Amidst the rapidly changing landscape of education, many novel pedagogical strategies have emerged in the recent past. Many of these teaching techniques focus on combining modern day technological teaching tools with traditional methods of teaching to make the latter more formidable and make sure that the students learn in the best possible manner. Today, the teaching world is witnessing a meteoric rise in online teaching. Especially since the coronavirus pandemic, when schools and college campuses were shut down, locking millions of students and educators across the entire nation out of the classroom, eLearning has become one of the most popular methods of teaching and learning out there.
Nowadays, schools and colleges have also turned towards technological teaching and management tools such as institute ERP, smart classes, ERP and likewise in order to streamline their teaching and management functions. Blended learning is one such teaching technique which takes together the best elements of offline and online teaching and combines them to provide a flexible, smooth and superior teaching and learning experience for the educators and the students. Blended learning provides teachers greater flexibility, makes teaching less expensive, allows teachers the access to a large pool of teaching resources to enhance the learning experience of their students and improves overall teaching conditions. Here are the top benefits of blended learning for the students and why educators should give it a try in order to truly witness its benefits. So, without further ado, let’s dive in…
Increases Student Engagement-
As any experienced educator will tell you, for any meaningful learning activity to happen, student engagement and interest is of paramount importance. Today’s student is well versed with the use of technology and shows a strong affinity towards the use of technology in the classroom as opposed to traditional methods of teaching. Blended learning integrates technology with traditional teaching methods which helps in igniting a spark of interest in the minds of students and makes them enjoy learning. It helps them study otherwise monotonous subjects with interest and also helps them in retaining the information they learn in the class for a longer period of time.
Active Learning-
An active learning environment provides students greater ownership over their own learning which, as indicated by research, happens to improve their learning outcomes significantly. A blended classroom helps educators in providing an active learning environment to the students which benefits their knowledge and retention as opposed to a passive learning environment which a traditional instruction-based teaching approach generally provides. With greater use of technology, students are free to learn from a variety of sources including recorded lectures and a plethora of online resources. Moreover, they also have the flexibility to learn from anywhere and at any time. This naturally leads them to take greater ownership over their own learning which is a better way of learning than traditional instruction-based learning.
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Students Learn At Their Own Pace-
Novel teaching methods such as eLearning and Blended Learning enable the students to learn at their own pace. Blended learning provides greater flexibility and also allows the students access to a multitude of online resources thereby allowing them to learn at their own pace. Educators can guide the students and help them in achieving even greater learning speed by providing them access to more advanced resources. Blended learning also provides students with greater autonomy over their own learning which allows them to take their own sweet time while learning any new concept.
Prepares Students for Future-
Blended learning programs make ample use of technology which helps the students in gaining exposure to real world use of technological resources and also helps them in developing a range of 21st century skills. Blended learning allows the students to improve their research skills, collaboration skills and makes them more responsible towards their own learning outcomes. Actively engaging with the course content helps the students in learning a concept deeply and in a much more real sense when compared to traditional teaching where a lot of times students just end up cramming a lot of stuff while only gaining a superficial understanding of the topic being taught. Therefore, blended learning helps in making the students future ready in numerous ways.
Educators should always try to inculcate new and effective teaching techniques in their class in order to make sure that their students learn in the best possible manner. Blended learning is one such teaching technique that educators should really try out in the classroom.
