Launch Blended Learning In Your Organization In These 5 Simple Steps

Blended learning involves more than mixing different learning preferences of corporate learners. It involves knowing about the learning preferences and deciding which preference will be best to look after the needs and requirements of the corporate learners.

In-person coaching, virtual reality learning, social learning, and 360 assessment tools are various learning approaches that organizations can combine to create an effective blended learning course.

Carefully choosing training and learning modalities helps instructors create the best and most robust blended learning strategy that seamlessly meets your business and corporate learners’ needs.

Say you’ve determined that blended learning is the best option for your corporate training needs. What should you do now? Refer to these five simple steps when implementing blended learning in your organization to ensure its effectiveness and relevance.

Step 1: Make Goals For Blended Learning

Establish the aims and goals you hope to achieve through blended learning.

You may want corporate learners to be more active and independent in their training journey. You might perhaps want better compliance on the part of your employees. Or you could give corporate employees or staff members more chances and opportunities to work together so they can hone their social skills.

Whatever the case, make sure you have the goal decided beforehand!

Step 2: Pick A Blended Learning Strategy/Model

The next step is to choose the blended learning model that best meets your objectives. You may utilize more than one model but be committed to continuously maintaining them all.

Also, remember that different models need different equipment and learning environments.

Even seasoned learning professionals may feel confused due to the range of available blended learning strategies and resources. But you don’t need to worry about this because we have a comprehensive list of top blended learning models here. You can choose from among these to incorporate into your organization:

Face-To-Face Driver Model

This model focuses on providing offline corporate training in a proper learning setup. But it also seeks to provide additional online live training to the corporate learners who need it, struggle to cope with traditional movement or seek to expand their knowledge base.

Rotation Model

The rotation model enables corporate learners with various learning preferences to benefit the most from the instruction. In this technique, the employees are divided into smaller groups and given a variety of tasks to complete in turns at various levels. Some activities are done in person, while the learners can finish the other activity online.

Online Driver Model

Due to its exclusive reliance on digital training delivery, this strategy is the antithesis of traditional classroom learning. It integrates both asynchronous learning (self-paced study of online training materials) and synchronous learning (online peer-to-peer training sessions, live webinars, etc.). Live face-to-face sessions are typically optional with the online driver model, but you can schedule them if required.

Flex Model

The flex model relies significantly on online training delivery, with instructors or administrators serving as facilitators rather than the main training source for their corporate learners. The Flex model gives corporate learners control over their training since they receive it online.

Step 3: Choose The Best Tools To Create And Deliver Content

After determining your blended learning model, you’ll need specialized tools/software to start the blended learning’s online component. Every organization has different requirements, but all of them will require two tools: an authoring tool to produce online content and a learning management system to deliver it and monitor the progress of the corporate learners. Let’s examine these two tools in more detail:

Authoring Tool

The authoring tool allows you to produce and modify eLearning materials rapidly.

You need access to a good authoring tool owing to the adaptable and adjustable nature of blended learning. Try using an eLearning authoring tool if you have no previous experience with instructional design. With an eLearning authoring tool, you can generate corporate training content without much effort.

Learning Management System (LMS)

LMSs help store online training materials, provide them to corporate learners, and produce reports that show whether or not training is practical.

Additionally, some LMSs let you schedule and track attendance for offline sessions. The multipurpose LMSs are ideal for blended learning.

The following are the key elements that an LMS for blended learning should provide:

  • access to online training resources on any device
  • easy integration with your authoring tool
  • Simple enrollment of corporate learners
  • choices for asynchronous and synchronous learning
  • Provision for effective communication between the employees as well as between the online instructors and learning employees
  • Comprehensive analytics on corporate learners’ progress

Step 4: Redesign The Learning Environment

The next step is to set up the offline training environment.

Depending on your selected blended learning strategy, you might need to restructure your learning environment. The learning environment should be designed in such a manner that it motivates and encourages corporate learners to learn.

For instance, if you adopt a face-to-face driver model, in that case, you need to have a well-constructed learning and training setup for practical corporate training, whether it’s online or offline.

Step 5: Launch Blended Learning And Be Patient

The last step is to let your corporate learners enroll and test the effectiveness of your blended learning strategy. Now, all you have to do is administer and coordinate the learning process patiently. Keep in mind that at least a few weeks will pass before you can honestly know the result of your strategy.

This step will also help you pinpoint the challenges you might face while launching blended learning in your organization and help you devise solutions to them.

Conclusion

The evolution of corporate training from traditional workshops to online landscapes has been significant.

However, learner-centricity is, and always has been, the cornerstone of practical training. Regardless of your approach, you can’t go wrong by prioritizing your corporate learners above all else and refining the remainder of the process as you go.

If blended learning is the correct option for you, you can easily implement it in the five steps mentioned above.