Four factors that drive blended teaching/ learning into a successful path…

Before going into the discussion of Blended learning, Let’s try to get our answers to the following questions quickly.

1. What does the learning process want the learner to learn?
2. Where are the problems in traditional classroom learning?
3. Does the traditional teaching/learning guide the learners who can learn and practice at their own pace?
4. Does traditional teaching/learning encourage personalized learning efficiently and provide a better way for teachers to assess the effectiveness of each learner?

I hope you got your answers to these questions and made up your mind to know the necessary improvements.

I believe “the educational system has a prime responsibility to create an environment to make each learner a life-long learner and competitiveness to counter future challenges which occur due to the rapid development of digital technology, social dynamic and science”.

No doubt, there is a big opportunity for all ed-tech companies to take advantage of technological advancements to integrate into traditional classrooms and give ultimately a rich learning experience to each learner and pave the path to improve lifelong learning skills. Here, the best usage of Blended teaching can do wonders provided it takes care of certain hindrances of traditional classrooms.

Let’s read on to learn more about blended teaching and the necessary development that Ed-tech companies can get into the classrooms for intended results.

First of all, let’s see what BLENDED TEACHING is all about briefly…

The all about Blended teaching/learning is…

Blended teaching is a mix of online resources, online teaching and traditional classroom teaching. It combines traditional classroom learning and online learning. It helps all types of learners like traditional classroom learners with structured environments or semi-independent learners as well as independent learners.

Of course, the classroom offers an opportunity for instructors to read the faces of learners and get a chance to guess the immediate feedback whereas online learning offers personalized and self-paced learning.

As an educator, “I can say the success or true positive impact of Ed-tech companies through blended teaching lies in creating successful products like

• skill-building applications,
• Gamification,
• Curiosity build videos,
• Thought-provoking quizzes
• Motivation questionnaires…etc that lead the whole learning process to the next level”.

This process of learning to use online tools or pre-recorded content to communicate, collaborate to enhance and develop the intended skills students needed is Blended learning.

WHY Blended teaching? How does it re-engineer the existing learning?

The most common limitations in a classroom are:

• diverse individuals get universe delivery from the teacher,
• unable to provide personalized inputs to all students,
• difficult to track individual learning gaps,
• lack of engagement in academically mediocre and slow learners,
• difficult in building self-confidence and motivating the students.

No doubt that blended learning can address traditional learning hindrances and gives a life long learning experience to each learner when blended learning is handled in the right way. Then the question arises “Which points have to be taken care of to optimize the usage of blended teaching and blended learning models?”

In this context, Let’s discuss two fundamental facts that lead us to know the vital role of blended learning

1. Even if learners are just watching or hearing the captivating content, there is no immediate progress taken until the learner starts self-working on it.
2. When learners are given a chance to apply their new knowledge, they increase their productive engagement.

By understanding these real scenarios, one can agree that self- engagement is the most important thing which has to be improved primarily to see desired results in a reality.

To optimize blended teaching outcomes, I suggest a four dimension scale to counter traditional classroom hindrances through blended teaching/learning modules.

Making each learner curious — Productive engagement — effective presentations and effective communication — personal/customized and Independent learning

Curiosity: Making each learner curious is the first step to set up an environment for learning. There is a big opportunity to make each learner curious about what they are going to learn in the next moment through innovative blended teaching models. It makes each learner more active and engaged in their learning.

Engagement: We can so easily notice the power of energy in our students when they use electronic devices and online tools. This is the best example to say how easily blended learning makes each learner more engaged. But the question arises about productive engagement. It tells us the need for engagement assessment tools. Engagement assessment tools using artificial intelligence are necessary to be developed and these tools should guide the learner to make their learning path more progressive rather than assessed scenarios.

Effective presentation/communication: Blended teaching provides an opportunity to communicate the pivotal points more effectively through innovative videos/doodles which counters time-consuming traditional explanatory methods. It gives the advantage to grab the attention of all academically mediocre and slow learners that foster their understanding.

Personal/customized — Independent learning:

The most common statement is “ every student is unique” but traditional classrooms couldn’t serve all types of students due to certain constraints. Through blended teaching, I am optimistic that there is an opportunity to develop tools that cater for the needs of each learner. When the students gain the knowledge and understand it then the next step is to make it deeper on their own.

The most important step lies in self or independent learning. This is one of the cornerstones of the learning process. But it is poorly understood by students. The process of learning happens as students initially use low-level strengthening and organising skills and later stages of their course develop higher-level extending and applying skills. Generally, later stages are not taken effect due to certain reasons like lack of self-motivation, lack of appreciation and personalized guidance. But, when independent learning is taking the right place and value in the minds of learners, the struggle which learners face becomes a joy of the journey.

So, the first success of Blended teaching/learning depends on how does it make each learner expose to later stages which strengthen analytical and application skills with the help of clearer guidance, clearer tasks and enhancing independent learning through the necessary tools that give personalized guidance and motivation.

Besides, the most powerful influence to foster the skill of independent learning is the support, collaboration and advice in empathetic scenarios but not in assessed scenarios.

The success of blended teaching/learning is not ended by innovating the great learning tools as we discussed earlier. The second and the most crucial step is the effective integration of these tools and contents with traditional classrooms with the help of traditional classroom TEACHERS. Surprisingly, there is a big challenge in training the traditional classroom teachers to adopt these tools to integrate with their existing pedagogical methods. If teachers are trained and made aware of how these tools help in discharging easily and more efficiently then we can see the intended changes in reality.

Helps teacher — Helps in life long learning :

With blended teaching/learning,

• teachers can have plenty of chances to use online tools and resources as part of their daily classroom instruction which makes each teacher self-fulfilled after the class.
• teachers find an approach that is more engaging for this generation of students.
• teacher gets a chance to provides a customizable experience to each learner.
• more importantly, a better way for teachers to assess the effectiveness of each learner.
• even dry, factual information such as technical specifications, compliance information or a complicated series of steps can be presented to learners more effectively.
• allow learners to control their own learning pace.

The benefits of blended teaching ultimately give teachers a variety of ways to demonstrate their teaching which improves diverse learning styles and fostering independent learning and self-directed learning skills in students and it leads to a critical capacity for lifelong learners.

If it becomes successful then it allows each student to go from one learning activity to another learning activity, either in a structured learning session directed by a teacher, or online in a self-directed manner. This opportunity paves the path to life-long self-learning.

Finally, we can set up such a system that includes instructor-led and online learning practices for offering learning that works best for each learner.