Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative — learningonlineinfo.org — March 7, 2010

“What a wonderful initiative! Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative: Using intelligent tutoring systems, virtual laboratories, simulations, and frequent opportunities for assessment and feedback, the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) builds courses that are intended to enact instruction – or, more precisely, to enact the kind of dynamic, flexible, and responsive instruction that fosters learning.”

And from:
http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/

Hybrid Education 2.0

[…] the researchers seem more excited by a hybrid application of the open-learning program that, instead of replacing professors, tries to use them more effectively. By combining the open-learning software with two weekly 50-minute class sessions in an intro-level statistics course, they found that they could get students to learn the same amount of material in half the time (emphasis DSC).

“If they’re all getting that baseline information, [faculty] can spend that class time going deeper and doing something much more interesting, so they can really leverage that you’re an expert,” says Candace Thille, director of the Open Learning Initiative, “because right now, oftentimes the faculty expertise is wasted.” (emphasis DSC).