COVID-19 has disrupted most of the industries in the world.

Education is the only industry that

is completely transferred to online mode in most countries around the world. Online learning
was the best solution for continuing education during the pandemic, especially in tertiary
education.
Some significant challenges to blended learning models include:
 the expense of technology,
 Lack of training,
 technological issues,
 the need to adapt content for blended learning,
 decreased motivation, and
 weakened relationships between students and teachers.

What are the challenges of online learning in the Philippines?

The result of the content analysis revealed the following categories of difficulties in remote
learning:
 unstable internet connectivity;
 inadequate learning resources;
 electric power interruptions;
 vague learning contents;
 overloaded lesson activities;
 limited teacher scaffolds;
 poor peer communication;

Action Taken
PERSONALIZING LEARNING
The traditional relationship between students and teachers is shifting to be more collaborative
and student-led. Personalized learning focuses on being highly student-centered, developing
character, building community connections and reconsidering resources like time, space and
technology. By using technology to adapt to new ways of learning recently, students are able to
choose where and how to best achieve learning goals.
HARNESSING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Digital transformation is altering how we learn — distributing it across space and time. As the
cost of technology drops, there’s increased adoption of mobile devices, apps, VR and AR for
learning. Tools to identify student behavior patterns can feed e-mentoring solutions. And
experiments are underway to monitor engagement in classrooms with audio, motion and vision
sensors.

Opportunities are open for blended learning to be implemented as part of education

reform during the pandemic.
 We believe that implementing blended learning during the pandemic can increase the
ability of educators to conduct effective distance learning, especially in terms of using
technology.
 Whether we like it or not, teachers are forced to be creative in using information
technology. We have to choose which technology fits the learning activity, learn how to
use it, and then evaluate how we used it to see its appropriateness in the learning
setting.
  Blended learning can serve as the first step towards an information and communication
technology-based education system.

Now that schools and teachers are being forced to incorporate educational technology and
seriously implement blended learning because we will have students working from home, all
students will have access to this learning model. Even before COVID, students were very likely
to learn, get higher education degrees, or do on-the-job training through blended learning or
online learning, so the sooner students are exposed to those modes of learning the better
prepared they will be for their future learning. We hope that the many good things to come from
this pandemic are more equitable access to technology and connectivity as well as more
teachers incorporating technology in their courses.

We’ll admit it: creating this model took a lot of trial and error.  But in the end we built an
instructional model that effectively harnessed the power of technology, but in a way that
suited our authentic personalities as educators, and showed our students how much we
cared about educating them. Redesigning classrooms to solve blended learning’s
challenges took work, but the results were well worth it.

Today, as teachers, we use these lessons to train and support educators as we create
blended, self-paced, mastery-based classrooms of our own.  We hope we will enjoy oyr
journey to creating better learning experiences for all.

Educators and students have just participated in a sweeping and sudden shift
in the use of technology to learn. The result — a broadening recognition that a
blended learning approach can provide the opportunities and flexibility
necessary for the future of education. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic,
blended learning was a choice. Now, it’s a necessity.

Accelerating the trends

COVID-19 has accelerated and amplified trends in education that were already in
motion.
PRACTICING DEEPER LEARNING
Blended learning allows schools to rethink and transform learning with opportunities to
adopt these deeper learning experiences, especially when in person. Many educators
are adopting constructivist approaches — where students discover and construct
knowledge themselves. Active, social and collaborative, and experiential and project-
based learning are examples.
 Action Taken

PERSONALIZING LEARNING
The traditional relationship between students and teachers is shifting to be more
collaborative and student-led. Personalized learning focuses on being highly student-
centered, developing character, building community connections and reconsidering
resources like time, space and technology. By using technology to adapt to new ways of
learning recently, students are able to choose where and how to best achieve learning
goals.

ELEVATING WELLBEING
Wellbeing isn’t just physical. It’s also cognitive, emotional and social. Student and
educator wellbeing is intertwined and directly related to learning, engagement and
achievement. Mental health issues are a rising concern especially since the pandemic.
In addition, a reliance on digital screens makes a holistic approach to wellbeing critical.

CREATING NEW EXPECTATIONS

Large shifts in the world of work and beyond indicate a growing need for people who
can thrive in a highly collaborative and agile environment. A broader range of skills and
knowledge is needed, from new technical skills to deeper personal and interpersonal
skills — such as communication, resiliency, collaboration and socio-emotional skills.
Digital learning offers new opportunities to learn these skills.

Action Taken

HARNESSING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Digital transformation is altering how we learn — distributing it across space and time.
As the cost of technology drops, there’s increased adoption of mobile devices, apps, VR
and AR for learning. Tools to identify student behavior patterns can feed e-mentoring
solutions. And experiments are underway to monitor engagement in classrooms with
audio, motion and vision sensors.

Blended learning has the potential to harness these trends and reshape the
basic operations of educational systems by rethinking the concepts of
instructional delivery, place, time and how learners are grouped together. By
integrating new forms of online instruction, learning management systems,
and increasingly rich device experiences, blended learning can enable more
dynamic, rich learning experiences.
Answers to Your Blended Learning Questions
Teachers had a lot of questions about an Edutopia
video featuring a blended learning model developed
in a public high school, and the team behind that
model has answers.
By Kareem Farah , Robert Barnett
August 8, 2019

The teaching practices that create blended learning can

replace lecture-based, one-size-fits-all teaching with student-
centered, technology-enhanced instruction that allows
students to learn at their own pace, mastering content and
skills as they go. When Edutopia visited Eastern Senior High
School in Washington, DC, to film teachers who are
implementing a model of blended learning, our audience had
a lot of positive things to say about what they saw in the
video.

