• Data Collection Strategies: In one-to-two pages, describe the data obtained through the observations. Charts, diagrams, or other visual depictions of your data may be included.

I’m studying whether online, blended, or traditional learning are more effective for students in 21^st Century learning. There are some institutional results available concerning the improvement in scores when using blended learning as opposed to traditional learning. Here are the results:

Spring City Elementary Hybrid Learning School’s PSSA Results

Salt Lake City Schools were facing a 10% dropout rate collectively in the district and needed to address this. Innovations Early College High School was opened in the 2012-2013 SY. Students were given more freedom in their choices and complete the courses at their own pace. The graduation rate as of 2014 was 89%. The Spokane Public Schools use their own means of meeting the needs of students. On Track Academy was established as a temporary solution to address the growing graduation rate. It was a success and became a permanent part of the district. Here are the results:

·         “In the 2013–14 school year, the high school ICAN program had 813 course enrollments with an 87% completion rate. The middle school ICAN program had 339 course interventions with an 83% completion rate.

·         On Track Academy had 280 students attending in the 2014–15 school year and had a graduation rate of 90% in 2014.”

These are all successful programs who have made the case for creating blended learning programs.

(iNACOL, 2015)

·         Outcome Analysis: In one-to-two pages, present your conclusions of your data analysis. Explain the specific strategies that were successful, which strategies did not work as well as was anticipated? Additionally, explain how the strategies support the research questions.

With these findings, it can definitely be said that blended learning has been shown to be effective in the districts that have established it. The whole idea is to help improve education for students and address their individual needs. Districts with higher dropout rates sought solutions to the problem by establishing these trial schools and monitoring their progress. Some students have needs that just can’t completely address inside the classroom so using blended learning to give them options helped to improve their performance. I like the idea that students can have choices in their education. The Innovation Early College High School offered the best solutions out of all of those studied. Often students are inundated with too much work and are not necessarily processing the information that they are learning. No one says to make their lives “easier” but rather give them options that work for them. Having 3-4 courses as opposed to 7 courses that are meaningless and are counterproductive to each other makes no sense and can produce bad results. The saying, “quality and not quantity” applies in this scenario. Processing so much meaningless information defeats the purpose of learning. Finding this information through the study has allowed me to gather data on real schools who have been successful. However, there’s not much data out there yet. K-12 schools are still so fresh with using different means of learning for students and cannot offer solid conclusions on what works best. The evidence still needs to be looked at and studied in the coming years to ensure that we get better information. Still, the data looks pleasing in the area of blended learning.

Reference(s):

International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL). (2015). Blended Learning: The Evolution of Online and Face-to-Face Education from 2008-2015. Retrieved from http://www.inacol.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/iNACOL_Blended-Learning-The-Evolution-of-Online-And-Face-to-Face-Education-from-2008-2015.pdf

 # 2 respones to DQ 2