Different Approaches to Online Learning

An Education Week special report in the current issue pulls together information on different approaches to blended learning. In the introduction, Katie Ash says there are four basic models:

• The rotation model – Within a course or subject, students rotate on a fixed schedule (or as directed by the teacher) between different learning modalities, at least one of which is online learning (Khan Academies, for example). 

• The flex model – Instruction is delivered primarily via the Internet, with students moving on an individually customized sequence; scheduling is fluid among learning modalities, and the teacher of record is on site.

• The self-blend model – Students choose to take one or more courses entirely online to supplement their traditional courses; the online teacher is the teacher of record.

• The enriched-virtual model – Students divide their time between attending a brick-and-mortar campus and learning remotely using online delivery of content and instruction. 

Which works best? “The more we know about the variety of blended learning models in K-12 education, the more we know we don’t know everything that’s out there,” says Susan Patrick, head of a Virginia-based advocacy and research group. 

The most important features of blended learning are up-to-the-minute diagnostic information on students’ learning needs and students being able to move through a learning sequence at their own pace. “It totally empowers the kid because they get immediate feedback, and they know exactly what they need to do,” says Diane Tavenner of the Summit charter schools in California. “It’s a lot of hard work, and it’s uncomfortable, and it looks messy. But we believe that unless school organizations are set up [in new ways], they aren’t really going to move forward.” 

“Blended Learning Choices” by Katie Ash in Education Week, Oct. 24, 2012 (Vol. 32, #9, p. S4-5), http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/10/24/09el-overview.h32.html 

From the Marshall Memo #458