The FREE eBook from iAM Learning - Turning The Tide on Blended Learning

Blended Learning

We don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the working world has changed significantly in the last year or so. And we don’t need to rehash the ‘new normal’. So, we’re not going to mention the C word*, or the P word* - we’re just going to assume that all of us know hybrid working is the “new normal” (oh, we had to, sorry.

One 2020-ism isn’t too bad, is it?) *That’s Covid and Pandemic

WHAT IS BLENDED LEARNING? Blended learning is a phrase that’s been bouncing around the L&D industry for years.

In fact, it can be dated back to 1999. So why is it still such a hot topic decades later? And why can’t the industry agree on a universal definition of blended learning?

Many define blended learning as the merging of online technologies with face-to-face instruction. Of course, that is a form of blended learning, but we think it’s much more than that. This interpretation places too much emphasis on the technology. We think it’s time to re-evaluate this, and put the learning front and centre once and for all.

As we embark on a new working world, it’s time to start asking the important question: what’s the right learning solution for our people?

TURNING THE TIDE ON BLENDED LEARNING Think about the last learning intervention you designed.

Why did you create it? Was it eLearning because you wanted to gamify it, was it face to face because it’s quicker to create? Maybe it was a PDF because you were told to get it done this week? Or perhaps it was simply because you were told to create it? Whatever your answer is, the ultimate objective remains the same across the board: to change learner behaviours and empower them to develop new skills.

But changing behaviours takes more than an hour in the classroom, watching a video or completing an eLearning course. It takes practice, repetition, and often, it takes a blend of learning methods. Remember, learning isn’t a one time event.

Today’s employees are hungry to learn. They want to upskill and reskill, to future-proof their careers. But they want to do this on their own terms, in ways that suit them and their hectic schedules. They want learning on-demand and in-the-flow of work. They

want it to be accessible and personalised. And they also want to be able to speak faceto-face with an instructor or Subject Matter Expert (SME) if the need arises. So it’s safe to say that modern learners want a lot. And on top of that, L&D are now catering for five generations of workers, each bringing its own opinions and preferences. You must deliver on all of that if you want real learning success. Which means it’s time to think about learning more holistically.

THE LEARNING INDUSTRY’S BEST KEPT SECRET...

Brace yourself, this might shock some of you. We’re about to let you in on one of the learning industry’s best kept secrets: Buying new learning technology is very rarely the answer to your learning challenge. In fact, we’d go so far as to say that learning tech alone is never the answer to learning challenges.

Of course, technology is a really powerful enabler of learning. From the authoring tools we use to create courses, to the platforms that deliver a tonne of resources straight to our learners’ devices. But that tech itself isn’t going to educate your people. Nor is it going to transform your learner engagement metrics (yes, even the latest, shiniest platform - with all the bells and whistles, can’t do that!)

In a similar way that focusing on the blend is damaging for blended learning success, so is focusing on the technology you use. Instead, we need to focus primarily on three things: • The efficacy of your learning design • Your business requirements • The learners’ needs You cannot design an effective learning experience, without knowing what your business requires or how your learners best digest the information, so how do you go about finding this out?

GETTING TO THE CRUX OF THE LEARNING PROBLEM So let’s forget about technology, learning platforms or blended learning for just a minute. Instead, think about your learners and the learning opportunities you’re offering them.

Can you confidently say that this learning matches their needs? Do the interventions deliver the impact you need them to, or will they be better fulfilled if catered to by another method?

Hopefully your learning hits these marks, but if it doesn’t, we can confidently assume you haven’t conducted a Training Needs Analysis. And don’t worry, you’re not alone - many people skip this step.

WHAT IS A TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS (TNA)?

Before you embark on designing or developing any form of learning intervention, you must conduct a training needs analysis. TNA’s enable you to holistically investigate your challenge and identify the business factors impacting it - such as deadlines, audience and investment time available. Then, coupling this with research about the preexisting knowledge, skills and abilities your people already have, you will be able to: • Identify what the requirement is • The delivery method • And perhaps most importantly, if it’s a training need at all Yes, you read that last point correctly. Many things that fall on the lap of the L&D team cannot be solved by training alone, often coaching or communications is the way to go.

PICTURE THIS...

There’s been an update to your CRM system, you’ve changed the way the naming conversion works in a drop down list. In this instance, your people will not need retraining on the CRM, they’d just need some communication about the change.

If you’d completely changed your CRM, this would significantly impact your employees. So in this instance, you would develop a learning intervention, and likely combine it with coaching and communication.

TNA’s help you find this out before spending time and money delivering a training programme that is unlikely to work.

Once you’ve identified if it is a training need, it’s important that you evaluate how the learner will obtain the information.

Is this something they’ll need to cement into their long-term memory, or is it something they might need once in a blue moon - and as such a learning aid may be appropriate?

