The Definition of Blended Education
To correctly assess all the characteristics of personalization via blended education, we cannot do without clarifying what blended learning is. If we turn into a bookworm, we will find in the dictionary that blended learning is a way of learning. The real feature of this approach is the combination of traditional classroom lessons with lessons that use computer technology.
Surveys show that most students (82%) prefer blended learning to traditional classes. At the same time, more than half of teachers (59%) notice that it keeps students more motivated and helps them achieve better results.
At its core, standard blended learning consists of two parts:
- Standard online training in which the student themselves determine the convenient pace of studying the educational material.
- Classes under the guidance of an educator that complement the training material from point number 1.
However, despite the strict content, the teaching itself cannot always follow a unified pedagogical approach. For example, the whole process can take place simultaneously with face-to-face training (synchronously) or separately (asynchronously). As we will see, there are several blended learning models in education.
7 Most Common Models of Blended Learning
- Station Rotation. Students move between stations during class. These can include online learning, group projects, or teacher-led sessions. It is widely used in K–12 education.
- Lab Rotation. Students switch between regular classroom lessons and a computer lab. In such a scenario, the schools can use their resources much better, and students in their turn get time for focused online learning.
- Individual Rotation. Each student follows a personalized rotation plan. Unlike Station Rotation, not all students rotate to every activity — they only move to those that fit their learning path.
- Flipped Classroom. The Flipped Classroom is a model in which the learning process is divided into two full-fledged stages. First, students learn the material at home. Here, they have at their disposal various online resources (videos, readings, quizzes). Then, students are given a certain amount of class time. In the classroom, they communicate and solve problems in practice.
- Flex Model. The Flex Model delivers most of the curriculum online. Teachers provide support only when needed. This gives students freedom while keeping guidance available.
- A La Carte Model. Students complete some courses online and others in the classroom. This model helps schools offer more subjects without adding extra teachers or classes.
- Enriched Virtual Model. The Enriched Virtual Model offers learners the ability to complete most work online. The main difference between the Enriched Virtual Model and the Flipped Classroom is that face-to-face time is limited and often serves for assessment or collaboration.
Main Benefits of the Blended Education System
Blended education is one of the most significant trends in the education industry. If you have doubts about the power of the blended learning approach, then we have collected six main benefits that you and your educational process will gain after implementing this learning strategy.
Benefit #1. Increased Engagement
According to research, blended education has a positive effect on student engagement in the learning process. All thanks to various eLearning authoring tools that are a comfortable way for students to interact with the course. In addition, there are multiple options for presenting educational material, thereby making even boring material much more enjoyable.
Benefit #2. “Flipped Classes” Impact
“Flipped Classes” is a fairly common term in teaching and characterizes the learning process when students independently study theory remotely and then practice the knowledge gained under the supervision of an educator. In such an atmosphere, the ease of understanding and the speed of mastering the material increases since instead of simply reading the material, students spend all the time allotted with the teacher to consolidate the material and acquire skills.
Benefit #3. Autonomous Learning Pace for Students
Blended education allows students to participate in online lessons regardless of their location. All you need to do is find a place with Internet access, and you are ready to study. In addition, do not forget about the freedom to choose the study time because each student can adjust the individual part of the educational program to the personal schedule, which makes the study comfortable and accessible for people with a busy schedule.
Benefit #4. Educator’s Time Used More Efficiently
In addition to lectures, standard classes require a lot of work from the educator outside of them. For example, they print out handouts, download attendance data, manually evaluate essays, and do other tasks. However, since we are talking about online learning, some of these tasks can be automated, thereby freeing up the educator’s time for more essential learning tasks, such as helping students master the educational material.
Benefit #5. Gathering Data for Precise Insights
Analytics and data collection are some of the main ways to help you understand whether the training system is working as intended or not. Blended education allows you to use various analytics gathering tools to understand trends and the overall future direction of the curriculum. For example, this can be data on the average grade in a particular subject, or collecting feedback on certain activities during training, and much more.
