There is increasing recognition that academic and community collaborations enhance the provision of human services and resources. This article provides two case studies of collaboration between academics at Long Island University (LIU) and two distinct organizations in the community, specifically the Lupus Alliance of America, Inc (LAA) and the Nassau County Executive's Task Force on Family Violence (the Family Violence Task Force [FVTF]). It also illustrates the application of the framework described in the literature and offers additional insights into benefits of and barriers to successful collaborations. Based on their experiences, the authors suggest that opportunities for these partnerships are enhanced when faculty members are already engaged in community-based activities.

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Faculty and student feedback on blended courses is instrumental to improving blended courses and programs. The purpose of this article is to describe the process and results of blended learning outcome assessment at a large, multi-campus, private university. The outcome measures used in this assessment were developed in the context of current literature about best practice in assessment of blended learning and were designed to gather feedback from faculty and students on multiple aspects of the blended courses. The results suggest that overall, students and faculty were satisfied with the blended courses. The sufficiency of the university’s resources for blended learning emerged as the strongest predictor of student satisfaction. Faculty rated their blended courses high in terms of course organization, but low in terms of the availability of resources and information about on-line learning and the quality of pedagogy in blended instruction. This university has found great value in the use of student and faculty feedback toward the improvement of blended courses and programs. An emphasis has been placed on providing additional resources, making the available resources more accessible and offering faculty development and training in online and blended pedagogy.

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