The e-learning industry is evolving as we speak. Today, we come across new strategies and technologies that empower people through learning. Blended learning is one of these strategies. Blended learning takes care of both online and traditional aspects of learning, giving learners a well-rounded learning experience. This helps your remote and in-house teams to make the most of upskilling programs and sessions.
The “What” and “Why” of Blended Learning
“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” – John Dewey
The “blended learning” approach is being adopted at a rapid pace in the corporate learning and training space. Whether you want to train managers or your new employees, blended learning can help you. It’s a combination of web-based training and traditional classroom methods. It is also defined as the thoughtful integration of technology and hybrid learning strategies that combines online and old-school classroom experiences. This approach fills in all the gaps in the traditional corporate training process. For decades, corporate trainees have used a one-size-fits-all approach to teach, train, and hire employees, but it doesn’t work for every individual. Every person is different; they understand, learn, and implement things at a different pace. Some can pick things up quickly, whereas others learn more slowly.
Lorman stats show that 85% of employees want to regulate training sessions as per their choice; moreover, 91% want their training sessions to be personalized. Blended learning modifies the way employees learn and develop new skills. It promotes deeper learning and focuses on an employee’s satisfaction and individuality, which can benefit both the organization and the employee. Technology has pushed us to change the way we learn, work, and function. Organizations are discovering new opportunities, like blended learning, to train their employees.
Five Reasons to Leverage Blended Learning for Human Capital
Switching your training method can be overwhelming in the beginning. With the help of blended learning strategies, however, things can become easier for you and your team. Here are a few reasons to leverage blended learning for your organization.
1. Combines the Digital and Natural Experience Blended learning brings both the offline and online worlds together. On the one hand, it allows employees to get comfortable with their own pace of learning, and on the other, it leverages face-to-face interactions in the best possible way. For example, it can ensure all new employees are on the same page in an instructor-led class. If you’re an insurance company, you can organize sales rep learning modules and question-and-answer sessions to ensure everyone is on the same page.
2. Excellent ROI“Online learning is rapidly becoming one of the most cost-effective ways to educate the world’s rapidly expanding workforce.” – Jack Messman, CEO at Novell This learning approach is a cost-friendly way to track the progress of learners. Online and offline interaction can help new hires relearn fundamental concepts, practice activities, and receive feedback through comments or live sessions. In short, you can consider the preferences of your learning audience, whether they learn faster through videos, the written word, or visuals, and use the same for a fast and effective training process.
3. Training Beyond Borders With a single click, your students or trainees can start, pause, or revisit e-learning materials 24-7. The best part is that their location is not a barrier to their training process; they can access the materials and training programs from everywhere and anywhere. Smartphones and tablets have also helped boost learning across borders.
4. Introduces Gamification Gamification helps keep the audience engaged, motivated, and encouraged. With gamification, you can include challenges, quizzes, and riddles in your courses. Using gamification helps learners quickly implement their learnings and remember them for a long time. As rewards, you can give away badges or provide scores or collaborative incentives to enhance learner performance. This game-based learning approach under blended learning provides room for proficiency and improvement.
5. Real-Time Feedback One of the most prominent drawbacks organizations face is the delay of the feedback process. Earlier, employees used to wait for weeks to learn about their mistakes and improve; but now, providing real-time feedback has turned things around. Questions, complaints, feedback, or appreciative comments—everything can be pinned and saved for a new trainee in every online session.
Blended learning programs can help you balance your new employees’ education, training, and economic value. Investing in the teams that work toward achieving your business goals is always a good idea. So, what’s stopping you from leveraging this asset for your business?
