Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/55943
FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY Perfect B The by Susan Gautsch and Charla Griffy-Brown Blend efore the arrival of the Internet, learning most often happened when students and teachers met face-to-face in a classroom. Even with all the new options available today, face-to-face learning is still a powerful approach to education that promotes spontaneity, fosters a sense of com- munity, makes it simpler to resolve conflicts, and allows students to carry out time-based activities. But with so many different methods of learning available today, face-to-face learning is often only one component of education. In fact, 125 AACSB-accredited business schools offer some form of online learning, and many combine on-site instruc- tion with online education to create blended learning pro- grams. A growing number of interactive collaborative tools have made blended learning easier to use and, therefore, more attractive to many schools. Online education can take many forms, but it's most common- ly divided into three modalities: multisite synchronous, remote synchronous, and asynchronous learning. The challenge for busi- ness educators is to determine which blend of modalities works best for their own programs. Before we describe how blended learning works at our school, Pepperdine University, we'll take a look at the various permutations and examine how each one suits certain aspects of teaching and learning. 28 BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010 Pepperdine University mixes on-site learning with collaborative online tools to prepare students for the new realities of the workplace.