Curriculum

Blended Learning Research: The Seven Studies You Need to Know

By Michelle R. Davis — April 13, 2015 6 min read
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One of the biggest complaints about blended learning is that educators don’t know if it really has a positive impact on student achievement, and if so, under what circumstances.

But in the last few years, a handful of studies have come out concluding that some programs show at least modest gains using blended learning techniques and tools. In a new Education Week report “Blended Learning: Breaking Down Barriers,” released today, my colleague Sarah Sparks takes a look at the current state of research on blended learning.

Sarah notes that meaningful studies of blended learning are only slowly beginning to accumulate, after years in which educators felt they were operating in the dark in terms of what instructional techniques and software show signs of working.

Efforts to interpret the research on blended learning are complicated by a number of factors. Blended learning programs are often implemented in very different ways, under different conditions; many studies don’t use a standard definition of what blended learning encompasses; and technology evolves so quickly that research can focus on a digital tool or system that is outmoded within a few years.

If studies find no impact or only modest gains for students using blended learning programs, that doesn’t “really compel dramatic reconsideration of our practices,” noted Justin Reich, a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the author of the EdTech Researcher blog.

What Works in Education?

Julia F. Freeland, a research fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, a San Mateo, Calif.-based think tank that studies blended learning, said one of the biggest limitations in the research on “what works in education” is that it focuses on average students.

The whole power of blended learning, by contrast, lies in its ability to personalize education to meet individual students’ needs. “When we rely on research for a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down, we don’t actually research what educators and administrators really need to know,” she said. “We don’t need more studies that say, ‘On average we see modest gains.’ That doesn’t help me as a teacher see whether those modest gains could occur for my students.”

Despite all the barriers standing in the way, educators will find a number of studies of individual blended learning program and strategies that can help guide their work. A few highlights from that body of research:

Sarah’s story on blended learning research is just one of many articles in the special report. Other stories focus on creative ways districts are bringing Internet connectivity to students outside of school, and how school spaces are being redesigned to encourage and take advantage of technology. Another story looks at how school librarians in some districts are becoming digital mentors.

There’s a piece profiling an Ohio school district’s creation of a laboratory to study teachers’ experimentation with technology. And Digital Education blogger Ben Herold looks at the debate over whether centralized district purchasing, or school autonomy, works best when it comes to buying blended learning software.

Photo: Adult observers, behind a two-way mirror, watch teachers working with students using technology in the Catalyst laboratory in Mentor, Ohio. The district uses the laboratory to allow teachers to experiment with blended learning strategies, under the observation of peers, with the goal of refining educators’ instructional strategies.

See also:

A version of this news article first appeared in the Digital Education blog.