Getting Started | The Online Environment

Blended—also known as hybrid—courses are scheduled courses that combine synchronous meetings in a classroom (face-to-face) and asynchronous learning online (reviewing content, participating in online group activities, etc.).

There are several models for blended courses, but they assume “that certain activities can be better accomplished online, either individually or in small groups, than in a class.”

The Blended Learning Fellowship Program at UW-Madison developed this definition:

“At UW-Madison, blended learning courses are instructor-designed and supervised environments that use face-to-face and technology-mediated channels to enhance interactive, engaging learning experiences and to improve learning outcomes."

The SLOAN-C Organization developed the following definition, which helps provide some greater clarity of purpose:

• "Courses that integrate online with traditional face-to-face class activities in a planned, pedagogically valuable manner; and
• Where a portion (institutionally defined) of the face-to-face time is replaced by online activity. (Lester, Otte, Picciano, Sorg, 2005)”

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