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The author focuses on the use of blended education at two institutions: Wesleyan University and Bryn Mawr College. Both institutions are Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning Initiative (OLI) to enhance courses previously taught solely face-to-face. Wesleyan University is using the OLI modules to tutor less-prepared students in introductory courses. The OLI course modules allow students to gain material at a faster pace than in a traditional classroom alone. Administrators at Wesleyan believe the blended model will reinforce the hands-on teaching practices their liberal arts program promotes.  Bryn Mawr as allowed faculty members to adopt OLI modules at their own initiative. Not only to the OLI modules assist the students in learning material faster, but the program also collects data on the student's learning patterns, personalizing the program through each use. Using personalized learning assistance will allow an elite institution, such as Bryn Mawr, to admit a wide range of students, with confidence less academically prepared students can be successful.  In initial research, students enrolled in blended courses using the OLI module learn as much, if not more, as students in courses only meeting face-to-face. The persistence rates of lower-income students using the OLI module were close to 100 percent in Bryn Mawr's preliminary study. While liberal arts colleges may continue to build their reputations on small classes and personalized attention from faculty members, blended courses are able to enhance the traditional instruction model. Perhaps in the future, more liberal arts colleges will be using their blende technologies as a selling point to prospective students as Wesleyan and Bryn Mawr currently are.

In this case study, the author, a faculty member of a liberal arts college at a major university, explains how a near disaster influenced significant administrative change. Case studies like these illustrate not only the principles of managing technology but highlight the importance of aligning IT initiatives with administrative needs. When the campus advising office flooded, student records were in jeopardy. Not only were student files in danger of being lost due to water damage, services rendered by the department were affected by the loss of the work space. Digital file management and portability became part of a disaster recovery plan developed after the flood. The case also provides examples of how a shift in business practices opens avenues for further change, such as staff being able to meet with students outside of the office because of digital records being more portable and staffers being able to work from home which helped maintain productivity when the office was closed due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances.