Chapter 12: Strategies For Success: Using Formative Assessment to Build Skills and Community in the Blended Classroom

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has been engaged in a blended learning initiative, focused on faculty development and student learning, since 2009. The project is funded by the Davis Educational Foundation and is titled “Implementation of Blended Learning for the Improvement of Student Learning,” which we refer to as IBIS. Principal investigators Jeannette E. Riley, the campus Academic Director of Online Education and Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies, and Catherine Villanueva Gardner, Director of the Office of Faculty Development and Associate Professor of Philosophy and Women’s and Gender Studies, were early adopters of technology and blended teaching. The project developed from their desire to engage faculty in the development of effective blended courses and to assist faculty in developing effective tools and methods to incorporate a culture of assessment and scholarly teaching into their practices.