WOL: Defining Online and Blended Learning

 Online learning or blended learning is a crucial part of the coming generations' early education and a current part of higher education, as well as within the workforce. With the right learners, it can have significant impacts and improve learning outcomes. Such as the ability to provide access to information, educators and an engaging learning environment from anywhere in the world. It can bring gaps found within low income communities, those living in rural areas or students who are frequently moving from one place to another. It also allows access to train employees without the need for a designated office space, plus it hits the criteria needed to provide education to a plethora of learners with disabilities. Overall online learning offers significantly more options for the delivery of materials than in person methods. 

The downsides can sometimes almost match the positives unfortunately, as the increase in plagiarism has been seen in both online and blended learning. Students tend to struggle with focusing when there is not a teacher physically present and in many cases, the delivery of online learning is lacking in individual practices. Often curriculum is a “plug and play” model and it does not allow for differentiation or to meet the needs of learners where they are. From a business perspective, it is often that schools choose to invest in a model they feel is useful for the long term and checks as many boxes as it can, while still hitting the state standards. But it is generally impossible to leave content unchanged for years to come, in fact, some programs require a complete overhaul of the content within a semester or two. AI recently caused quite a few educational programs to become obsolete or completely change the fabric of their delivery. 

I personally feel that AI brings as many positives to the table as it does negatives. It is forcing designers to rethink models that rely heavily on textual submissions and focus more on engagement, as well as interactive ways to prove students are understanding the materials. I think the missing key component to online learning is still a teacher's presence and it goes beyond videos or audio clips. I feel after working in digital classrooms I found the inability for educators to adjust, add, remove and create online content made it lacking. In many ways, I think a teacher who has knowledge of instructional design would be a perfect fit for a digital teaching position, assuming they were given some semblance of control over the content delivered. The ability to tailor our students' experiences is what makes in-person learning so valuable and once we find a balance online, I think we’ll really start to see some incredible growth. I would say that reason alone is why I prefer blended learning when it comes to younger students' digital outcomes. 

Blended learning however is a bit more uncommon, but in my opinion I do feel it can be just as useful as online, if not more so. It allows the same flexibility to be at home, with the option or sometimes mandatory requirements to be in a classroom. One of the biggest downsides for teachers in an online classroom is the difficulty getting students to turn on their cameras or fully engage them in group activities or discussions. But blended learning allows the opportunity for educators to meet the needs of their students in a social aspect, while still allowing digital freedom. Blended learning provides a structured environment where students can get hands-on assistance and collaborate with peers. Going back to the downsides of fully online learning, it’s becoming more apparent that it can lead to issues with people of all ages becoming socially stunted because of the lack of in person interaction. 

I truly believe that online education is going to one day surpass an in person environment, especially since it helps provide access to content regardless of weather, pandemics, and even for some countries, war. Though no matter how accessible content may seem when presented in a digital environment, it is still important to be aware that beyond our own walls and within. Factors such as, stable internet connection, electricity and physical devices still present an issue for many online learners. It is because of that, I think online learning’s future will be to continue its initial plan of making things digital and accessible, by tailoring education towards an even more inclusive structure. It will be essential to make sure courses can be accessed via a tablet, mobile phone, etc. and to go one step further, it would be even more prudent to offer as many materials as is feasible offline or available for download. 

As someone who has worked in a digital environment serving students working off their phones or struggling with infrequent internet access, it was a great disservice to them to be left without the functionality to use their phone or work offline during power outages. In one particular case, a hurricane left them without consistent electricity for almost three weeks. Every time they had a connection, they would log on, but unfortunately the content was completely plug and play through an online program, making it difficult to submit the assignments once they lost connection once more. They lost almost a month of learning and it was impossible to catch up once they were in a better position. It is not to say a digital environment was not still their best chance at a quality education, but issues like that shed light on the need to continue personalizing digital learning or blended. The constant common factor in the failures of these environments continues to be generalizing learners or not evaluating their culture, location, living conditions, etc.