What factors contribute to effective online and blended education? (Summary)

In recent years, it has become clear that forms of online education will play an important role in the future of higher education, a process that was accelerated by the transition to online education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This transition occurred ad hoc and heavily relied upon teachers’ improvisational skills and prior experiences with online education. Yet, many teachers and students miss benchmarks of effective online education, partly as they have often never experienced online or blended education themselves. Online forms of education are not necessarily ‘second best’, but for these to be effective requires more than to simply transfer an existing course to an online or blended environment. In order to live up to the expectations of online and blended education of its advocates—e.g., more flexibility, better student performance, high motivation, and its contribution to lifelong learning—careful implementation based upon evidence-informed insights is needed. At the request of the Executive Board of the University of Amsterdam, a systematic literature review was conducted to synthesize research on effective online and blended higher education.