Distance Learning

FuelEd and Getting Smart Offer Tips for Building Blended Learning Programs

• By Leila Meyer
• 02/27/15

Simplicity, ease of use and anytime-anywhere access are key to the success of online and blended learning programs, according to a new white paper from personalized learning provider, Fuel Education (FuelEd), and education advocacy firm, Getting Smart.

Last year, FuelEd and Getting Smart released their first white paper about implementing online and blended learning programs. That paper, Fueling a Personalized Learning Revolution in Secondary Education, focussed on the benefits of personalized and blended learning for secondary students and described various blended learning models.

The new white paper, How to Successfully Scale Personalized Learning: Six Key Lessons from Effective Programs, focuses on expanding successful programs to serve more students. This paper suggests a framework for scaling online and blended learning programs, details six lessons learned from educators who have scaled their programs, outlines the benefits of scaling such programs and offers recommendations for administrators and educators who want to scale their program.

To collect information for this white paper, Getting Smart interviewed educators from schools and districts that had already developed successful programs and subsequently expanded those programs to all of their students. Based on those interviews, Getting Smart identified six key lessons learned.

The six key lessons include:

• Simplifying the user experience for teachers and students and ensuring ease of access to online and blended learning platforms;
• Enabling schools to customize course content to include teacher-created content and customize assessments;
• Partnering with organizations beyond the school to extend access to online and blended learning programs and offer more ways of delivering instruction;
• Involving administrators and teachers in strategic planning, curriculum review, instructional alignment and partnership cultivation;
• Growing in a "stairstep" approach; and
• Rewarding and recognizing success.

The white paper is available through Fuel Education's site.