The choice of reduced seat time in a blended course

• Blended courses have a wide range of reduced seat times versus traditional courses.
• Skip rates in a flipped and flexible course are used to measure reduced seat times.
• Student preference is to reduce traditional seat time by 49% to 63%.
• Class attendance is positively related to the use of online materials.

Two instructional features are available to students in blended courses that are not present in traditional courses. First, online content is available with the intent that it substitutes for a portion of face-to-face lectures or other in-class types of material delivery. Second, in-class seat time in a blended course is reduced as compared to a traditional version of a course. In this study, we explore student choices of reduced seat time in a blended course that does not have a punitive attendance policy, uses online lectures rather than in-class lectures, and conducts alternative, but optional, in-class activities. After taking into account the skip rate that occurs in the traditional version of the course, we find an interval estimate of 49% to 63% for the mean reduction in seat time chosen by students in the blended version of the course. Also, using empirical models of attendance, we find that student use of online materials contributes in a positive way to class attendance.