Critical Factors for Implementing Blended Learning in Higher Education

The use of blended learning environments in higher education has rapidly increased in the 21st century. Tools andtechniques that initially were used in experimental distance education courses are today part of mainstreameducation with blended learning as a continuum between traditional face-to-face teaching and pure online courses.In this wide variety of course design there are success stories, but at the same time examples with low pass ratesand poor learning outcomes. The research question for the study is: Which aspects have to be considered in the design and implementation ofblended learning in higher education? To answer this question, 15 selected publications were analysed in a I iteraturereview with the aim to identify important and critical factors when implementing blended learning in higher education. As a result of the inductive analysis around 50 found factors have been grouped into 10 Categories of critical factorsand 4 Blended learning perspectives in a strive to identify critical aspects of contemporary blended learning in acomprehensive structure. One conclusion is that blended learning today can be seen as a mature educationalconcept still in need of redesign. Problems that were reported two decades ago are now combined with other morerecently identified critical factors. The presented categories and perspectives might be valuable as a checklist forimplementations of blended learning and hopefully a useful base for further research in the field of blended learning.HEE