The Many Benefits of Online Blended Learning
While many people think of instruction as taking place either in person or online, there doesn’t have to be a rigid dichotomy there. Online blended learning allows learners to take advantage of both approaches to drive better educational outcomes. For instance, college students could attend an in-person seminar with their peers and then choose an online learning module that provides further information on one aspect of the seminar, providing the twin benefits of collaboration and concentrating on the material they find most fascinating. Alternatively, an enterprise organization’s new hires could take a class on their employer’s corporate culture before splitting off into role-specific training. Online blended learning also makes it easier for instructors to accommodate each learner’s innate learning style and provides students with more freedom to choose when and how they learn, driving engagement.
The key to effective blended learning is choosing a great blended learning platform such as EchoPoll. We’re Echo360, educational specialists who built EchoPoll from the ground up as a learning engagement platform with an e³ philosophy: equity, evidence, and engagement. Our platform provides equal access to educational materials for all learners, ensuring that everybody gets the support they need to succeed. It also collects all sorts of data, allowing instructors to use evidence to make optimal decisions for groups of learners and individual students. Finally, EchoPoll is equipped with a myriad of tools to help students engage with the material they are studying. Continue reading to learn more about how our expertise can help your organization make the most of online blended learning!
Why Should My Organization Invest in Online Blended Learning?
Blended learning makes education more accessible for learners and instructors while also helping organizations control costs. Adult learners especially have responsibilities outside of learning, and giving them the option to study on their terms can increase course enrollment and completion rates. EchoPoll tracks all of these numbers for you, giving you the evidence you need to prove the efficacy of your blended learning program to your organization’s stakeholders. Here are five more features that make EchoPoll such a great blended learning platform:
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- Gamification Elements
Games are more interesting than sitting through lectures, so why not turn learning into a game to drive engagement? EchoPoll includes features such as live leaderboards, badges, and incentives to motivate students inside and outside of the classroom.
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- Multimedia Capability
Incorporating technology into the classroom is a great way to promote learner engagement, and EchoPoll allows instructors to build video, interactive activities, and other graphical assets directly into their courses to break up huge blocks of information.
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- Sharable and Reusable Content
Online blended learning makes it easy for instructors to collaborate, giving learners multiple voices that could help info click for them. EchoPoll integrates with popular LMS options such as Canvas and Blackboard so instructors can reuse existing study tools, and PowerPoint presentations can be imported directly into it for maximal flexibility.
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- Built-In Assessment Tools
EchoPoll allows instructors to build inline quizzes and assessments directly into their courses, ensuring that learning obstacles can be identified and addressed before they spiral out of control. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible in traditional learning environments. Learner performance is also available on an intuitive instructor dashboard, giving teachers the evidence they need to take appropriate corrective action.
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- WCAG 2.0 Compliance
EchoPoll meets or exceeds all WCAG guidelines, ensuring that digital course materials are accessible to all learners. Sadly, face-to-face instructors can struggle to provide a comparable amount of equity to learners with visual or sonic impairments.
What are Some of the Other Advantages of EchoPoll as a Blended Learning Platform?
EchoPoll supports features like live chat and whiteboard functionality to make online blended learning feel more like a traditional classroom, potentially helping newcomers to eLearning feel more comfortable. Working online may help shyer students engage with the material if they are hesitant to raise their hand in person as well. Virtual meeting rooms also facilitate group work even if learners are nowhere near each other. Additionally, learners can revisit previous lessons with on-demand playback, allowing for comprehensive review without taking up any additional instructor time.
If you would like to learn more about Echo360 or all of EchoPoll’s features, we encourage you to explore everything our platform can do. If you want to learn more about the philosophy that inspires all of our products, check out our e³ philosophy in further detail. You won’t regret it!