Featured Article

Welcome

Welcome to BlendedLearningNow!

BlendedLearningNow is an aggregator of the leading blogs, news, research, case studies and videos about blended learning.

BlendedLearningNow seeks to provide educators, philanthropists, civic leaders, and education reformers with the information they need to make sense of this rapidly emerging field.

We also provide a platform for those seeking online education opportunities.

What is Blended Learning

Blended Learning

Blended learning was started as an education method that combined traditional classroom study with online learning. As you can imagine, Blended learning is rapidly evolving.

As a matter of fact, we are finding that the typical ratio of classroom time to online time has made dramatic strides towards the online portion and we believe that it is only a matter of time until almost all of the learning is online.

According to the University of Central Florida and their Blended Learning Tool Kit, Blended Learning is defined as having 30% – 70% of the curriculum online.

What are the Benefits of Blended Learning

Blended learning at home

As education evolves into an online curriculum, students are empowered with the flexibility to learn at their own pace and at their own schedules.

According to the U.S. Department of Education’s “Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies” Students perform better while learning online than they do in traditional classroom education.

This would lead us to the conclusion that we should continue to move towards online education and away from traditional means of learning.

This can be particularly advantageous to adults seeking an online education.

The online education opportunities available today are endless.

BlendedLearningNow strives to seek out those opportunities and provide our readers with the confidence to know that the online courses we recommend are, in fact worth their while and provide value for their dollar.

Conclusion

BlendedLearningNow believes that the trend toward online education will continue, especially for adults looking to learn new skills.

We look forward to bringing you the best online education opportunities that are available today in your chosen field.

Check back often as we will continually update our database of online education opportunites and stay abreast of the Blended Learning topics and issues facing educators and students in this ever changing environment.

Understanding Blended Learning

Blended learning is a concept that has risen in popularity in recent years. Blended learning basically encompasses the combination of online education materials with added interaction between the instructor and the learners on an online platform designed to resemble a typical traditional classroom. Blended learning requires the physical presence of the student and the instructors, but the learner has some element of control over time, path and place.

This article will discuss the various blended learning models, its benefits and limitations to learners and organizations.

Models of blended learning

Blended learning teaching

It is very difficult to state exactly what blended learning involves, but there are several models that are used to illustrate what blended learning involves. These include:

• Face-to-face driver model

These are tutor-led learning sessions supplemented with technology to empower learners to control their learning path. In this case, not all learners get involved in online learning, but those struggling with some specific subjects or working above their grades. Technology helps such students proceed at their pace.

• Rotation model

Here, the students rotate between different stations on a timed schedule where they spend time with their teacher on one-on-one learning or learning online independently.

• Flex

In this model, most of the material and learning is delivered online via digital platforms and teachers are only available for consultation and support.

• Online lab model

All the materials are delivered online through digital platforms in the online lab model but a constant physical location. This is mainly applicable where there are limited resources for use by the students.

• Self-blend models

This allows the students to take more courses beyond what is offered at school. Such students attend the traditional classes for their schoolwork and on top of this, they attend online courses offered remotely.

• Online driver model

All material is delivered via online platforms. Students work remotely; however, face-to-face check-ins are optional and allow the students to chat with the teachers and ask questions.

Pros of blended learning

Happily learning

Blended learning carries so many benefits to students and organizations practicing blended learning. These benefits include:

• Lower costs

Many costs are eliminated with blended learning, including maintenance of the physical classrooms, instructors’ payments and facilitation fees. Blended learning cuts down the travel cost and accommodation fee for the instructors.

• Accounts for every learner

Blended learning accounts for every type of learner and is suitable for those who like traditional learning set up and those who prefer learning online. This form of learning leverages several methodologies to customize content and optimize it for the subject in question.

• Reach and personalization

Blended learning helps reach many people, especially those constrained by their location, as they don’t need to travel to attend the classes. It is also personalized as people with different levels of expertise are not forced into a similar program. One gets a chance to learn what they need depending on their level of expertise and understanding.

• Fun and engagement

Blended learning is very interactive as learners can practice online what they have learned offline. Here the learners get to choose the kind of content they want to learn, practice what they learn and communicate with the instructor and other students any time using a device of their choice.

• Better learning strategies and feedback

Instructors can utilize reporting features for more focused, data-driven insights into students’ success. The learner can also track what they have covered and how well they are proficient in certain areas.

Cons of blended learning

Overwhelmed on laptop

• Plagiarism and credibility of resources

Having a friendly digital environment may encourage students to copy online resources in their tests. With blended learning, learners will get to research online and might rely on false published information.

• Students may experience cognitive load.

With the wide variety of educational material and techniques, teachers may end up overdoing with educational material and activities.

