by Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) in the initiative’s first round of investment in 2011, known as Wave I, sought to scale the adoption of blended learning models. The intent was to realize the potential of those models to improve student outcomes and reduce costs. NGLC’s funding of their solutions was an opportunity to discover the strengths of different blended learning models, the elements of those models that may be widely adopted, and strategies for addressing implementation challenges. Grantees spent much of their project effort interacting with expansion campuses that were adopting their approaches, although several grantees also needed to complete the technical development of their approach in order to scale it. This report includes details about the designs of their scalable models and the strategies for scaling that they implemented.

The report concludes with suggestions for future development and adoption of blended learning, included as primer questions and a resource list, which are based on grantees’ work in progress.

NGLC accelerates educational innovation through applied technology to dramatically improve college readiness and completion in the United States. To learn more about NGLC and the grantees it supports, visit nextgenlearning.org