When the eLearning Guild conducted The Blended Learning Best Practices Survey in February 2003, we found that a significant majority (85) of our respondents’ organizations were using blended learning for the creation and delivery of educational content. In our most recent survey, conducted in November 2005, we found that this majority had increased to 93, and that 0 of our respondents reported that their organizations would not use blended learning in 2006. This finding means that 100 usage of blended learning is on the immediate horizon, and shows that blended learning is finally becoming the preferred, and pervasive, format for the design, development, and delivery of educational content.
In the Guild’s June 2004 report, The Trends in Blended Learning Research Report, we focused on general practices in the use of blended learning in our respondents’ organizations. In this current report, which presents the findings of the November 2005 survey, we again include commentary on and analysis of trends of general practice. For example, we found that classroom training remains the most frequently cited program component of blended learning programs, and that it is fundamental to the vast majority of our respondent’s definition of blended learning. Our survey results also confirmed that improving the learning experience is more often a rationale for blended learning than is the desire to reduce delivery and development costs, even though blended learning does indeed reduce costs according to our respondents.
In addition to the topic of general practice in the organization, we also focused in this survey, for the first time, on blended learning from the designer’s and the learner’s perspective, and so there are two sections in this report devoted to these topics.