info/e/a/title/Advantages-of-Blended-Learning/
achieve a common goal. Most often, blended learning programs integrate classroom
and online programs. For example, a blended learning program might present
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
next set of content through a virtual classroom. Rossett, Douglis, and Frazee (2003)
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
Blended learning has become popular among instructional designers for a variety of
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,
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
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
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
classroom segment uses role plays, case studies, and other discovery learning
procedures that explore higherorder thinking about these policies and procedures in
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
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
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
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
• Higher learner value and impact; the effectiveness greater than for nonblended
These findings are consistent with those reported in a study by Thomson (2002). The
solution, e-learning alone, and no training. The study also sought to determine
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
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
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
learning experience, appropriately integrating computers where they make sense and
providing classroom experiences when they felt computers could not appropriately