Many learning interventions are complicated, and mastery requires a multitude of skills and knowledge. As such, one method of learning delivery is unlikely to suffice. For example, your training requirement might be best fulfilled by a face-to-face programme, followed up with some bite-sized learning that can be accessed in the flow of work.

Or perhaps a programme of eLearning modules spread over an expanse of time might be sufficient, if supplemented with learning resources such as PDFs and videos.

BLENDED LEARNING AIDS RETENTION, TRANSFER AND MASTERY When it comes to learning, we want our people to transfer any skills or knowledge acquired back to the workplace. We want them to remember and apply what they’ve learned and truly become skilled in the topic at hand. And blended learning is a great way to achieve that.

BLENDED LEARNING FOR RETENTION

BLENDED LEARNING FOR LEARNING TRANSFER

You’ve probably heard the saying “practice makes perfect” and there’s a good reason for that: Practice does make perfect… It boosts retention at the very least. To achieve retention, skills mastery and behavioural change, learners should practice and apply their learning over time, and we call this spaced repetition.

As well as wanting your learners to remember the content you’ve shared, you also want them to apply it in the workplace. Blended learning is a great way to promote learning transfer, notably when utilising one-to-one learning interventions, such as manager guides and discussions. Unlike other learning interventions, blended learning is a continuous process. Decrease the gap between formal training and application to boost learning transfer effectiveness.

Think back to your school days, you probably saw students cramming for exams. Repeating knowledge over and over until it was cemented in their brains. But that knowledge is promptly forgotten when the exam is finished. And this is because cramming doesn’t work. Spaced repetition shows us long-term learning success requires regular reviews of learning materials over time. If implemented correctly, blended learning is a great way to facilitate this in the workplace.

For example, if you’re training your employees on GDPR, an off-the-shelf training resource may provide the core knowledge, laws and theories. To boost learning transfer, you could blend this online learning with a face-to-face training class, which includes role play, enabling learners to apply their knowledge from the online learning, and aid skills mastery.

A BLENDED APPROACH TO CREATING A LEARNING CULTURE In the learning industry we often speak about organisations having (or not having) a ‘learning culture’. In a similar ilk to blended learning, there isn’t a universal definition on what learning culture really means. But here at iAM Learning, we believe that an organisation with a positive learning culture provides relevant and timely learning opportunities to their people, and actively encourages learning, and embeds it into their day-to-day operations. But it doesn’t stop there, these organisations also have a true acceptance of new ideas and are willing to break the status quo - if there is a possibility for improvement. These organisations have a growth mindset, they empower people to take ownership of their own development. They are at the front of their field, and they are the big game changers.

The truth is, the route of a positive learning culture comes back to one thing: enthusiastic learners.

And blended learning is a great way to do just that.

GIVING YOUR LEARNERS WHAT THEY WANT L&D practitioners are often encouraged to focus on what the learners need, rather than what they want. This is because what learners want usually requires block-buster budgets, and as L&D professionals, we aren’t usually that lucky.

But when it comes to how our learners want to learn, we can - and should - try to cater to their needs as much as possible. And no, we’re not talking about the debunked theory of ‘learning styles’, however, modern learners are busy, and they will all have their own unique challenges.

So providing learning interventions that work for them shouldn’t be overlooked.

How do you know what your learners need? All too often L&D professionals make assumptions about learners’ needs (and wants, for that matter). And we all know what they say about assumptions… So we recommend profiling your learners.

CREATING LEARNER PROFILES It’s time to get out there and speak to your learners. Stop assuming - start asking. Survey your audience and find out what they need and want from their learning. Then segment your learners, based on their mutual characteristics or traits - as discovered in this survey. You could base these on job roles, learning desires or motivation levels.

But once created, you will know what works best for that audience segment - removing ambiguity moving forward.

For example, one of your segments could be “leaders”. They’re time-poor, and are often pulled in many directions throughout their working day.

Therefore, they need higher level content that they can access and interpret quickly. Attending face-to-face training is often a poor use of their time, but they need to know the same content their teams are provided so that they can adequately coach on the topic. Therefore, you may choose to implement eLearning for your leaders, and face-to-face for their teams.

This approach of segmenting your learners is borrowed from our friends in marketing. They call it personas, so you might hear that phrase used in learning too. It’s a simple, effective design practice that is often overlooked in learning design. And this is because it’s often deemed time consuming.

Or perhaps it’s because people imagine creating unique learning solutions for each segment is a poor use of budget. But the truth is - this approach, if used correctly, results in less retraining, more organisational impact and as such - a better use of L&D budgets.

This is because by segmenting your learners, you are able to provide blended learning that is personalised to your learners, en masse. This will enable your learners to feel empowered, as though they are receiving a learning programme tailored specifically to their needs, ultimately supporting a positive learning culture in your organisation.

