Allison Ballard and Michelle E Hanners

Research on Issues in Instructional Technology Project

University of West Georgia

 Blended Learning Article Summary Table of Contents

Article 1 Analysis Blended Learning in Higher Education

Article 2 Analysis Blended Learning as Credit Recovery
Article 3 Analysis Blended Learning as Best Practices
Article 4 Analysis Blended Learning Systems
Article 5 Analysis Blended Learning as Guide
 Abstract
What is Blended Learning? Blended Learning has been defined by many as blended

learning as the combination of digital content and activity with face-to-face content and activity.

It looks very different in each class at the school. When a teacher has an activity that works well

face-to-face, there isn't any reason to look for a digital replacement. If they can find something

digital that is more effective or efficient, then that is implemented. Getting started on using the

technology or transitioning curriculum can be intimidating for some teachers. Driven by changes

already happening at the higher education levels and the need to prepare students for the 21st

century workplace, blended learning provides the school with a variety of ways to address

student needs, differentiate instruction, and provide teachers with data for instructional decision-

making.

Blended learning is not the same as technology-rich instruction. It goes beyond one-to-

one computers and high-tech gadgets. Blended learning involves leveraging the Internet to afford

each student a more personalized learning experience, meaning increased student control over

the time, place, path, and/or pace of his or her learning. Higher education institutions must

address change expectations associated with the quality of learning experience and wave of

technological innovation in order for blended learning methods to prove effective.

Body

The goal of designing blended learning to create a community of inquiry includes the

goal that creates a community of inquiry where students are fully engaged in collaboratively

constructing meaningful and worth-while knowledge. From both theoretical and empirical

perspectives, there is little question as to the necessity and effectiveness of interaction and
collaboration to achieve deep and meaningful learning outcomes (Garrison & Archer, 2000;

Lapoint). According to this text, there are two inseparable elements of inquiryreflection and

discourse. In an online learning experience, the advantage is given to reflection in a way that is

not possible in the fast and free flowing face-to-face environment. The face-to-face classroom

requires communication and confidence in a group community or setting. Blended learning

designs however, recognize and utilize media as well as the potential to maximize educational

experiences. Interaction must be purposeful and have meaning.

Building a community of blended learning requires an understanding of text and

communication and further requires an understanding of how to integrate these forms of

communication to achieve desired objectives. Principles for creating and sustaining a blended

learning environment.

When designing an educational environment that is face-to-face the strongest mode of

collaboration is verbal communication which includes listening and talking as well as text-based

communication which consists of reading and writing. Instructors must accept and or adjust to

the strengths and weaknesses of these things. In a blended learning community the instructional

designer is not limited to the verbal and written communication. This instructional leader has a

range of choices. These choices maximize the verbal and text communication and provides a

variety of learning activities and techniques.

The goal of creating a blended learning environment that creates a community of learners

that are fully engaged and responsible. Blended learning situations must be designed so that

students have an opportunity to interact both formally and informally with their peers. Students

perceive face-to-face and online learning environments differently. The face-to-face

environments seems to focus students more on their peers and issues of social presences
(Garrison, Cleveland-Innes, & Fung, 2004). Abrams (2005) found increased evidence of

emotional support in the face-to-face environment that is absent in the online environment. The

ability for students to see each other allows students to identify themselves as a group. This

type of face-to-face environment allows participants to engage in immediate forms of

communication (Vaughn, 2004; Vaughn & Garrison, 2005).

Conclusion

Gardiner (1994, 1998) endorsed the need for classroom change to allow students to

acquire significant kids of cognitive learning so that they are able to think critically. He pointed

out that research shows the ability of university students to reason with distractions is limited.

