Blended learning has gained tremendous growth in recent years. It consists of combining traditional classroom education with a digital learning environment, often online. This approach is designed to give students the time and experiences they need to master the content while making the teaching process more convenient and effective for teachers and online tutors.

Mixing Online and Offline Learning Strategies

More than just bringing laptops into school or having students play educational games at home, true blended learning is a synergy of offline and online learning. Classroom and online content should be incorporated into the same lesson plans so students can stay on topic.

Online tutoring should be coordinated with classroom learning so that each reinforces the skills learned in the other. It’s important to take advantage of the ability to easily track, report on, and share a student’s progress using online tools. This provides an overview of a student’s ability that is not easily seen in a traditional classroom, and can be used to inform the overall learning plan for that student.

Blended Learning is as Effective as a Traditional Classroom

According to a meta-analysis of studies on blended learning, combining online with offline learning is at least as effective as traditional education. In addition, there were several key benefits found that are not always found offline.

In online-only or offline-only classes, there is a tendency for students to feel as if they are on their own. This was alleviated with blended learning, in which the back-and-forth from offline to online encourages students to work on their own research skills.

The ability to work online makes it more flexible and convenient than offline classes for students and the online tutor alike, while the presence of the physical teacher helps students get more out of the class than an online class. This flexibility also lets teachers actively respond to students’ needs as they change throughout the class.

Overall, people were less likely to drop out of blended classrooms compared to online-only classes.

Blended learning is the only educational option that makes sense in our increasingly-connected world. To find out how you can enhance your education by getting involved with an online tutor, check out Growing Stars, one of the web’s top live online tutoring services.