Blended Courses: The Best of Online and Traditional Formats (Clinical PRACTICE‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Online courses and online programs have been available for some time. Now many educators in clinical laboratory science and other fields are using a combination of online and face-to-face methods in the delivery of their courses. This has been called blended or hybrid instruction. Flexibility, marketability, and reduction of seat time on campus are three of the main reasons cited as reasons for using blended methodologies. (1,2,3) While "blended instruction" can apply to the blending of totally online courses with traditional classroom courses within a program, this article will discuss blended instruction within courses; that is, courses that contain both online and classroom instruction. Recent literature has addressed the effectiveness, advantages, challenges, and best practices of blended courses.