Blended Learning The Best of Both Worlds

Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 1 Blended Learning: The Best of Both Worlds Blended learning is better than either classroom learning or online learning alone. I believe that students should begin to experience blended learning in first grade, and continue with it throughout their formal education years, so they will be prepared for the lifelong learning that is required in today‟s fast-paced, ever-changing technocentric information society. Blended Learning – What is it? At the most basic level, blended learning is a description of how people learn. Small children learn in a variety of ways in different contexts and through multiple media. Masie (cited in Rossett, 2000, as cited in Carman, 2000) says that “people are not single-method learners! We are, as a species, blended learners.” We could say that blended learning is used in a classroom when different learning strategies using media such as textbooks, videos, CD-ROMs, etc., are incorporated. In the world of instructional design today, blended learning usually refers to learning environments which combine the best features of traditional face-to-face classroom instruction with the best features of anytime, anywhere Web-based instruction (Garnham & Kaleta, 2002). According to a Learning Circuits report (Khitrykh & Nelson, nd) published by Minnesota Virtual University, “certain content is more effective if delivered through e-learning, while other content is more suitable for Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 2 classroom instruction. Findings show that both delivery methods can successfully coexist to compose an effective and efficient training system.” Orey (2002) cites Caladine‟s 2002 definition of flexible learning, which he says overlaps with blended learning: “an approach to education which allows duration, intensity, place, method, delivery, and media of instruction to change to reflect the learning objectives, the needs of the student, the subject and course requirements and the judgment of the teacher. The aim of flexible delivery is to enhance the educational experience and to increase participation in it. ... Flexible delivery may include various types of mediated instruction including print, audio-visual, computer assisted or on line delivery as well as traditional instructional formats such as lectures and tutorials.” Orey suggests a new term: “flexended learning,” but I believe flexible delivery fits well into the blended learning paradigm. From the learner‟s perspective, blended learning “...is the ability to choose among ALL available facilities, technology, media and materials matching those that apply to my prior knowledge and style of learning as I deem appropriate to achieve an instructional goal (the salad bar metaphor)” according to Orey (2002). Blended Learning – Does it work? Along with savings in cost and time, Dean, Stahl, Sylvester & Pearl (2001, cited in Miller, Jones, Packham & Thomas, 2004) found a 10% improvement in learning outcomes in a study of blended learning with MBA students at the University of Glamorgan. Miller, et al., also cite a report by Kiser (2002) on a two-year Thomson Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 3 Learning study comparing blended learning to online learning, The blended learning group was 30% more accurate and 41% faster in completing Microsoft Excel tas ks than the online group. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee instructors report that learning objectives are accomplished more successfully and students learned more through blended learning than in traditional classes (Garnham & Kalenta, 2002). The Blended Learning Best Practices Survey (e-Learning Guild, nd) found that 76% of respondents found blended learning more effective than classroom training alone, and 73.6% said that blended learning provided high learner value and was more effective than non-blended learning approaches. Furthermore, 68.8% of the learners said they liked it, as did all the students who participated in the Rovai and Jordan (2004) study, which also reported that blended learning participants “scored significantly higher on learning” than students in the online course. A 2001 study by Dean, Stahl, Sylwester, & Pear (cited in Rosett, Douglis, & Frazee, 2003) reported that students learned more when several linked options were provided in addition to classroom instruction. Harvard Business School reported “students not only learned more when online sessions were added to traditional courses, but student interaction and satisfaction improved as well.” (DeLacey & Leonard, 2002, cited in Rossett, Douglis, & Frazee, 2003) A search of Google Scholar returns 1,840 hits for “blended learning,” while a Google search returns 1,780,000; there are significantly fewer scholarly literature links than general links. This may be because business and industry need to train employees in order to improve business performance, and seem to be leading the way Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 4 in blended learning. Their goal is to achieve the best results at the lowest cost. Of the 192 respondents to The Blended Learning Best Practices Survey (The eLearning Guild, 2003), only 15.7% of those who used blended learning were from higher education, and 7.4% from K-12 schools. The NETg (2003) report of The Thompson Corporation‟s study (cited in Dabbagh & Bannan-Ritland, 2005, p.152) showed that blended learning groups significantly outperformed both e-learning & control groups. Bersin‟s 2002-2003 study of 30 corporate blended-learning programs concluded that “blended learning has huge and measurable business impact,” and Brennan (2004-2) reports that the longer companies use blended learning, the more they use it. Cisco probably provides more of the routers and switches for local and wide area networks worldwide than any other company in the world. Several years ago I successfully applied for a grant to implement a Cisco Networking Academy at Stanley County High School. Both the training the instructor and I took, and the networking training we provided our students were examples of blended learning. The instructor training consisted of two weeks of eight-hour days in the classroom with an instructor who explained, demonstrated, answered questions, discussed, and directed hands-on networking activities. We had two large text books and an online text with animation and interactive exercises which was actually downloaded to local servers to circumvent possible Internet problems. Rigorous Cisco testing was done online. The instructor‟s online management console allowed her to make certain tests available during a specific time frame. I liked the fact that we did not have to wait breathlessly for our grades; they popped up on the computer as soon as we were finished with the tests. Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 5 This material was very difficult, and I know we wouldn‟t have done nearly as well if we had to do it entirely online, but the online component was a big help, too. Cisco‟s Tom Kelly (2002) stated: “We‟ve found that e-learning is most effective when it uses a blend of all these delivery options.” I have also experienced blended learning in technical Technology for Teaching and Learning for Network Administrators (TTL-NA) and Digital Dakota Network – Information Technology (DDN-IT) courses. Usually there is a series of videoconferences with required textbook readings, resources and tests located on WebCT, and then a few days of face-to-face hands-on instruction. In the early days of TTL, we had to commit a month of our summer to live on campus and try to learn as much as possible. Technology changes so fast, K-12 technology coordinators need to be continuous learners. It is always difficult, however, to be away from home and away from work, and I am thankful for the blended learning design that has evolved. This mix works very well in the complex field of computer and network technology. I also like having reference material available online for me to refer to whenever I need it; I am more apt to look for answers online than in reference books. Does blended learning work? My personal positive experiences with blended learning are corroborated by a review of the literature. Blended learning works in school and in the world of work, and the transferability of this type of learning is another of its significant benefits. In order to prepare our students to be successful employees, shouldn‟t we teach them how to successfully engage in blended learning? Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 6 Learning Theory, Instructional Strategies, and Blended Learning Learning theory based on brain research into how people learn may be said to be constantly evolving as we learn more about how the brain acquires, stores, and retrieves knowledge. Constructivist learning theory emphasizes active student-centered/directed construction of knowledge through activity and experience, in a social context, with the teacher being the learning guide and coach who creates a resource-rich learning environment. Further, constructivist pedagogical models support multiple perspectives and modes of representation, exploratory, integrational, dialogic, and inquiry-based learning environments in authentic, relevant contexts (Dabbagh & Bannan-Ritland, 2005, pp.167-196, 238-240). Blended learning clearly supports or can support all of these attributes of constructivism. A major conclusion of the Barab, Thomas, & Merril (2001) study cited in Dabbagh & Bannan-Ritland (2005) was that the most meaningful learning for students occurred when they shared personal experiences related to course content; this is exactly what we see on our Introduction to Distance Education discussion boards. Student-to-student communication “has increased dramatically” in online education, according to Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek (2006). It stands to reason that there would be more learner-to-learner dialog in an online discussion board, chat, or even e-mail than in the traditional classroom setting. Interaction, multiple perspectives, reflection, and Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 7 integration of new ideas are encouraged, and, if online discussion is required, allow everyone in the class, not just the most vocal students, to have an equal voice. Adding an online component to a class is a natural vehicle for incorporating the benefits of graphics as a tool to promote knowledge transfer. Adding related graphics to text, words near visuals, and audio rather than text to complicated graphics have been shown to improve learning (Carman, 2002). Blended learning has been shown to increase learner engagement and sense of community. Rovai and Jordan (2004) studied the sense of community in the traditional classroom, blended, and online learning. The stated rationale “…that a combination of face-to-face and online learning environments provides a greater range of opportunities for students to interact with each other and with their professor. These interactions should result in increased socialization, a stronger sense of being connected to each other, and increased construction of knowledge through discourse, thus providing stronger feelings that educational goals were being satisfied” was borne out by the results. The study found that the blended course produced a significantly higher feeling of connectedness, as well as significantly higher learning scores. Blended learning can also address different learning styles and give students more control over their own learning. Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 8 Blended Learning – Where does it fit? In my K-12 school, many teachers post resources and assignments on the Web so students can have access to them anytime and anywhere they have Internet access. Resources may include weekly spelling words, required readings, rubrics, interactive activities such as tutorials, WebQuests, exercises or tests on Quia.com, educational games, and links to supplementary material for students to explore. Some use discussion boards, and some require students to submit assignments electronically. Parents can also see what their children are doing in school. It is not uncommon for students to “forget” their homework. With the Campus Parent Portal parents can check student assignments and grades, but class web pages really show what is going on in class. Class web pages will become even more ubiquitous for grades 9 through 12 if and when the Governor‟s One-on One laptop/tablet initiative is implemented, hopefully within the next year or two according to Dr. Rick Melmer, Secretary of the South Dakota Department of Education. He addressed this issue during the South Dakota Society for Technology Education on the Dakota State University campus in October of 2005. Many university courses and business