What Is Blended Learning? And Its 5 Advantages For Your Classroom

This post, will uncover what is blended learning, its benefits & how you can use it to scale your classroom training. Read more to find out.

Education in India is undergoing a digital transformation. 

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, its rigid curriculum and knowledge-based exams are paving way for more practical & application-oriented online learning. 

Thanks to the advancements of e-learning, education is now happening online! 

Having said that, we can’t completely do away with classroom programs as it has its fair share of advantages.  

For instance, the human interaction between a teacher and student is one benefit that e-learning often misses. 

So, the need of the hour is a halfway solution that can combine the classrooms with online technology. 

This has resulted in the development and popularity of blended learning methodology. 

Many teachers are still unclear about what blended learning is and how different it is from regular e-learning. This post will try to answer what is blended learning and its business benefits for teachers like you.

What is blended learning approach?

In simple words, blended learning is a teaching methodology that combines online interactions and study materials with classroom teaching. 

Popular Definitions On The Web

Here is a classic definition of blended learning – 

“Blended learning revolves around self-study by the students using online resources combined with teacher-led classroom discussions.”

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Here is a short YouTube video on what blended learning is:

Typically learners can study by themselves using online resources, and use the classroom to discuss & clear their doubts. Such a practice results in more enriching learning experiences. 

This is why most businesses and institutes are trying to incorporate blended learning. 

Additionally, it also helps them reduce their learning program cost, making it more affordable to students. 

Business Benefits Of Mixing Technology With Classrooms: An Example

Let us understand the business benefits of blended learning for your classroom with a simple example:

Ram is a UPSC aspirant who enrolled into a training academy in Lucknow. 

However, Ram stays 20 kilometers away from the academy and often ends up missing the classes. His performance soon started degrading.

Concerned about the declining performance of students like Ram, the institute decides to opt for a blended learning approach. 

The institute creates an ecosystem that has a combination of classroom training and online coaching. 

The classes and course materials are now made available online for the students to view anytime. 

Students like Ram can now attend the classes whenever they want. They can even attend Live sessions of their favorite teachers. 

And, even if they miss a part of the lesson, they can always go back and learn from the recorded sessions. 

To top it, even assignment discussions and mock-tests are made available online. 

The institute is now able to deliver engaging courses for its students beyond geographical boundaries. 

Such is the power of blended learning. A study even proves this point. It states that 59% of students like to learn in the blended learning model. 

The importance of blended learning has been aptly recognized by the apex learning body of India – CBSE. 

It has announced its intention to incorporate blended learning in the coming days in all schools across the nation.

How blended learning can help improve your business?

So, here is the most important question: How can blended learning help your business? 

You may be a teacher looking to improve your teaching methodology, or an institute looking to expand your student reach. 

Wherever you are in the field of education, opting for blended learning will have the below advantages for you – 

Flexibility

Your learners can have the flexibility to learn courses at their own pace and convenience.

For example, a learner can choose to attend your classroom, only for complex topics. And, choose online classes for easy topics. 

Having this flexibility can make your courses more attractive to your learners. 

Effective Tracking

You can plan the learning roadmap for each of your students. 

You can not only define the success factor of your students but also visualize and track their progress. For example with advanced test analytics reports. 

This in turn helps you to focus more on the struggling students, spend more time with them and help them to come up to speed. 

All this means better performance of the students and better word of mouth marketing for your teaching business.

Attract Gen-Z Learners

It’s a known fact that today’s generation is adept at handling technology. 

A study points out that a vast majority of millennials prefer to communicate using digital means as opposed to in-person. 

This clearly shows that learning powered by technology can help you reach the current generation better than with the traditional brick and mortar classroom training.

Create Learner Personalized Courses

Personalized courses are the future.

For example, your learners may be interested in programming. Based on their interest, you can create a programming master course or coding contest courses. 

You can be a thought leader in your niche and make amazing course sales with personalized courses.  Check this programming website for reference.

Cost Savings

You can save at least 50% of the cost of your regular classroom training program when you adopt blended learning.

You might spend about INR 2000 – INR 20,000 for the initial setup. But post that, you can create online courses at a very low cost. 

Refer this guide to estimate the cost required to create a setup for online classes

You can also eliminate additional employee expenses, venue costs, electricity costs, and travel costs.

What does the future of Blended Learning look like?

Below are the 3 strong technology players that can affect blended learning. 

Virtual Reality Can Aid Blended Learning

Virtual Reality classroom is one such technological advancement that will impact the way blended learning will be handled in the future. 

Through its immersive experience, VR is a perfect companion for teachers as it helps them to explain to the students about other worlds and cultures without taking them out of the classroom or home. 

With various VR devices available in the market, the day is not very far when VR will be an important part of the blended learning methodology.

AI-Powered Learning

Another major driver for learning in the future will be Artificial Intelligence. 

Imagine if a computer can determine the progress of the students automatically, tailor-make the courses according to the students’ interests, and assess them. How easy would life be for teachers?

The Forthcoming Days Of 3D Printing

3D printing is coming huge these days and it will also have a part to play. Teachers and students can easily make mini-models effortlessly whenever they need to supplement the learning and improve the engagement amongst students.

How To Implement Blended Learning And Improve your Classes?

Learnyst understands the importance of Blended Learning in today’s world and also understands the needs of teachers to expand their business. 

Our Learning Management System helps you to conduct live classes, create assessments, and create a holistic learning ecosystem for your students. 

Use our platform to build courses in just a few steps using a wide array of content such as presentations, documents, pdf, videos, SCORM, and TINCAN. 

Give personalized attention to your learners by downloading detailed student performance & analytics reports. 

Create very generic or granular courses by using segment features and implement blended learning. 

I hope this post helped you and gave you a good insight on the business benefits of combining classroom with technology.

What Next?

If you want an all in one platform that helps you focus on teaching, then you should sign up for a free 14 day trial with Learnyst