George Lucas Educational Foundation

They also had a lot of questions about how to implement this

model in their own classrooms and schools. As cofounders
of the nonprofit Modern Classrooms Project , whose work
forms the basis of the teaching practices featured in the
video, we have answers to some of the most frequently
asked questions.

BLENDED LEARNING FAQS

1. What exactly is your instructional model?  Our
model has three
components. First, using blended instruction, teachers
replace their lectures with self-made instructional videos.
This frees up teachers’ class time to work directly with
students by eliminating the lecture bottleneck , which makes
possible the second component of the model: self-paced
structures that empower students to learn at their own pace
within each unit of study, either individually or in
collaboration with peers. Finally, our teachers use mastery-
based assessment to ensure that all students are truly
understanding the content and skills they need to be
successful.

2. How do you create the videos?  There

are many ways to create
good instructional screencast videos. We use a tablet and a
stylus, which makes it easy to write directly on the screen,
and to put the videos online for students to access using any
learning management system. With tablets, we’ve
found Explain Everything  to be the most useful tool.

If you don’t have access to a tablet with a stylus, you can

use a desktop or laptop computer. Screencasting programs
such as Screencast-O-Matic  provide similar functionality to
Explain Everything.

For more details on the specific devices and programs we

use, check out our Blended Instruction Guide .

3. What happens if students don’t have devices at home?  We

don’t
require students to access the digital content at home
because it would only exacerbate inequities. Instead, we
make sure to provide time for students to watch the videos
during class, using school devices. These videos are very
easy to watch on a cell phone, however, and many students
choose to do that. We also provide time during non-
instructional hours for students to use the devices in the
classroom to catch up if they fall behind.

4. How much time does it take for students to adjust to this system?  The
kids adjust to the model in a few weeks. The beginning is
key: We usually build short units to start, so students learn
the model and get frequent checkpoints and fresh starts. We
also encourage teachers to keep their instructional videos
short and to constantly engage students in metacognitive
activities to help foster their sense of self-direction. We
encourage teachers to create an introductory video—like this
one for a course on probability and statistics —that walks
students through the new system.

5. What about students who fall behind?  We

only self-pace within
each unit. This ensures that students get regular fresh starts
and allows them to reflect often on their behaviors and
mindsets. We identify “must do,” “should do,” and “aspire to
do” lessons in each unit, to ensure that every student
masters the core skills while identifying extra opportunities
for motivated students to extend their learning.

Maintaining unit-end deadlines—by which time all “must do”

lessons must be completed—helps motivate students, limits
procrastination, and creates a healthy space for reflection at
the end of each unit. Prior to the start of the next unit,
students engage in metacognitive exercises where they
identify the habits of mind they will improve on in the next
unit. Very rarely does a student not master all the “must
dos.” If that happens, a more rigorous intervention, like an
after-school tutoring plan, would be the next step.
Students can go back and master “should do” and “aspire to
do” skills from previous units on their own time, but we would
much prefer that students fully master the most essential
seven skills in a unit than that they partially understand 10.

6. How do you support students who move at a significantly quicker

pace?  Having meaningful extensions for high-flyers is
essential. We plan at least one “aspire to do” lesson in each
unit—generally stand-alone projects or college preparatory
activities (such as Khan Academy’s SAT prep ) that can really
engage faster learners—and provide lots of room for
continued improvement through revision of unit-end
assessments, which high-flyers may complete early. If
students finish those projects or activities, we usually ask
them to serve as teacher assistants for the unit, which is an
opportunity that they generally love.

7. How do you address students with special needs or learning

deficiencies?  The
accommodations and modifications are
similar to the ones used in a traditional teaching model, to
ensure that everyone masters the “must do” core skills.
Because they’re no longer lecturing, teachers have much
more time to support struggling students, and students get
the time they need (in or out of class) to truly master each
skill.

8. How do you manage students who are unmotivated or off-task?  We

motivate them—we use the time that we once spent lecturing
to really get to know our students, building relationships that
help us push each student toward his or her potential. We
provide students with regular progress updates, so they
know exactly what they need to do each day, and at the end
of each unit we challenge them to reflect on what they can
do better in the future. Once students understand that
they’re responsible for their own learning, they usually find
the motivation they need.

9. How do you calculate grades?  Our

teachers calculate grades in
two ways. For each skill that students learn in the course of
a unit, we use a binary scale: Students get credit if they’ve
mastered that skill, and no credit if they haven’t. In our
model, students can revise and reassess a skill until they
achieve mastery, which improves their grade as well. This
reinforces the importance of actually mastering content,
rather than simply completing assignments without achieving
true understanding.

End-of-unit assessments like tests or projects, on the other

hand, are graded in a more traditional, performance-based
way.

In general, this system fits nicely with a traditional

gradebook and A–F system. At the end of the quarter, if a
student masters 80 percent of the content, they receive a B-
on a traditional grading scale. The grade reflects how much
the student truly understands.

10. What does this look like in a language or science class?  The
beauty of
our model is that it’s flexible—each teacher sets up the
system based on his or her content area, grade level, and
expertise, so the model looks different depending on the
class.
We have seen, in general, that language teachers like to use
frequent whole-class discussions in their courses, while
science teachers tend to rely more on videos to prepare
students for complex, hands-on activities like labs. We love
seeing how different teachers adapt the model differently,
and are continuing to learn from them. Our current cohort of
educators are spread across middle and high schools and
include all core content areas as well as electives.

11. What does this look like in the elementary grades?  We
haven’t tried it
there yet—our youngest students are in sixth grade.
However, we don’t think the model needs to change much
for elementary school, so long as instructional videos are
short enough to keep kids’ focus and to limit their screen
time, and so long as the self-pacing windows don’t allow
students to get too far off-track. The younger the kids, the
more frequent the checkpoints.