Benefit #6. Easier to Enroll More Students
Standard classroom teaching is always about traveling across the city to the university or another town, which is not always convenient. However, blended online learning comes to the rescue here, allowing students to study entirely remotely, and universities, in turn, enroll more students.
Ways How Blended Education Can Increase Personalization
1. Adaptive & analytics-driven paths
- A student struggling with math gets extra practice sets, while another moves ahead to advanced tasks.
- Progress dashboards show where each learner is stuck or excelling.
- Teachers get alerts when it’s time to step in with help.
2. Model-based differentiation
- Different blended learning models (Rotation, Flipped, Flex, etc.) support diverse learning needs.
- Each model allows educators to balance independent work and guided sessions.
- Students engage with formats that suit their learning style and pace.
3. UDL for equitable personalization
- Students can learn the same topic in different ways — by reading, watching a video, or joining a discussion.
- Those who struggle with reading can use audio or visual support.
- Everyone can show their knowledge differently, such as through an essay, a quiz, or a short presentation.
4. Human-led personalization
- Teachers act as mentors. They use features from digital tools to guide students.
- Educators provide 1-on-1 support.
- Human feedback extends technology with a human touch.
Open Navigation for Students
Unfortunately, standard learning forms are highly linear and force students to view content they may already be familiar with, leading to a poor learning experience. In the meantime, blended learning gives the student the freedom to choose:
- Studying material units in a convenient order
- Skipping already learned units
- Learning at a comfortable pace
All that needs to be done to implement this approach is to correctly design the course itself and make its units independent from each other. This is necessary so that if the student starts the study, for example, from the third unit, there is no feeling that something is missing and that they should return to the previous units.
Variety of Learning Formats
Traditional teaching is extremely limited in presenting educational material, which runs counter to the personal preferences of each student. In the meantime, the tool enables educators to use the following presentation tools (or better to say styles):
- Virtual classrooms
- Seminars
- Self-paced learning
- Scenario-based eLearning
- Gamification
- Podcasts
- Video-based learning
- Forums, discussions, and so on
Collaboration With Peers And Colleagues
Blended learning opens up the boundaries of collaboration and collaborative learning, allowing students to join subject groups, complete projects together, and evaluate each other’s work. All this can be realized online, thanks to various LMS tools like chats, forums, etc.
Learning Related to Needs of Students
Combining instructor-led workshops and online learning in blended education is a great way to provide and reinforce learning that is most relevant to the future needs of the students.
In a seminar with a teacher, the teacher uses examples and practices from his own experience to explain how certain things work. This approach is of more interest to students since we are more willing to believe personal experience firsthand than fictional situations designed to present the material.
Meanwhile, during self-paced online learning, students can delve deeper into the lecture material using various techniques such as gamification and modeling based on what they have learned in the lecture.
Wrapping Up
Personalization of learning is a sure way to improve the entire learning process, which makes it flexible and adaptable to the personal skills of a particular student. And as you can imagine, blended education is one of the great tools to achieve personalization. However, the implementation of this training format requires a unique approach and the help of specialists.
Raccoon Gang has years of experience developing online courses and implementing various teaching methodologies and custom technical online curricula for multiple industries. All you need to do is write to us, and our representative will contact you to discuss the best way to bring your learning needs to life.
FAQ
What’s the difference between blended and personalized learning?
Which blended model best supports personalization?
Does personalized blended learning improve results?
How do UDL and personalization relate?