Study participants included 68 graduate students enrolled in three graduate level courses during

the same semester. All participants were employed as full time teachers seeking a Masters

degree in education. The volunteer rate was 86 percent. By course, the total number of students

enrolled, the number of students enrolled, the number of students who volunteered and the

volunteer rates were as follows: a) traditional course, 26 enrolled, 24 volunteered, 92.31 percent

volunteer rate; b) blended course, 28 enrolled, 23 volunteered, 82.1 percent volunteered. All here

courses were presented by a small accredited university located in the urban area of southeastern

Virginia.
References
Garrison, Randy & Vaughn Norman Blended Learning in Higher Education: Framework,
Principles, and Guidelines.
Gardiner, L (1998). Why we must change: The research evidence though and action, 14(1) 71-88
 Research Project

Allison Ballard and Michelle E Hanners

Blended Learning as a Credit Recovery

University of West Georgia

 Blended Learning began mostly as a credit recovery system or to lower the dropout

rates, offering an alternative to GED programs. Blended learning is playing a pivotal role

in education because, as Education Secretary Arne Duncan described, A new normal

is coming where schools would have to do more with less. Online, blended learning

has the power to transform the education system as we know it. Student-centered

learning that is more personalized to what students want or need can be customized at

a much lower cost! Some teachers fear this non-traditional learning will take jobs from

educators hands by replacing them; however, the students will still need facilitators that

are capable of answering questions that are not answered during the online lectures.

The authors in this study define Blended Learning as any time a student learns

at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in

part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path

and/or pace (Horn and Staker, 2011). The researchers studied states, districts,

charters, schools, non-profit and for profit, and independents to find the patterns

reported here.

Study

Six models of blended learning were studied face-to-face driver, rotation, flex,

online lab, self-blend, and online driver. The schools cited were nationwide from

California to Florida. The researchers believe that blended learning is gravitating

towards these six models. Researchers at Innosight Institute, a think tank non-profit

hoping to apply Christensens theory of disruptive innovations to propose solutions to

problems in the social sector, in conjunction with Charter School Growth Fund and

Public Impact looked at 60 organizations in various sectors of education, as previously

stated. All sixty were beginning to blend online and traditional learning. Thirty-eight

were interviewed spanning forty-four different programs, all early adopters.

Schools, especially those with low enrollments in the private/charter sector are

finding that online/blended learning is helping them to maximize a small amount of

space. Many students can be online in a large room learning material with

paraprofessionals or assistant teachers to answer questions and keep the focus, while

smaller numbers of students are in just a handful of classrooms applying or enriching

what was taught in the online lecture format. Fewer specialized teachers, fewer

classroom to heat/cool and light means less overhead.

States need to revisit their digital policy to get blended learning running the way it

should. Districts need to increase their interfaces and infrastructure in order to

accommodate the numbers of online learners, but there are many companies looking to

disrupt innovations in order to bring blended learning into more areas.

Many of the schools visited in this study sound like they would be interesting to

not only visit, but also as places to work. While some require longer days, they only

attend four days a week, with a fifth day optional to struggling learners. Teachers in this

case could rotate Fridays on so as to enjoy a three day weekend or a day to grade

papers. I would be interested to see the full study of this research and actually know all
of the ins and outs of the time spent at each school, the questions asked, how

innovations were rated and what made the determination of each model.
 Works Cited

Christensen, C., & Horn, M. (2011). Disrupting class: How disruptive innovation will
change the way the world learns (Updated and expanded new ed.). New York: McGraw-
Hill.

Horn, M., & Staker, H. (2011). The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning. Retrieved November
11, 2015, from http://www.christenseninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/The-
rise-of-K-12-blended-learning.pdf
 Research Project

Allison Ballard and Michelle E Hanners

Blended Learning as a Best Practices

University of West Georgia

 Lessons Learned from Michigan Virtual School teachers presents best

practices as found in this study conducted by researchers from the University of Florida

in conjunction with Michigan Virtual School and the AT&T Foundation. There is little

research on best practices for online learning despite its growing popularity in the k-12

setting. This study attempts to understand best practices in virtual school setting for k-

12 classrooms.

Online teachers, according to this study need to be actually more specialized

than brick-and mortar, traditional teachers because modifying traditional instruction and

pedagogy is necessary as well as finding ways to get the students to interact with each

other as well as the teacher in the virtual setting. Implementing these new strategies

associated with the use of pedagogy, technology and instructional design: requires a

teacher to change their mindset from a traditional off-line setting to the virtual school or

online setting. A good, even a great, traditional teacher may not be able to transfer the

face-to-face teaching skills into those required to be a good virtual/online school

teacher. (Davis and Roblyer, 2005).

