Principles of Language Assessment

19 distinguishing factor of reduced seat time. This delivery mode is one of the fastest growing and most successful instructional models to deliver flexible learning options for today’s learners. They also added that an important item to note is that non-face-to-face time does not necessarily mean that students will need to be present in an online environment, although that is certainly an option. As stated by Graham, Allen, and Ure 2005, people chose Blended Learning for these three reasons: 1 Improved Pedagogy One of the most commonly cited reasons for blending is more effective pedagogical practices. The most current teaching and learning practice in both higher education and corporate training settings is still focused on transferring rather than interactive strategies. As cited by Graham 2006 from Collis, Bruijstens, and van der Veen 2003, some have seen blended learning approaches increase the level of active learning strategies, peer-to-peer learning strategies, and learner-centered strategies used. 2 Increased access and flexibility As cited by Graham 2006 from Bonk, Olson, Wisher, and Orvis 2002, access to learning is one of the key factors influencing the growth of distributed learning environment. By implementing blended learning in the classroom activities, the students can easily access the materials and the exercises. The learning activities also can be more flexible because the teaching and learning activities happen partly face-to-face and partly online. 20 3 Increased cost-effectiveness Cost-effectiveness is a third major goal for blended learning systems in both higher education and corporate institutions. Blended learning systems provide an opportunity for reaching a large, globally dispersed audience in a short period of time with consistent, semi personal content delivery. As cited by Graham 2006, Bersin and Associates 2003 have done an exemplary job of documenting corporate cases that have effectively used blended learning to provide a large return on investment. As stated by Graham 2006, there are some categories of blended learning system, the categories are: 1 Enabling blends The primarily focus of this category is on addressing issues of access and convenience. The example is blends that are intended to provide additional flexibility to the learners or blends that attempt to provide the same opportunities or learning experience but through different modality. 2 Enhancing blends This category allows little changes to the pedagogy but do not radically change the way teaching and learning occur. For example, in a traditional face-to- face learning environment, additional resources and perhaps some supplementary materials may be included online. 3 Transforming blends This category allows a radical transformation of the pedagogy. For example, a change from a model where learners are just receivers of information