Attention Shifts to Blended Learning at Virtual Ed. Conference

New Orleans

While the rise of blended learning has long been on the radar of leaders in virtual education, last week's Virtual School Symposium may have been its unofficial coming-out party.

From beginning to end, blended learning—briefly defined as any of a variety of approaches that combine features of both face-to-face and online instruction—took headline status in keynote speeches, panel discussions, and report releases throughout the three-day conference hosted here by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning , or iNACOL.

For example, the "Keeping Pace" report from the Evergreen Education Group, a document released every year at the symposium by the Durango, Colo.-based online learning research and consulting firm, for the first time included blended learning in its subtitle as a nod to the continual blurring occurring between fully...