Blended learning is rapidly gaining popularity in higher education. To our knowledge, responsible factors for its effectiveness on learning do not seem clearly defined yet. This article aims, through a systematic review of the literature, to submit elements of response to this apparent lack of knowledge. We present an inventory and a synthesis of the pedagogical elements actually implemented in blended learning to highlight the pedagogical components related to student performance, according to the typology of Burton et al. (2011). In this regard, four bibliographic databases are being searched to extract all documents (n=1767) studying blended learning. The corpus of articles analyzed includes 21 different studies in which blended learning is compared to other types of educational methods (e-learning or traditional learning). An assessment of these documents highlights five educational components that show an impact on learning. Without claiming to rank them against each other, we put forward a discussion and a synthesis of these components.