Christensen and Eyring’s recommendation [to Harvard] of a “mix of face-to-face and online learning” was drawn from an investigation... “Harvard’s Initial DNA, 1636-1707”... [showing initial traits like] "Small, face-to-face classes", "Classical, religious instruction", "Nonspecialized faculty" [, and implications like] "High faculty-student intimacy", "Low instructional efficiency" [etc.].

In 2014, there were twenty-one thousand students at Harvard. In 1640, there were thirteen. The first year classes were held, Harvard students and their “nonspecialized faculty” (one young schoolmaster, Nathaniel Eaton), enjoying “small, face-to-face classes” (Eaton’s wife, who fed the students, was accused of putting “goat’s dung in their hasty pudding”) with “high faculty empathy for learners” (Eaton conducted thrashings with a stick of walnut said to have been “big enough to have killed a horse”), could have paddled together in a single canoe. (c)