MAKING YOUR LEARNING STICK So, it’s time we address the elephant in the room. If you know anything about iAM Learning, you’ll know that we provide engaging eLearning that grabs your attention and boosts memory retention. But we also understand that eLearning isn’t the only answer to learning challenges - and it isn’t always the right answer either. eLearning can be a fantastic element of blended learning. But we don’t believe any eLearning will do. The difference between our content and other eLearning solutions is that storytelling is integrated into each and every module we create to help contextualize complex and sensitive topics. And that’s why our eLearning is really effective and sticks.

By using stories in the right places, we take theories and show learners how these theories translate into their world. This process embeds the learning and aids learner understanding of the topic.

Over the next 2 pages you can take a look at our five step process that we follow to make sure all our learning packs a punch and makes the impact we need it to.

WANT TO USE STORIES TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR LEARNING? Always remember S T O R Y: Solve a problem (use your story to answer a question) Triumph (whatever happens in your story, an eventual triumph will capture the hearts of your learners) Outcome (consider what the endgame of your story is) Research (well researched stories can help you to tailor your narrative to your learner personas)

You (use your own, personal stories whenever possible and prove your sincerity to your learners)

5 STEPS TO CREATING LEARNING THAT REALLY WORKS Always start with the question “what does the learner need to be able to do, or do better, by the end of this learning intervention?” The answer to this will scope out your learning objectives and ensure you stay focused throughout your learning development.

Question and challenge the delivery method before settling on it. You may have a preference for developing an eLearning module or a onehour face-to-face training session. But that might not be the right solution to engage your learners and achieve your goal.

Decipher what content needs to be included to help your learners meet their learning objectives.

All too often we see learning interventions with too much superfluous information. Cut it down, and focus on what’s important.

Decide upon the stories, media, user experience and interactions that will be used throughout your learning intervention before you begin to develop it. This will eliminate unnecessary bells and whistles - that might just distract your learners.

Make the magic happen! Build out your learning intervention and weave in accessible options like transcripts, subtitles, infographics, and so on, for an even wider blend.

IMPLEMENTING BLENDED LEARNING INTO YOUR ORGANISATION The efficacy of your learning is more important than the blend you use, so how can you implement blended learning into your organisation?

As we’ve already discussed, all training interventions need to start with a training needs analysis - firstly to determine whether the request is a training need at all, and secondly to determine your learners and businesses needs.

• Flipped classroom. Introduce new concepts to your learners away from the classroom (whether that’s face-to-face or virtual). Once they’ve understood these new concepts - they’ll be discussed and expanded upon in a more formal learning intervention.

There are many models of implementing blended learning, some of which may be more familiar to you than others. Three key models you can choose from are:

• Lab rotation. Although typically linked to schools or universities, scheduling in ‘lab time’ with your learners is hugely impactful. This enables them to dedicate a specific amount of time throughout their working day, away from synchronous learning, to learn how they want to.

• Flex learning. Flex learning is independent, asynchronous study, with instructor guidance and support. For example, your learners may be working their way through an eLearning module, and want to call upon their tutor to ask a question mid-way through. Flex learning empowers learners to do just that.

What learning interventions can you create? Do you have the resources to create an eLearning course? Or an instructor to run a classroom course? Do you have the budget to purchase an off-the-shelf solution? It’s important to know this upfront. As L&D professionals, we often face a lot of budget constraints - and although we know we could create show-stopping learning with unlimited tools and budget - often, it’s just not possible.

Now is the time to think about the tech. You’ve already decided on your method, you’ve worked out the ‘why’ and you’re ready to roll.

Technology is a fantastic facilitator of learning - so allow it to facilitate! Create personalised pathways in your learning platform. Send targeted communications to your learners. Wow them with amazing graphics.

Now’s the time to introduce your new, blended learning interventions to your learners.

Remember, blended learning may be a new approach for many of your learners - so they might need some education on the process you’ve chosen. Offer this information up front to make sure you learners aren’t deterred by new ways of learning.

THE POWER OF BLENDED LEARNING We should acknowledge the fact that the working world has changed - likely forever.

Employees are more remote, global and have greater autonomy and flexibility in their working day. Which presents a new challenge to L&D teams. It’s now much harder to bring learners together for a synchronous learning experience.

But we don’t want to lose the benefits of faceto-face, collaborative learning. So, L&D must now implement learning programmes that excel in this modern world - and blended learning is a great way to do that.

Blended learning brings together the objectives of your business, with the needs of your learners and creates a unique solution for your organisation. Nobody can tell you the perfect blend for your organisation, only you can do that - after a thorough training needs analysis. But once you’ve decided that blended learning is the way to go - and you’ve identified the goals, needs and wants of your learners, blended learning will empower you to not only make a learning impact - but go a long way to supporting a positive learning culture within your organisation.

LEARNING

info@iamlearningcontent.com www.iamlearningcontent.com