The advancement of technology has provided us with various digital education tools such as web conferences, e-books, audio-visual study materials. The combination of online and in-person methodologies have given birth to a blended learning system. The students and school organizations can benefit tremendously by incorporating both the education system. Blended learning in schools is the way to upgrade the education system and provide a holistic education for students.
What is a blended learning system?
It is an approach to education that works with the online and offline modes of learning. This system requires the physical presence of the students just like the traditional classrooms, but the exchange of education happens over modern education platforms. It also requires the physical presence of the teachers to conduct the classes.
Benefits for learners:
Convenient and flexible learning: Students can control their learning pace with the blended learning system. They can access the lessons anytime, unlike the physical classrooms where once something is omitted from the blackboard is permanently gone.
A better understanding of the syllabus: Since the students have a 24/7 display of their course structure and content, they are more informed than before. This gives them a comprehensive understanding of the course.
Increase student engagement: They also interact with their classmates, which helps them acquire social learning. This increases their engagement in studies. A blended learning model provides multiple opportunities for student engagement through online puzzles and games. This improves their performance in their studies as the learning process is more fun and exciting for them.
Students have more autonomy over their learning: Students choose their study materials and educational content in a blended learning model. This gives them a sense of free learning space where they learn something which interests them. In addition, they can customize their schedule, which enables them to remember more effectively.
Benefits for organizations/schools:
Efficient use of instructor time: The blended learning system helps the instructors spend their time in the class more than administrative tasks. Through the help of technology, these tasks can be taken care of by many new management systems, which helps teachers and students to invest their time in education more.
Cost and time effective: This kind of learning system reduces travel and space rent costs. A face-to-face training usually costs a lot for the schools and is a hassle for teachers as well. But with this system, has enabled the teachers to teach from anywhere.
Storing learners’ data more efficiently: Using digital management systems has made it easy for schools to store students’ data more conveniently. They can reach out to each student and can help in keeping all the stakeholders informed and updated. In addition, the admins and faculty members can leverage the stored data of students to support them in their educational or administrative work.
Thus, a modern age education system should have a combination of online and offline learning. With the merger of the internet in our education system, anything is possible today. This has given rise to online schools in India, allowing a combination of both online and offline education systems. This kind of education structure helps the students to achieve better results and allows the schools to go beyond the limitation of a classroom. Due to the uncertain times that we live in, blended learning is a blessing for all the stakeholders involved.
