Blended Learning Over Two Decades

The 21st century has witnessed vast amounts of research into blended learning since the conception of online learning formed the possibility of blended learning in the early 1990s. The theme of this paper is blended learning in mainstream disciplinary communities. In particular, the paper reports on findings from the last two decades which looked at origination, development and future of blended learning through articles and other research publications. Based on over thirty journal articles indexed in Social Sciences Citation Index and other important databases, coupled with other related publications, this study explored the definition, advantages and problems of blended learning, arriving at the conclusion that more deficits may exist in either sole online or classroom learning compared with blended learning which combines both approaches although there may still be a certain number of disputes over blended learning. Educational and non-educational institutions may be wise to innovate their pedagogy towards a blended mode despite economic costs and other possible losses.