Bryn Mawr College awarded $800k grant to develop edtech courses

Thanks to an $800,000 grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Bryn Mawr College will continue to develop courses that have a significant technology component.

Dubbed “blended learning courses,” the courses range from an introductory biology class that uses online materials to teach students basic concepts to a geology class where the professor administers frequent online quizzes to determine what material to spend more time on in class.

Bryn Mawr College, the women’s liberal arts college on the Main Line, ventured into the edtech sphere in 2011 after it received a $250,000 grant from Next Generation Learning Challenges. The college partnered with 40 other liberal arts colleges to share resources on their experiences with blended courses.

Bryn Mawr found that with science courses that had a technology component, students did better overall: 93.5 percent of students completed the course “with merit,” up from 83.5 percent, when the course did not have a technology component.

The school hopes to expand its blended courses to humanities courses with this grant. Read more about the possible courses here.