Students in the Michigan Virtual School system are able to take a variety of

traditional core content classes as well as AP levels. Unusual courses, such as

Chinese, as mentioned in Disrupting Class, can also be added to students schedules

that can be offered at self-paced or semester paced (Dipietro, et al). Michigan Virtual

School was chosen because it has partnered with University of Florida. Florida also has

a virtual school system as referenced in another article I read (and a friend of my

mothers son is the chancellor of FVS). There is no mention in this article of why

Michigan was chosen over the Florida system.

 Successful virtual school teachers were chosen using a purposeful sampling

method in hopes of finding varying instructional practices, grade levels and content

areas. The focus of the sampling was on experience (3 or more years) and certification

status. No Child Left Behind (Bush, 2001) was cited as reason for choosing the

experience and highly qualified status.

Sixteen participants were included in this study and were interviewed twice. The

interview questions were given to the participants at the first meeting and the

participants answered for the second; the questions were open-ended to encourage

maximum feedback. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected. The study

assembled the results into a chart of general characteristics of quality virtual school

teachers.

Some implications encountered are the limited number of teacher participants

and the different content courses researched were limited. The researchers understand

these limitations but chose to work with them anyway due to the lack of data of this sort.

Most of the studies of best practices, especially of the virtual type, are limited to post-

secondary schooling. Until virtual schooling really takes off (it is increasing in numbers

yearly), limited data is going to have to be accepted. Professional development and

training on leading a virtual or even partially virtual classroom can be developed based

on studies of this sort because the teachers have been identified as exemplary in their

field.
 Works Cited

Bush, G. W. (2001). No child left behind. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of

Education.
Christensen, C., & Horn, M. (2011). Disrupting class: How disruptive innovation will
change the way the world learns (Updated and expanded new ed.). New York: McGraw-
Hill.

Davis, N.E., & Roblyer, M. D. (2005). Preparing teachers for the schools that technology
built: Evaluation of a program to train teachers for virtual schooling. Journal of Research
on Technology in Education, 37(4), 399 - 409
Ferdig, R., DiPietro, M., Black, E., & Preston, M. (2008). Best practices in teaching K-12
online: Lessons learned from Michigan Virtual School teachers. Journal of Interactive
Online Learning, 7(1), 10-35. Retrieved November 11, 2015, from
www.researchgate.net/publication/237812899
References
Bonk, C.J. & Graham C.R. Handbook of Blended Learning: Global Perspectives, local designs.
San Francisco, California Pfiffer Publishing.
Graham, Charles R. (2003) Blended Learning Systems Definition, Current trends, and future
directions.
Kozma, R.B (1991). Learning with Media. Review of Educational Research, 61(2) 179-211
Issues in Instructional Technology

Blended Learning
Systems

Allison Ballard and Michelle Hanners

11-20-2015
 Abstract
Blended Learning is also known as hybrid or mixed-mode or method environment.

Blended classes also offer a portion of traditional face-to-face instruction. This type of

instruction can also be replaced by web-based and online learning.

One of the biggest questions as it relates to how much of the face-to-face instruction must

be replaced by online coursework. This question can be answered by the course instructor. The

answer to this question would also depend on class, discipline, and learning objectives. When an

instructor decides to use technology to academic programs there must be some type of

infrastructure such as curricular reinvention, participant training, and ongoing assessment

support, all of which are necessary for meaningful, sustainable disruptive information.

Body

In 2003, the American Society for Training and Development identified blended

learning as one of the top trends to emerge in the knowledge delivery (cited by Rooney, 2003).

In 2002, The Chronicle of Higher Education quoted the president of Pennsylvania University as

saying that the convergence between online and residential instruction was the single-greatest

unrecognized trend in higher education today (Young, 2002, p. A 33). Also quoted in that same

article was the editor of The Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks who predicted a

dramatic increase in the number of hybrid (i.e. blended courses in higher education possibly to

include as many as 80%-90% of all courses (Young, 2002)

The Graham article provides a basic introduction to blended learning systems and

shares some trends and issues that are highly relevant to those who are implementing such

systems. There were three definition of Blended Learning as described in the Graham article.
Blended learning by definition according to Bersin is combining instructional modalities or

delivery media (Bersin & Associates). Blended Learning by definition is combining instructional

methods (Driscoll, 2002). Blended Learning by definition is combing online and face-to-face

instruction (Reay, 2001).

