Blended Learning Effectiveness in Improving Learning Access in Higher Education

One of the main problems of the development of higher education in Indonesia is how to increase public participation that is usually reflected by the Rough Participation Index (RPI). One of the government's programs to increase access to higher education is to utilize distance learning (DL) as one of the models of instruction. The legal protection to implement the DL has been available namely Law No. 12 the Year 2012 on Higher Education and, Regulation of Ministry of Education and Culture No. 109 the Year 2013 on the Implementation of Distance Learning in Higher Education. In addition to the Open University, there have not been a lot of Indonesian universities who develop and use DL as a learning model. This article conveying an experience of developing a not only valid but also an effective blended learning model of instruction in Universitas Negeri Padang, to expand access to higher education and finding alternative learning models to overcome the limitations that are owned by an institution of higher education.