- The Definition of Blended Education To correctly assess all the characteristics of personalization via blended education, we cannot do without clarifying what blended learning is. If we turn into a bookworm, we will find in the dictionary that blended learning is a way of learning. The real feature of this approach is the combination of traditional classroom lessons with lessons that use computer technology. Surveys show that most students (82%) prefer blended learning to traditional classes. At the same time, more than half of teachers (59%) notice that it keeps students more motivated and helps them achieve better results. At its core, standard blended learning consists of two parts: Standard online training in which the student themselves determine the convenient pace of studying the educational material. Classes under the guidance of an educator that complement the training material from point number 1. However, despite the strict content, the teaching itself cannot always follow a unified pedagogical approach. For example, the whole process can take place simultaneously with face-to-face training (synchronously) or separately (asynchronously). As we will see, there are several blended learning models in education. 7 Most Common Models of Blended Learning Station Rotation. Students move between stations during class. These can include online learning, group projects, or teacher-led sessions. It is widely used in K–12 education. Lab Rotation. Students switch between regular classroom lessons and a computer lab. In such a scenario, the schools can use their resources much better, and students in their turn get time for focused online learning. Individual Rotation. Each student follows a personalized rotation plan. Unlike Station Rotation, not all students rotate to every activity — they only move to those that fit their learning path. Flipped Classroom. The Flipped Classroom is a model in which the learning process is divided into two full-fledged stages. First, students learn the material at home. Here, they have at their disposal various online resources (videos, readings, quizzes). Then, students are given a certain amount of class time. In the classroom, they communicate and solve problems in practice. Flex Model. The Flex Model delivers most of the curriculum online. Teachers provide support only when needed. This gives students freedom while keeping guidance available. A La Carte Model. Students complete some courses online and others in the classroom. This model helps schools offer more subjects without adding extra teachers or classes. Enriched Virtual Model. The Enriched Virtual Model offers learners the ability to complete most work online. The main difference between the Enriched Virtual Model and the Flipped Classroom is that face-to-face time is limited and often serves for assessment or collaboration. [cta-green t="Launching Blended Learning At A University Or Training Center?" d=" Schedule a strategy call to align pedagogy, faculty workflows, and LMS integrations for a smooth, scalable rollout."] Main Benefits of the Blended Education System Blended education is one of the most significant trends in the education industry. If you have doubts about the power of the blended learning approach, then we have collected six main benefits that you and your educational process will gain after implementing this learning strategy. Benefit #1. Increased Engagement According to research, blended education has a positive effect on student engagement in the learning process. All thanks to various eLearning authoring tools that are a comfortable way for students to interact with the course. In addition, there are multiple options for presenting educational material, thereby making even boring material much more enjoyable. Benefit #2. “Flipped Classes” Impact "Flipped Classes" is a fairly common term in teaching and characterizes the learning process when students independently study theory remotely and then practice the knowledge gained under the supervision of an educator. In such an atmosphere, the ease of understanding and the speed of mastering the material increases since instead of simply reading the material, students spend all the time allotted with the teacher to consolidate the material and acquire skills. Benefit #3. Autonomous Learning Pace for Students Blended education allows students to participate in online lessons regardless of their location. All you need to do is find a place with Internet access, and you are ready to study. In addition, do not forget about the freedom to choose the study time because each student can adjust the individual part of the educational program to the personal schedule, which makes the study comfortable and accessible for people with a busy schedule. Benefit #4. Educator’s Time Used More Efficiently In addition to lectures, standard classes require a lot of work from the educator outside of them. For example, they print out handouts, download attendance data, manually evaluate essays, and do other tasks. However, since we are talking about online learning, some of these tasks can be automated, thereby freeing up the educator's time for more essential learning tasks, such as helping students master the educational material. Benefit #5. Gathering Data for Precise Insights Analytics and data collection are some of the main ways to help you understand whether the training system is working as intended or not. Blended education allows you to use various analytics gathering tools to understand trends and the overall future direction of the curriculum. For example, this can be data on the average grade in a particular subject, or collecting feedback on certain activities during training, and much more. Benefit #6. Easier to Enroll More Students Standard classroom teaching is always about traveling across the city to the university or another town, which is not