BLENDED LEARNING: MODELS AND REAL CASES

The article deals with blended learning as one of the trends of modern higher education. The research results indicate the positive impact of blended learning on the development of students’ creative thinking, competencies of cooperation and social interaction, the ability to “tune” their learning activities to individual needs. The current stage of development of blended learning is characterized by the fact that the term “blended learning” remains an indefinite and constantly changing concept for several reasons: firstly, because it is an umbellate term combining various models that combine traditional or technologically rich learning environment with online environment. Secondly, the term “blended learning” is often mistakenly used to denote other approaches, elements of which are also present in blended learning. Third, blended learning continues to be a relatively new phenomenon in education, and there is a lack of empirical research on the impact of this model on learning outcomes. The article provides an analysis of various approaches to the concept of “blended learning”. It is concluded that blended learning is an approach that does not boil down to combining contact forms of organizing the educational process with online learning, but involves major transformations in building the structure of the training course, organizing and supporting personalized learning activities of students. Various models of blended learning are considered, presented with the classifications of M. Horn and H. Staker et al. Two criteria are established by which disciplines can be assigned to one of the blended learning models: the share of the online component and the potential for personalization. By the potential for personalization, the authors understand the totality of the organizational and methodically determined possibilities of the model, which can be used by the teacher in designing a course for learning personalization. The article presents the results of a study on the practice of implementing blended learning at the HSE - St. Petersburg. The purpose of the study was to determine which blended learning models are represented in educational programs for undergraduate and graduate curricula. The result of the study was not only the definition of models with the help of which the blended learning is implemented, but the identification of a group of the disciplines that cannot be attributed to any models (despite an online component), but also the disciplines that can acquire the signs of blended disciplines on the certain changes in pedagogical design. The authors of the article come to the conclusion: - blended learning is an approach in which a combination of online and contact learning is accompanied by pedagogically designed support for student learning activities in order to achieve personalization of learning; - in the implementation of blended learning models such components as the time, place, pace, and method of learning are important. If these elements are not methodologically inscribed in the structure of a mixed discipline, the discipline cannot be assigned to any blended learning model; - blended learning models can be divided into two categories: “F2F driver” and “online driver” by the proportion of the online component in the total discipline labor intensity. Whatever category the model chosen by the teacher in designing, this model can be considered a blended learning model only with a high potential for personalization, can.

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