Blended Learning Makes Customizable Learning a Reality

There is no single best, one-size-fits-all blended learning model for every organization or every employee when developing soft skills in the workplace. Instead, a ‘mass customization’ approach that honours the uniqueness of different organizations, learning cultures, and learners can create highly personalized learning paths that enable each and every employee to learn. In this way, blended learning strategies can be used to maximize personal and collective learning in the workplace.York's Knowledge Mobilization Unit provides services and funding for faculty, graduate students, and community organizations seeking to maximize the impact of academic research and expertise on public policy, social programming, and professional practice. It is supported by SSHRC and CIHR grants, and by the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. [email protected] www.researchimpact.c

Learning with eMates in Etobicoke Final Project Report

This study examines the assumption that optimal learning occurs in classrooms where every child has access to their own eMate laptop computer. Grades one to four classrooms in six schools of an urban school district were provided with laptop computers in three different student-to-computer ratios (1:1, 2:1, 4:1). Throughout the school year three samples of student writing were taken at equal intervals and classrooms were regularly observed. Writing samples were also collected from control classrooms in the same schools that did not have access to computers. A MANCOVA analysis of holistic ratings of writing samples revealed that by the end of the school year there were significant differences between the four groups in their development of writing proficiency (p<.05), with students in the 2:1 ratio classes showing the greatest average gains, followed closely by the 1:1 and then the 4:1 classes. The control group students demonstrated the least improvement. A logistic regression analysis of the observational data indicated that in classes with eMates, teachers were less likely to be engaging in direct instruction and more likely to using a resource-based, project-oriented pedagogical strategy. They also spent more time managing student activities

A maximum likelihood approach to the “test of inclusion”

latent structure models,