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Blended learning integrates—or blends—learning programs in different formats to
achieve a common goal. Most often, blended learning programs integrate classroom
and online programs. For example, a blended learning program might present prerequisite
material through an asynchronous web-based program, then teach newer
content of the curriculum in a classroom.
But blended learning can also integrate materials in other formats. For example,
a blended learning program might begin by presenting prerequisite material in an
asynchronous online format, then present the next set of content through a virtual
classroom. Rossett, Douglis, and Frazee (2003) observe that anything can be blended
in blended learning, whether it be classroom and e-learning, two or more types of
e-learning, or two or more types of off-line learning. They suggest that blended learning
programs blend material presented from the traditional classroom, live virtual
classroom, and asynchronous instruction (Rossett, Douglis, & Frazee, 2003).
Advantages That Blended Learning Offers
Blended learning has become popular among instructional designers for a variety
of reasons, some curricular, some personal.
Curricular Advantages of Blended Learning
Writing in a report for Brandon-Hall.com, Marsh (2001) suggests the benefit of
blended learning is that it takes the best from self-paced, instructor-led, distance,
and classroom delivery to improve instruction. The report states that blended learning
has the advantage of being able to overcome the fact that “most e-learning is boring,
requiring greater discipline on the part of the student.”
More specifically, blended learning offers these curricular advantages:
• Blended learning lets designers split off prerequisite material from the rest
of a course. In classroom-only courses, learners must sit through this material,
even if they have mastered it. By separating it and using the computer,
designers can test learners in advance. Those who can demonstrate mastery
of the prerequisite content can skip the online part and go directly to the
classroom section. Those who are not familiar with the content can learn it
at their leisure, without other learners nearby who already know the material
and are visibly expressing their frustration with the novice learners. The
computer has infinite patience with these novices.
• Blended learning lets instructional designers separate rote content focusing
on lower-order thinking skills, which can be easily taught online, from critical
thinking skills, which many instructors feel more comfortable addressing
in the classroom. (These skills can be taught online, but many instructors
and students are more comfortable addressing them in a classroom.) For example,
some companies have overhauled their management training programs
to use an approach like this. The programs begin with online
modules about management policies and procedures. These online materials
include online lessons, use of online guides—such as policies and procedures
guides—and study groups, comprised of other managers who are at
relatively the same point in their positions. Once students demonstrate mastery
of the basic policies and procedures, they continue with a classroom
course, in which learners practice complex management situations, such as
establishing performance plans, giving performance appraisals, and addressing
performance challenges. The classroom segment uses role plays,
case studies, and other discovery learning procedures that explore higherorder
thinking about these policies and procedures in real-life management
situations. Learners can have more meaningful conversations about these
topics because they have developed a familiarity with basic management
policies and procedures and have had time to integrate what they know into
their thinking.
• Blended learning lets designers tailor learning content to the unique needs
of different audience segments. In some instances, designers have a basic
core of content that all target learners need, but different segments of that
group apply that content differently. In an ideal situation, different learners
would learn just the material they need. In a classroom, however, an instructor
must teach everyone the unique material meant for just a few.
For example, when teaching about a learning management system (LMS),
everyone may need to learn about the purpose of the LMS and how to become
a registered user. But LMS administrators also need to learn how to
add courses and manage users’ accounts; training managers need to learn
how to print and use reports from the system; instructional designers need
to learn how to manage curricula through the LMS; and end users need to
learn how to manage their learning plans. A blended curriculum might include
a quick, live introduction to the LMS, followed by computer-based
modules that teach the different audiences how to use the system in the appropriate
way.
• Blended learning can help reduce total training time and minimize time away
from the job for training. Although many enterprises are committed to workplace
learning, they face the practical reality of tight budgets and need for
workers to quickly acquire new skills and knowledge. As a result, many training
managers face pressure to minimize the time spent on training, both actual
class time and time away from the workplace. Because of class-related travel,
time away from the workplace can be as long (or longer) than the actual class
(especially for a shorter classroom course taught in an inconvenient city). But
some subjects are sufficiently complex that much of them must be covered in
a classroom. However, some elements can still be taught online. Some instructors
blend classroom and live virtual classroom (also called synchronous instruction),
running some class sessions online, which lets workers take the
courses at their workplace. Furthermore, these online sessions can be scheduled
at slow times, to minimize absence from work during high activity times.
Training and performance improvement professionals strongly believe that
blended learning provides for a more effective learning experience. For example, a
2003 study by The eLearning Guild, found that the top three reasons for using
blended learning were
• More effective than classroom alone (76.0 percent)
• Higher learner value and impact; the effectiveness greater than for nonblended
approaches (73.6 percent)
• Learners like it (68.6 percent)
These findings are consistent with those reported in a study by Thomson (2002).
The Thomson study sought to determine whether there was a significant performance
difference on real-world tasks among learners who received a blended learning
solution, e-learning alone, and no training. The study also sought to determine
whether there are significant differences in time to performance on real-world tasks
among learners who received a blended learning solution, e-learning alone, or no
training. The study found that learners who participated in a blended program (one
that followed Thomson’s model for blended learning) performed 30 percent better
than those who only took an e-learning program, and 159 percent better than those
who received no training (the control group).
Personal Advantages of Blended Learning
In addition to these curricular advantages, blended learning offers a unique personal
benefit to instructional designers—namely comfort. When e-learning hit the Internet
in the late 1990s (to be technically precise, e-learning first emerged in the late
1960s but was called computer-based training until the Internet boom), many of its
strongest proponents suggested that classroom learning was going to decline or disappear
altogether. To experienced classroom instructors and designers of classroom
instruction, these e-learning advocates were essentially saying that they had become
obsolete. Some of these people became resistant to e-learning, even though signs indicated
that, after nearly three decades of “experimental” status, e-learning would
finally become a significant part of corporate training and higher education.
Blended learning offered a comfortable middle ground. On the one hand, it acknowledged
that e-learning would play a significantly larger role in corporate learning
and higher education programs. On the other hand, blended learning left a
significant and meaningful role for classroom learning. Rather than addressing feelings
of being displaced by computers, instructors could focus on meaningful ways
to blend the learning experience, appropriately integrating computers where they
make sense and providing classroom experiences when they felt computers could
not appropriately teach the content. |
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