• Challenging technology

Some online platforms are challenging to use, especially for teachers who are not conversant with this area.

• Blended learning makes the teachers overwork

Teachers need to broaden their horizons with blended learning by selecting a suitable syllabus and developing the educational materials.

How has the pandemic affected blended learning?

Frustrated learning on laptop

Due to the lockdown and measures to contain and prevent the spread of Covid 19, most institutions have redesigned their educational structures and most are adopting blended learning. Physical distancing and travel bans have necessitated the need for blended learning. Even though this technique had been developed before the emergence of this pandemic, its usage has increased during this time. The forced reality has been more powerful in integrating blended learning than the research reports presented from earlier studies.

Conclusion

Blended learning has its bright side and the dark one too. This method is very effective when used wisely and efficiently. You need to measure your requirements with the options available to establish the best-blended learning model. The disadvantages can also be improved and channeled into productive activity. When students have a positive mindset and the teacher is aimed to make this work by listening to the students’ feedback, blended learning will work at everyone’s convenience.

FREE Online Education Opportunities

As more and more people seek to empower themselves with the freedom provided by knowledge, Universities and Colleges and other institutions are putting forth the effort needed to feed this ever growing market.

I’m sure that you remember the old saying, “There’s an app for that”, well today the saying has evolved into, “There’s a course for that”.

It doesn’t matter what skill you are trying to learn, or what knowledge you are trying to master, there is an online course to teach you what you seek.

While most of the online courses charge a nominal fee to complete the class, there are a staggering number of online courses that are free!

These free courses include classes from a number of highly regarded American Colleges and Universities, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Berkely University of California, University of Texas and More.

A simple Google search for “Free Online Education Opportunities” will reveal a plethora of courses that you can complete free of charge from some of the most prestigious higher education entities in the United States.

Here is a sample of Free online courses offered by Harvard University.

Free Online Education Opportunities Harvard

  • Masterpieces of World Literature
  • Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies
  • Bioethics: The Law, Medicine, and Ethics of Reproductive Technologies and Genetics
  • Contract Law: From Trust to Promise to Contract
  • Statistics and R
  • Data Science: Visualization
  • Statistical Inference and Modeling for High-throughput Experiments
  • Energy Within Environmental Constraints
  • Cell Biology: Mitochondria
  • Religion, Conflict and Peace
  • CS50’s Computer Science for Business Professionals
  •  Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science (physics)
  • Introduction to Data Wise: A Collaborative Process to Improve Learning & Teaching
  • The Climate-Energy Challenge

This is just a small sample of the free online education opportunities offered by Harvard University.

To further illustrate the point that there are a staggering number of free online education opportunities, let’s take a look at the free online courses offered by MIT.

Free Online Education Opportunities MIT

  • Just Money: Banking as if Society Mattered
  • Mastering Quantum Mechanics Part 1: Wave Mechanics
  • Becoming an Entrepreneur
  • Introduction to Computational Thinking and Data Science
  • Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python
  • Introductory AP® Microeconomics
  • Circuits and Electronics 1: Basic Circuit Analysis
  • Shaping the Future of Work
  • Manufacturing Process Control: Variation Modeling and Control
  • Introduction to Biology – The Secret of Life
  • Global Health Informatics to Improve Quality of Care
  • Introduction to Manufacturing Systems
  • Supply Chain Design

Again, that is just a small sample of the free online education opportunities offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

All of these free online education opportunities are offered through a platform that was developed by a joint effort of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The platform is called EDX and includes free online education opportunities from a number of other highly regarded educational institutions as well.

The fact of the matter is, it doesn’t matter what you want to learn, if you are willing to put in the work, there are free online education opportunities that are sure to meet your needs and take your knowledge to the next level.

Free Online Business Education

The problem associated with getting a free education in how to start an online business is that the industry is loaded with scammers that are simply trying to take your money while providing very little value.

During the course of our research, we did come across an interesting program that does offer a free education and seems to be the real deal.

The program is Wealthy Affiliate University and they teach a program in affiliate marketing.

According to jvanderlaan.com, Wealthy Affiliate is not a scam, but a real program teaching real skills and they have the success stories to prove it.

While there are many other programs teaching similar things, they are not free.

We believe programs like Wealthy Affiliate University play a pivotal role in the online education niche and as we move from a blended learning model to a purely online education model, we are going to find more and more opportunities like this.

The fact of the matter is that no matter the skill that you are interested in developing, there are numerous opportunities in the online education space for you to explore.

The key to being successful is to do your due diligence and make sure that you are getting value out of the program being offered.

Check back, as we will continue to add free online education opportunities as we find them.