Blending learning is becoming a popular teaching method in the classroom, and teachers are curious to see what students think about the practice.

Peter West, director of eLearning at Saint Stephen's College in Australia, recently conducted a survey at his school seeing what his students thought about blended learning, and shares his results in an article on eschoolnews.com.

"With blended learning, the computer may provide much of the learning fundamentals and students must be more self-regulated than in a traditional industrial model classroom, but the teacher still plays a vital (albeit different) role," West wrote. "School leaders need to be aware of this, and need to have pathways developed to transition teachers to this new environment. Thus, teachers must be trained in the different pedagogy, and this should impact the way professional development is delivered."

West conducted the survey to his students who were in a self-paced blended learning course. West wrote that "all students used the same learning resources in 'lessons' of the same duration and were in the same physical environment."

Here were the questions:

• How do you rate (overall) the way that we “do” this subject?
• How do you find the online tutorial approach affects your learning in class?
• How do you find the tutorial approach affects the speed of your learning?
• Do you find the online approach better for reviewing information?
• How easy is it to get help when you get “stuck” with a problem and you are not sure what to do?
• Your teacher talks less often in this subject than in a “normal” class. Is this better for your learning?
• Most of your time in class is spent “doing things”, with explanation from the teacher on occasion. Is this better for your learning?

"When asked to rate the class using these questions, students were generally positive in their assessments," he wrote. "Students in both classes were overall reluctant to give either teacher poor marks, but the class taught by the teacher comfortable with blended learning topped the “anomalous” class—significantly—in every question. The students in the comfortable blended class averaged mainly 1s and 2s in their assessments, while students in the other class averaged responses that crept closer to “neutral” in many cases."

West wrote that leaders of schools "need to ensure that teachers who work with blended learning courses are trained in the pedagogical differences between the blended learning environment and the traditional classroom."

"Assuming that a teacher will automatically know what to do can create problems. It may add unnecessary stress to the life of the teacher, and it may hamper learning outcomes of students," he wrote. "On a larger scale, it may produce the perception amongst students, parents and teachers that blended learning “doesn’t work;” blended learning “works”—we just need to ensure that we adequately prepare for its implementation."

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Article by Kassondra Granata, Education World Contributor