always convenient. However, blended online learning comes to the rescue here, allowing students to study entirely remotely, and universities, in turn, enroll more students. [cta-orange t="Ready To Pilot A Blended Learning Project?" d=" Book a strategy call and we’ll map the model, tech stack, and rollout plan for your team."] Ways How Blended Education Can Increase Personalization1. Adaptive & analytics-driven paths A student struggling with math gets extra practice sets, while another moves ahead to advanced tasks. Progress dashboards show where each learner is stuck or excelling. Teachers get alerts when it’s time to step in with help. 2. Model-based differentiation Different blended learning models (Rotation, Flipped, Flex, etc.) support diverse learning needs. Each model allows educators to balance independent work and guided sessions. Students engage with formats that suit their learning style and pace. 3. UDL for equitable personalization Students can learn the same topic in different ways — by reading, watching a video, or joining a discussion. Those who struggle with reading can use audio or visual support. Everyone can show their knowledge differently, such as through an essay, a quiz, or a short presentation. 4. Human-led personalization Teachers act as mentors. They use features from digital tools to guide students. Educators provide 1-on-1 support. Human feedback extends technology with a human touch. Open Navigation for Students Unfortunately, standard learning forms are highly linear and force students to view content they may already be familiar with, leading to a poor learning experience. In the meantime, blended learning gives the student the freedom to choose: Studying material units in a convenient order Skipping already learned units Learning at a comfortable pace All that needs to be done to implement this approach is to correctly design the course itself and make its units independent from each other. This is necessary so that if the student starts the study, for example, from the third unit, there is no feeling that something is missing and that they should return to the previous units. Variety of Learning Formats Traditional teaching is extremely limited in presenting educational material, which runs counter to the personal preferences of each student. In the meantime, the tool enables educators to use the following presentation tools (or better to say styles): Virtual classrooms Seminars Self-paced learning Scenario-based eLearning Gamification Podcasts Video-based learning Forums, discussions, and so on Collaboration With Peers And Colleagues Blended learning opens up the boundaries of collaboration and collaborative learning, allowing students to join subject groups, complete projects together, and evaluate each other's work. All this can be realized online, thanks to various LMS tools like chats, forums, etc. Learning Related to Needs of Students Combining instructor-led workshops and online learning in blended education is a great way to provide and reinforce learning that is most relevant to the future needs of the students. In a seminar with a teacher, the teacher uses examples and practices from his own experience to explain how certain things work. This approach is of more interest to students since we are more willing to believe personal experience firsthand than fictional situations designed to present the material. Meanwhile, during self-paced online learning, students can delve deeper into the lecture material using various techniques such as gamification and modeling based on what they have learned in the lecture. Wrapping Up Personalization of learning is a sure way to improve the entire learning process, which makes it flexible and adaptable to the personal skills of a particular student. And as you can imagine, blended education is one of the great tools to achieve personalization. However, the implementation of this training format requires a unique approach and the help of specialists. Raccoon Gang has years of experience developing online courses and implementing various teaching methodologies and custom technical online curricula for multiple industries. All you need to do is write to us, and our representative will contact you to discuss the best way to bring your learning needs to life. [cta-purple t="Plan Your Blended Learning Rollout" d="Get a tailored model, tech stack, and pilot plan from e-learning experts."] [faq title="FAQ"] [faq-item question="What's the difference between blended and personalized learning?"] You will better understand the difference if you realize just one nuance: blended is the format; personalized is the fit. Blended learning is a mix of in-person and online instruction within the same learning process. Personalized learning is a learning format that puts the interests of each student at the center of attention. [/faq-item] [faq-item question="Which blended model best supports personalization?"] Flex and Individual Rotation fully meet your expectations regarding personalization. These models simultaneously offer such features as individual pacing and real-time coaching. [/faq-item] [faq-item question="Does personalized blended learning improve results?"] Engagement and completion are the outcomes that personalized blended learning is guaranteed to improve when properly implemented into the learning process. [/faq-item] [faq-item question="How do UDL and personalization relate?"] Universal Design for Learning builds the foundation for equitable personalization at scale. UDL is the design rulebook; personalization is how you apply it to each student. [/faq-item] [/faq]
- Main Benefits of the Blended Education System
- Ways How Blended Education Can Increase Personalization
- Open Navigation for Students
- Variety of Learning Formats
- Collaboration With Peers And Colleagues
- Learning Related to Needs of Students
- Wrapping Up