trainings have an online component for resources, assignments, and enrichment purposes, and many also utilize course management systems. Thanks to blended and online courses, undergraduate as well as graduate work has become more accessible to people who, because of work and family, cannot uproot themselves and move to a college or university town. Many Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 9 times, like in my technical courses, there is a face-to-face component to supplement online learning. Businesses, with their eyes on the bottom line, have embraced blended learning as an economical and effective way to meet employees‟ continued need for updating knowledge and skills. Making online “job aids” available for access on an as-needed basis after the training has been completed increases productivity and is something we could emulate in the schools. The World Wide Web has a wealth of free and fee-based tutorials about almost any conceivable subject, and some of the content management systems like WebCT and Blackboard have prebuilt instructional modules available for inclusion in hosted courses. Blended learning can be at home in any learning environment, formal or informal, group or individual, anywhere an Internet connection is available. Blended Learning Ingredients The blended learning approach we are discussing focuses on a combination of classroom and online learning environments. Blended learning, however, can consist of a combination of many forms of instructional delivery–instructor led, student-directed, paper based, real-world scenarios, mentoring, online learning materials, modular, digital learning objects, computer software and training resources, learning object modules, online mentoring, FAQs, and relevant web sites ( Dabbagh & Bannan-Ritland, 2005, Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 10 p.148). Orey (2002) used a “blend of a web conferencing classroom (live streaming audio along with slides and other presentation tools), web-based tutorials (WBTs), hands-on technical books, rubrics for projects which were submitted via email, online portfolios, standard textbooks, asynchronous discussions in a bulletin board, live chats, and a variety of web-based resources.” Bersin (2004) presented a breakdown of different media types according to their instructional value, cost to develop, and cost to deploy. He postulates that classroom training has both high instructional value and high deployment cost, while web-based training has high instructional value but low deployment cost. CDs can have high instructional value but also have high development and medium deployment costs. I disagree with his assessment that web pages have low instructional value, although they do have low deployment costs. Other media he categorizes include conference calls, webinars, software, online simulations, lab-based simulators, job aids, mentors, chat, online discussion, videotapes, and online video. Let your creativity be your guideif it aids learning, it is a candidate for blended learning. Blending Learning With so many options available, how, then, do we decide which elements to include when designing a blended learning environment? We could hold regular faceto-face classes and include web-based resources. We could plan one synchronous Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 11 event to introduce or follow the instruction, with hands-on exercises, online tutorials, online coaching and discussions. One hour in class could be supplemented by two online. The class could meet one weekend a month after reading assignments, online discussion, and collaborative project development. Like the DDN-IT courses, videoconferences and WebCT activities could culminate in several days of hands-on activities in the classroom. Seminars or conventions could make up the face-to-face component of blended learning. As with any instructional development process, you must start with the goals, and then consider the learners, content, and resources available (Bersin, 2002). Locations of the instructor and learners must be considered, as well as the need or motivation, prior knowledge, experience, and skills, time, connectivity, and learning style of the learners. Some teachers are dispensing with textbooks, which in our school run on a seven-year cycle, and using web-based content in order to have current information for their classes. Bersin (2002) recommends that distance educators “create electronic content and „surround‟ it with human, interactive content.” Semler‟s (2001) first step is to identify the content that can be converted to online delivery, considering what the learner can do alone, things that benefit from interaction, and what might require face-to-face interaction. He says the same instructional design principles used for classroom training should be used, but additional considerations include how learners will access materials, how online components will be formatted Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 12 and delivered, and providing clear instructions for learners. Semler also urges consideration of the following questions:        What needs to happen in the face to face session to bridge what people learned online to the classroom and to the job? How will people use what they learned online in the face to face session? How will you help people apply what they learn online and in the classroom to the job? What access do learners need to additional or "follow on" content? Do you plan to make the online course content available as job aids that learners can use after the course? What course content is mandatory and what is for "individual enrichment?" What tracking, support, and encouragement will you need to provide to make sure that people complete the mandatory learning modules? I think Semler states the essential, overriding answer to the question of how to blend learning: “Use blended strategies to maximize the strengths and offset the weaknesses of each learning method.” Conclusion A review of the literature leaves no doubt that combining face-to-face and online instruction to create a blended learning environment is an excellent educational strategy leading to an increased sense of community as well as higher levels of learning. To this discussion of blended media, I would like to add Carmen‟s belief (2002) that there is value to many different instructional theories, and “in the case of blended learning, different theories