Page 17 - Campus Technology, October/November 2019

better. Englin told her that these two cohorts of students had “the best grades he had ever seen in the entire time that he has taught the course.” Now Education for Humanity is trying to fig- ure out what’s worth bringing back from that experience to improve how blended learning happens on the ground in the U.S. and other places where EdPlus delivers education. One area of particular interest is the way peo- ple who were forced to share a computing device in the pilot project were also forced to work together. “We’ll see what the data says, but it will be interesting to \[find out\] exactly how that collaboration might have improved grades and helped people’s understanding,” Bauer suggested. For Sabato, the project as a whole encapsu- lated a lesson in “how to utilize what you have to the greatest extent possible.” For the learners in the agribusiness course, “it was understand- ing within their subsistence farming environ- ment what can they utilize to best capitalize and reap the greatest benefit. For us, it’s how do we use an eager, determined learning environment — students who want to learn more — when there is no internet connectivity. The answer to that has been a combination of technology, of partnerships, and of very intentional design. I think those elements when combined really give us a lot of optimism for where this can go mov- ing forward.” Dian Schaffhauser is a senior contributing editor for Campus Technology. campustechnology.com 17