Blended Education – Blended Models Emerge

Author: Dr. Donna J. Skinner, Education and Sales Consultant for K12, Inc. K12 is the largest provider of school online accredited curriculum and support services. K12 has over 10,000 students enrolled in 100 countries. 

What is blended learning? Blended learning is a formal education program in which a student learns in part through online delivery of instruction and content, with some element of student control over time, place, path and place in a supervised brick-and-mortar location –a school. The most common models that have emerged can be categorized into the following model: Rotation, Flex, Self-Blended and Enhanced Virtual.

In a Rotation model, (the most common) students rotate on a fixed schedule, spending some time immersed in traditional face-to-face learning and some time learning online. This model includes four sub-models: The Station Rotation model involves students rotating in a contained classroom The Lab Rotation model involves students learning in a classroom and going to a learning lab for online learning. The Flipped Classroom model involves rotation between a school for face-to-face teacher-guided work, and the student’s home or an off-site location for online learning. The Individual Rotation model gives each student an individualized schedule. The Flex model utilizes online learning curriculum as the foundation of student learning. The expert content teacher is available online. Students do their school work on site (at the school), with a facilitator-learning coach, at the facility interacting with the student on an individual basis. This model is becoming very popular. Many 21st century minded entrepreneurial educators are starting up flex academies (or blended schools). The San Francisco Flex Academy offers an interesting YouTube: //www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/6IwswLHd2UE?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0

The Self Blended model combines online learning and brick-and-mortar education. In this model, students take one or more courses online (off site) with an online teacher and also maintain brick-and-mortar education (on site.) The Enriched Virtual model students divide their learning between brick-and-mortar and online methods. Within each course, students split their time between both learning methods. Author: Dr. Donna J. Skinner, Education and Sales Consultant for K12, Inc. K12 is the largest provider of school online accredited curriculum and support services. K12 has over 10,000 students enrolled in 100 countries. Contact Donna at: dskinner@k12.com

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