BLENDED LEARNING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY LEARNER

Proceedings of the 1st International Association for Blended Learning Conference (IABL 2016)

Agnieszka Palalas, Helmi Norman, Przemyslaw Pawluk (Eds.)

Preface: IABL 2016, the inaugural international conference on blended learning organized by the International Association for Blended Learning (IABL; http://iabl.teiemt.gr/) was held in Kavala, Greece, during April 22–24, 2016. The conference was entitled “Blended Learning for the 21st Century Learner” and it sought to incorporate the voice of the learner along with the knowledge and research contributed by the teacher. IABL 2016 was hosted at the Department of Computing and Informatics Engineering of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology in the picturesque city of Kavala in the northern part of Greece. The International Association for Blended Learning (IABL) is a membership organization with an aim to promote excellence in teaching, training, and research in blended learning through the engagement of international scholars and practitioners to meet the needs of today’s global learners. The goal of the association is to transform global education through its on-going contributions to the field of blended learning. IABL is the custodian of the annual IABL

conference series organized as a key knowledge and research exchange forum where professionals and practitioners share their expertise, experience, and research in blended learning. It is also a networking event for participants from all over the world who represent a variety of contexts, cultures, and perspectives. The IABL conference invites critical inquiry and debate on theories, approaches, principles, applications, and the implementation of blended learning across learning and training milieus.The IABL 2016 conference invited researchers, teachers, trainers, practitioners, students, and technology experts to present the latest blended learning solutions as well as to discuss and exchange the latest findings and new ideas based on the ongoing research, practice, and experience. Contributions from across the globe and all educational sectors were submitted and carefully considered for inclusion in the conference program. All submissions were reviewed by at least two referees from the IABL 2016 international program review committee based on the full text of the submitted manuscript. The submissions were subjected to a double-blind peer review and evaluated on the basis of the originality of the work, the validity of the results, chosen methodology, writing quality and the overall contribution to the field of blended learning. The authors received the blind reviews and feedback to use in preparation of the final versions of their papers. All the approved submissions which were presented at the conference are included in the proceedings.The IABL 2016 proceedings hence comprise the following categories of papers and other presentation types:

• Full papers (3500-5000 words in length) are printed in their entirety; they report on original and significant work in research, development, and applications regarding one or more aspects of blended learning.
• Short papers (2000-3000 words; full text included) describe new work or work that is still in progress, relevant to one or more aspects of blended learning.
• Keynotes (brief abstracts provided): four leading keynote speakers were invited, namely, Marti Cleveland-Innes, Ahmad Majdoubeh, Demetrios Sampson, and Michael Paraskevas. They shared their expertise in blended learning to inform future blended learning research and practice.
• Panels (500 word abstracts provided): 4-5 people presented their views and arguments on a specific theme or issue related to blended learning, and subsequently discussed them with the audience.
• Pre-conference workshops (500 word abstracts provided) offer an opportunity for hands-on skills development in blended learning and teaching.
• Industry showcases/Practitioner presentations (300-500 word abstracts included) shared best practices in teaching and training in the blended learning context.

IABL 2016 introduced a virtual presentation (blended format) option for authors of accepted papers who could not attend the conference to present in person. Each virtual presentation consisted of three elements: (1) a pre-recorded video (paper presentation), (2) 10-15 minute synchronous presenter-audience chat via Skype, (3) subsequent online discussion using Twitter. Virtual presenters were required to submit their proposal following the same guidelines as f2f presenters and could choose from the following three categories: full paper, short paper, and industry showcase/practitioner presentation. All blended sessions were moderated by a session chair to ensure optimal interaction between the virtual presenter and the f2f audience. These proceedings comprise the full text of all the full and short papers that were accepted to be included in the conference program and abstracts of the other presentation types that were shared during IABL 2016. In total, seven submission were selected as full papers and seventeen as short papers. Abstracts of four panels, two practitioner presentation, and four workshops are also incorporated.

After the rigorous double-blind peer review and acceptance process, the proceedings editors, A. Palalas, H. Norman, and P. Pawluk, communicated their additional feedback to the authors of these papers and based on their replies, finalized the editing of the volume. All the revised papers and abstracts were then submitted to Mathemagenesis for technical editing and processing. The authors who have contributed to these proceedings are researchers, practitioners, instructional designers and developers from both educational and commercial organizations representing twelve countries: Greece, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Bulgaria, Poland, China, Turkey, Kuwait, Malaysia, Spain, Jordan, and the USA. We would like to extend our thanks to all participants for their contributions to the conference program and to these proceedings. A special thank you goes to the members of the International Program Committee for their expert contributions and dedicated assistance with the paper reviews and decisions. Appreciation is also extended to Mathemagenesis for improving the design, style, and layout of the proceedings and compiling them as a digital resource. I hope that these proceedings, which share a message of great significance to the theory and practice of blended learning, will assist you in implementing blended learning in your practice.

See you at IABL 2017.

Agnieszka Palalas, Ed.D.

IABL President