Six offline component groups:
1. Workplace learning
2. Face-to-face tutoring, coaching or mentoring
3. Classroom
4. Distributable print media
5. Distributable electronic media
6. Broadcast media
Six online component groups:
1. Online learning content
2. E-tutoring, e-coaching or e-mentoring
3. Online collaborative learning
4. Online knowledge management
5. The web
6. Mobile learning
As any other method of teaching, blended learning has its challenges and advantages.
The advantages blended learning offers are:
– Satisfying program cost for both the learner and the educational institution;
– Flexible schedule and course plan;
– Easy transference and access to the secondary education.
– Differentiated instruction.
The challenges of the blended learning include:
– The necessity to have computer and internet access;
– The necessity to be knowledgeable enough in the technology in order to use all the advantages it offers;
– Specific study skills, e.g. studying on your own, being persistent and organized.
To understand blended learning better teachers must focus on learners. Learners blend anyway. They learn through lots of different learning encounters. In learning a language the learner is likely to take some classes, use online resources, CD-ROMs, audio cassettes, audio CDs, videos, watch TV, listen to radio programs in that language, use books, access dictionaries, get a pen-pal, speak to native speakers, even go to that country for practice. Blended learning was always the norm – for learners!
Playing to these natural behaviors was always going to be successful. The danger was in being too single channel in focus. It is the supply-led, learning industry that forces people into narrow-track delivery. The main culprit here is classroom delivery, still by far the most unblended solution in training. E-learning practitioners are also guilty. However, both need to recognize that the classroom, e-learning or any other single form of delivery, was never the single solution to any learning problem. The trick is to find optimal blends for individuals so that they get structured learning experiences in a fixed time that is aligned with their and/or the organization’s aims.
So, blended learning is a special kind of the teaching/learning process organization. The most important thing about blended learning is the necessity to correctly blend the component that constitute blended learning in order to achieve fruitful results.
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