Abstract
In 2009, UMass Dartmouth received a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation for a project entitled "Implementation of Blended Learning for the Improvement of Student Learning,"1 which we refer to as "IBIS." IBIS grew out of our recognition that online learning offers higher education an ideal site for innovative pedagogy and the growth of faculty skill sets designed to increase student learning. For example, as the recent U.S. Department of Education report, "Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies" (2009), documents, a review of research literature from 1996 to 2008 demonstrates that, "on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction" (p. ix). In addition, the study demonstrates that "Instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction" (p. xv).