The first two positions reflect the debate on the influences of the media versus method on

learning (Clark, 1983 & Kozma, 1991). Both of these positions suffer from the problem that they

define Blending Learning so broadly that here encompass virtually all learning systems. Blended

Learning is part of an ongoing convergence of two types of archetypal learning environments.

We have the traditional face-to-face learning environments that have been around for centuries.

The Center for Academic Transformation with support from the PEW Charitable Trust

recently completed a three year grant program designed to help universities explore way of using

technology to simultaneously achieve quality enhancements and cost savings. A summary of the

significant role blended learning plays within instructional environments can be found in Graham

and Allen (Graham & Allen in press; Graham et al.,2003).

Conclusion

The investigator examined blended learning from the institutional faculty, student

perspectives in an attempt to capture the complexities of this type of learning environment.

Students reported high overall satisfaction with blended classes as well as high levels of quality

interaction among students and faculty students still reported convenience and flexibility as their

primary reasons for taking blended courses. Many students viewed the blended format as a way

to become active participants in their own learning thereby developing new skills. Challenges for

students were time management and poor course organization. In conclusion, I think that this
type of research was done correctly. The researchers interviewed individuals who were directly

impacted by blended learning.

References
Bonk, C.J. & Graham C.R. Handbook of Blended Learning: Global Perspectives, local designs.
San Francisco, California Pfiffer Publishing.
Graham, Charles R. (2003) Blended Learning Systems Definition, Current trends, and future
directions.
Kozma, R.B (1991). Learning with Media. Review of Educational Research, 61(2) 179-211
 Research Project

Allison Ballard and Michelle E Hanners

University of West Georgia

 Enhanced Anchored Instruction is how Bottge, Ma, Gassaway, Toland, Butler

and Cho label their study of computer enhanced math classes, especially as pertaining

to middle school math students who are low achieving. On a national standardized test

administered in 2011, 65% of students with disabilities scored below the Basic level as

opposed to 23% of students without disabilities. (Bottge, et.al, 2014). It was noted that

computations and applications using fractions were the most difficult for these students.

As a teacher of eighth grade math students, I concur, but would counter with more non-

SWD students would have difficulty than this presents. Conceptual understanding of

fractions needs to begin in kindergarten with building on concepts throughout

elementary.

Three hundred-thirty five students with disabilities were surveyed in thirty-one

middle schools and began using the enhanced anchored instruction explicitly for five

different units covered by the Common Core State Standards.. The results of this type

of blended learning, particularly for this fractions, were rather impressive; the blended

students outscored the brick and mortar students across the board. EAI uses a

combination of video-based and hands-on problem solving to conceptually teach math.

Improving working memory of students who typically struggle with that was a goal of the

engaging and interactive media. The course started out with simple application

problems, but the creators increased the difficulty of these problems. Students met the

goal.

The research cohort was in small-group, pull out special education classrooms

with special education teachers. A few of the EAI units even appear to be STEM

oriented, and allow the students to apply what they know to create items, such as a
hovercraft. The five units took approximately one semester to complete. The final unit

afforded the participants time to compete in a pentathlon. Middle school students love

nothing more than to compete, so I can bet this blended instruction would be a huge

success with any level of student!

Both groups of students showed increases in Numbers and Operations as well

as Measurement and Data, but only minimal; the EAI group scored significantly higher

than the traditional students in Proportional Relationships and Geometry. No mention is

made of the largest domain, Algebra. Because the activities were content-rich and

meaningful, the students were more actively engaged and participating than the

traditional classroom. It is noted in the study that the pace in which we traditional

classroom teachers move, and how fragmented the curriculum seems to the students

has a negative effect on their retention of the material. EAI students had more time to

practice the concepts, and therefore their retention rate was higher.

Personal Reflection

If resource, special education students, some of whom has cognitive disabilities

could retain this much information a note was even received the following year about

students scoring very well on standardized tests) in a short amount of time, how great

would this kind of a program be for all students? The cost of it would definitely be a

consideration as well as the logistics of all students in technology lacking schools (like

mine) having access to a computer. With these documented results, though, it is

definitely worth looking into!

 Works Cited

Bottge, B. A., Ma, X., Gassaway, L. Toland, M. D., Butler, M., & Cho, S. (2014). Effects
of Blended Instructional Models on Math Performance . Exceptional Children,80(4),
423-437.