apply to different situations.” We shortchange ourselves as teachers, and our students, if we try to stick too rigidly to one educational model. There are situations when a certain amount of drill and practice foster learning, for example. The Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 13 prior knowledge aspect of cognitivism is the basis of scaffolding. Besides blending delivery methods, we should not hesitate to blend instructional strategies. An additional consideration is Will Thalheimer‟s statement (nd): “because elearning has the opportunity to connect with learners over time, that aspect of it needs to be taken advantage of. Especially because the learning research is very clear that people learn a lot more, or the learning sticks better, or they forget less if they can get spaced repetitions of meaningful content over time.” With blended learning, resources can be available on an as-needed basis, and can remain online for future reference. Although Orey (2002) intended his University of Georgia technology integration students to “experience this complete salad [PowerPoint, textbook, rubrics, online help, and live classes],” his study found that students in fact chose the resources that best fit their individual needs and learning goals. If they already knew quite a bit about a topic, they might go directly to the rubrics to complete their assignments. On the other hand, if the topic was something new, they might use all the resources. Although the majority of the students used from some to many of the resources, the study found the rubrics, which gave guidelines for the assignments, to be the most popular resources. Students were in control of their learning, and they could choose which resources to use to achieve their learning goals. This, I think, is one of the major benefits of blended learning. In a blended learning environment, resources should be made available so students can pursue more in depth knowledge in the areas that interest them. They can choose what resources to use based on prior knowledge, need to learn, learning style preferences, and interest. With blended learning, classroom teachers no longer need to Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 14 rely on one-size-fits-all delivery. This would lead to an individualized education for all students. From personal experience, I also believe that learning is deeper and more links are formed in our minds when leaning is multidisciplinary. If all the middle school teachers, for instance, got together and created a multidisciplinary blended learning environment employing a variety of instructional strategies, and encouraging studentdirected learning by providing students a rich array of resources online which would be available to them whenever and wherever they wanted or needed to refer to them, I believe our schools might be able to maintain the love of learning that we are all born with. Just like I believe that Mexican culture is richer than the culture of the United States because in large part the native Indian cultures were not segregated as they were here, but blended with the Spanish conquerors, I believe that blended learning would provide a richer learning experience for students of all ages. Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 15 References Barab, S., Thomas, M., & Merrill H. (2001). Online learning: From information dissemination to fostering collaboration. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 12(1), 105-143. Bersin, J., 2004, January. Blended Learning: Finding What Works. Chief Learning Officer Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.clomedia.com/content/templates/clo_feature.asp?articleid=357&zoneid= 30. Bersin, J., 2004-2, January. Blended Learning and business change. Chief Learning Officer Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.clomedia.com/content/templates/clo_fairfield.asp?articleid=349. Carman, J. (2002). Blended learning design: five key ingredients. Retrieved from http://www.knowledgenet.com/pdf/Blended%20Learning%20Design_1028.PDF Caladine, R. (2002). Definitions, glossaries and terms. Retrieved from: http://cedir.uow.edu.au/NCODE/info/definitions.html Dabbagh, N, & Bannan-Ritland, B., 2005. Online learning concepts, strategies, and application. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Merrill Prentice Hall. Dean, P., Stahl, M., Sylwester, D., & Pear, J. (2001). 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(2004, April). A viable solution: The case for blended delivery on an on-line learning programme Research paper at Networked Learning Conference, Lancaster University, Englan, UK. Retrieved from http://www.shef.ac.uk/nlc2004/Proceedings/Individual_Papers/Miller_et_al.htm NETg (2003). Thomson job impact study: Final results: The next generation of corporate learning: Achieving the right blend. Retrieved from http://www.netg.com/Upload_ThomsonJobImpactStudy.pdf Orey, M., nd. Definition of Blended Learning. Retrieved from http://www.arches.uga.edu/%7Emikeorey/blendedLearning/ Orey, M. (2002). One year of online blended learning: Lessons learned. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Educational Research Association, Sarasorta, FL. Retrieved from http://168.144.129.112/Articles/One%20Year%20of%20Online%20Blended%20Lea rning--Lessons%20Learned.rtf Rossett, A. (ed.) (2002). The ASTD E-Learning Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill. Rossett, A., Douglis, F., & Frazee, R., 2003, July. Strategies for building blended learning. Learning Circuits, Retrieved from http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/jul2003/rossett.htm Rovai, A. & Jordan, H. (2004, August). Blended learning and sense of community: A comparative analysis with traditional and fully online graduate courses. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/content/v5.2/rovai-jordan.html Semler, S., 2001, April. Use blended learning to increase learner engagement and reduce training costs. Learning Safari. Retrieved from http://www.learningsim.com/content/lsnews/blended_learning1.html Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S., (2006). Teaching and learning at a distance-Foundations of distance education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: PearsonMerrill Prentice Hall,. Blended Learning Position Paper Arlene Krueger 17 Thalheimer, W., nd. An Interview by Karl Kapp, PhD for E-LearningGuru.com. 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