Which is better on the college level, classroom-based education or online education? The answer, to many, is actually a mix of both. Blended education replaces a portion of the face-to-face interactions in the classroom with online lecture and activities for the best of both worlds.

Does Blended Learning Work?

Blended learning is still, in many ways, in its infancy. Many schools are just starting to embrace blended learning tools and figure out ways to incorporate them into their learning environments.

In a 2011 article entitled “The Blended Learning Toolkit: Improving Student Performance and Retention,” which was published in Educause Review, Thomas Cavanagh reported some early findings and statistics about blended learning courses. In both 2009 and 2010, according to the report, students in blended learning programs had higher success rates and lower withdrawal rates as compared to students in face-to-face classrooms and fully online programs.

Why Does Blended Learning Work?

These statistics, and others like it that have been given in more recent years, show that blended learning works. Why is this? Why are students having greater success when they are given blended learning tools? First, it encourages better engagement with students, which helps improve outcomes. Second, it incorporates some scheduling flexibility, which is crucial for working and non-traditional students. These two factors combine to keep students engaged and retain more students in the educational setting. Blended learning also reaches at- risk students well, because of the flexibility it provides.

Blended Learning Tools from Echo360 Make This Model Easy

How can today’s colleges and universities embrace a blended learning environment? Active learning solutions from Echo360 make it simple to set up this type of system. The program allows instructors to easily create a flipped classroom or provide students with the option to “replay” the course lectures and activities they experienced in person. It also connects students to distance learning modules, so they can benefit from instructors all around the globe. The end result is better student engagement and better student outcomes, which meets the goals of every educator.

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