Blended Learning

Middlebury Community Schools To Adopt Blended Learning

• By Leila Meyer
• 03/05/15

Middlebury Community Schools in Indiana plans to create two blended learning classrooms at Northridge High School and Northridge Middle School. The district expects the classrooms to be ready for the 2015-16 school year.

Blended learning programs combine online and face-to-face classroom instruction. The Middlebury blended learning program will likely use an online learning system from Fuel Education. The district will hire two additional certified teachers — one for each school — to recruit students for the blended learning program, coordinate schedules, answer student questions and monitor student progress.

The program may appeal to nontraditional students, including those who are currently homeschooled or need an alternative learning environment. The program will also enable traditional students to earn credit for courses that are not otherwise available. At the middle school level, those courses could include high school German, Latin or accounting. High school students could use the program to take remedial or college-level courses. Students in the blended learning program can still enroll in traditional classes at the school and participate in extracurricular activities.

The district expects to pay no more than $300 per student for the online learning software licenses, and the middle school estimates that it will spend no more than $16,000 on new computers for the program. Jane Allen, superintendent of Middlebury Community Schools told the Elkhart Truth that she expects the blended learning program to almost pay for itself because it will attract students to the school district.

Middlebury Community Schools serves three townships in northeastern Elkhart County, IN. The district operates four elementary schools, one intermediate school, one middle school and one high school.