Understanding blended learning

In my lifetime, we have moved from a mostly analog world to a mostly digital world. The transition has impacted every profession, and change is constant.  I am currently enrolled in a course called BlendedLearningTootkit and our first assigned reading is Understanding Blended Learning, by Kelvin Thompson, Ed.D.

Blended learning is not a precise term in academia, but it mostly stands for a combination of in person (face-to-face) class time and additional materials offered to the student outside of class.  This can provide some flexibility for the students, and it can also add instructional resources and coursework.  In the reading this week, we were introduced to the basic terms and research that shows the potential benefits when a blended course is well designed. Thompson says that the design of such a blended course works well in situations where the instructor designs for a "learner-centered, teacher guided (as opposed to teacher-directed), interactive, and student-collaborative learning"

We reviewed a case study of a sample course, which -- not surprisingly -- was a campus-based course for pre-service teachers called Distributed Learning: Teaching and Learning Online.  This for-credit course met weekly on Fridays for three hours but students were encouraged to connect from home so that they could have a real life experience of learning online.  The design of the course was flexible enough so that changes and updates have been incorporated over time, especially as new tools and technologies are introduced into the digital landscape.

No doubt the use of online and blended instruction will grow in modern educational organizations.  It will be our challenge, as instructors and curriculum providers, to make sure that the design of courses should not serve the technology, but rather that technology be used creatively and judiciously with the goal of improving learning.