Blended learning in corporate training

Why should you use a blended learning approach?

Training a company’s employees is not a new trend in the business global environment, this practice has been a necessity for so long because organisations have always needed well-prepared teams in terms of both knowledge and skills. What has changed then?

The way in which this vital information is delivered to learners, a change determined on the one hand by the employee’s needs and on the other hand by the digitalising of this age which imposes new methods of training.

Some still use the traditional in class instructor-led classes, others have adopted the eLearning for delivering knowledge, while some companies make the best out of these two by using a blended learning approach.

What’s blended learning?

Blended learning is a hybrid learning strategy that involves both synchronous instructor-led classes and asynchronous web-based learning methodologies which allows the learners to acquire information at their own pace, whenever they want and on any device they like. Online learning at its best, basically.

Why using this methodology?

First of all, because the final goal of a corporate (online) training is to increase the employees’ productivity and efficiency on the long run and a blended learning strategy provides them with a variety of approaches that trigger their interest and increase their engagement. Why would they be more motivated by blended learning than by traditional classroom instructor-led classes?

Well, because they have tons of tasks to achieve, they feel the pressure of keeping up to date and they need to have the possibility of acquiring information in a way that also fits their needs and their learning habits.

Also, with this blended learning approach, they feel that they have control on their learning process which is an essential aspect. Basically, it leads to employee engagement starting from what the employees actually want from the learning process.

Instructor-led classes following online self-study or vice-versa leads to the best outcome of both of them because, for example, theory can be passed on in online and after the learners are on the same page in terms of theoretical information, the instructors could fully dedicate their time to clarify doubts, practically applying the previously acquired concepts and testing comprehension level.

Moreover, the instructor-led part do not necessarily have to happen in face-to-face interactions, which lead to higher costs for logistics. You can use an efficient eLearning platform which delivers instructor-led online classes in the form of webinars and live-streamings.

In this approach, you can use eContent to deliver knowledge which brings a huge value in comparison to traditional, printed learning materials. Why? Because they are a form of learning resources which provides the knowledge in a responsive and interactive forms, in contexts which are similar to the real working contexts of the employees.

On the one hand, this leads to higher levels of engagement and on the other hand they bring tangible added value to both the organisation and the learners’ personal and professional development. Also, it is well-known that the knowledge retention can be improved when adding a new element in the learning process because this approach don’t let the learner get bored and, thus, demotivated.

Hint: We recommend Brain Concert for creating valuable eContent for your learning process.

This approach facilitates feedback, both in terms of the learners’ perspective on the whole learning process and in terms of the levels of comprehension and qualitative delivery of the information. Basically, using an eLearning experience platform, a company is in full control of the employees’ learning habits and learning progress through the analytics section, which comes with in-depth details on a variety of aspects, such as the time spent on a course, the results to some form of testing the knowledge.

You can involve the employees in the way in which information is delivered to them. How? By listening to their needs and to their approach in terms of accomplishing learning goals. You can talk with them about the benefits of a blended learning approach, focusing on the company’s needs and on their own professional needs and you can also conduct a survey in order to find out their requirements.

This is a good approach because if you align the learning methodology to the learners’ approach to training, then the outcomes will be beneficial. Otherwise, the information will not be properly delivered and this leads to a waste of resources and time, on the other hand, and on a lack of proper preparation of the employees, on the other hand.

This approach gives the opportunity of a continuous access to learning which is not offered in the traditional way of delivering classes and which represents a disadvantage along with the higher costs of traditional classroom trainings and the logistics issues of scheduling these sessions as to be suited for the employees, for the trainer and for the company.