From: http://e-articles.

info/e/a/title/Advantages-of-Blended-Learning/

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.