Trial and error: Iteratively improving research on blended learning

As scholars interested in technology enhanced learning, we think it is essential to bring our empirical skills to help us assess and improve teaching innovations. In this chapter, we share our experience developing and studying portable learning objects used in teaching professionals about public policy and management. Specifically, we describe our development of a new generation of learning materials to refresh written teaching cases, a signature pedagogy in public affairs education (Rosenbloom, 1995; Shulman, 2005). Our research examines the impact of using new, multimedia, teaching cases rather than traditional, written, cases in public and nonprofit management courses. This chapter recounts our conceptualization of the research, our multiple rounds of research with a rigorous design, and results. We illustrate how using appropriate research designs, identifying the proper levels of analysis, and specifying dependent and independent variables often are iterative in blended learning studies.