Defining Key Modality Parameters of Blended Courses

A recent increase in blended course options has changed the landscape of higher education, necessitating revisions of prior categorization of blended online and in-person course models. Building on the Mixed Instructional eXperience (MIX) taxonomy using current literature and course models, we developed three key parameters for defining course modality. Resulting parameters included: minimum technology-mediated delivery, with subcategories of synchronous and asynchronous delivery; geographical flexibility, a percentage of face-to-face course sessions that allow synchronous online attendance; and asynchronous completion option, a binary measure indicating whether full asynchronous participation in the course is allowed. Two coders applied these parameters to 33 syllabi with resulting intraclass correlations of 0.78 and 0.83 for minimum technology-mediated delivery (asynchronous and synchronous, respectively); 0.79 for geographical flexibility, and a Cohen's Kappa of 1 for asynchronous completion options. Results indicate that our parameters can be applied consistently, and adequately describe the modality options that distinguish various blended courses.