From a student perspective there are different levels of online learning. As technology transforms education, all teachers will need to use electronic tools and resources within their classrooms and homework assignments. That issue is examined in the Wisconsin Digital Learning Plan.
While the definition of “blended” learning is evolving, the most widely accepted definition was developed at the Innosight Institute by Heather Staker and Michael Horn in their 2012 paper Classifying K-12 Blended Learning. This diagram explains the blended learning models used for Wisconsin schools. They define blended learning as follows:
- a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace
- at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home.”
By this definition, a student that takes some courses online and some face-to-face at school is participating in "blended learning."
Blended learning may also be when some aspects of a single course are online and flexible and some are not. It may be that the student attends class face to face for a couple of days a week and the rest of the course is done online. It may be that students are in school along with their teacher but all taking the majority of their instruction on a flexible timeline. For more detail refer to Classifying K-12 Blended Learning.
School Districts currently have the flexibility to explore blended and online programs and can get help from the Wisconsin Digital Learning Collaborative.