As the hype around blended learning continues to grow, we thought we'd sit down with an expert to learn what it's all about, and hear what advice our guest would give to training providers currently in the consideration phase.
Interview with:
Jan Jilis van Delsen
Managing Director
aNewSpring UK
Yes, certainly! I've been a trainer for several years and subsequently have worked in the eLearning and learning technologies sectors. It's made me a big fan of blended learning. Because of my 20+ years’ experience in this area, I've got plenty of insight and can share many examples of organisations having gone through digital transformation projects.
I'd say, start small and think big. As a first project you should not try to achieve everything in one go. Create a small course, receive feedback from your learners and other stakeholders and make improvements.
Although you might start small, think about what you need in the coming three years. Buy relevant tools that can grow with you. Usually this means a learning platform that is easy to use for your staff, supports a variety of training methodologies and integrates well with other systems.
In short: The benefits differ per company but you should expect a combination of the following: you can differentiate your business, lower your cost of delivery, scale up easier by reaching a larger audience and improve quality of training delivery.
To satisfy most audiences, training companies offer three forms of delivery. Classroom, self paced eLearning and blended learning. Classroom delivery is great because the instructor can pay attention to the individual learner and there is the opportunity to network with your peers.
eLearning delivery can easily be scaled up and gives a consistent message. It is also cost effective to deliver and can be personalised. However, eLearning does not recognise the question mark in the learner’s eyes. Only an instructor does that. (Until we add Artificial Intelligence; facial recognition that is).
With blended learning you add instructor lead elements in the learning journey. This creates a much better learning experience and training outcome.
Many training companies already have an online presence but are now moving to a blended strategy. Most directors of training organisations now realise that a sustainable and mature online presence is needed to compete in today’s world. This is not new, COVID-19 accelerated this trend.
Yes, definitely. Some training companies do not pay attention to the instructional design of their blended course content. They just use a standard eLearning course and add the instructor. That will not give you a great learner experience. It is worth thinking about the changes you might have to make to your existing content to make sure it works in a blended way!
That's two questions!
As mentioned previously though, it is worth spending time beforehand on the right design of your blend. If you need some help with this, have a look at this free course (or this one!)
Once you decide on the structure, it is a matter of creating the course (you might re-use some existing materials such as workbooks, PowerPoint slides, assignment templates), which will enable you to build a course very quickly in your chosen platform.
Technology can help you as a training provider to create and deliver the learning, and there is technology to help the student learn. This combination will help you differentiate your business.
Unfortunately, many training companies choose a Learning management System (LMS), which was designed to help HR departments deliver training to internal staff. These systems are not designed for you as a training provider. Look for a system designed for training providers and that can help you create and deliver your training and can help your students learn. Of course, aNewSpring is such a system 😊
Typically, there are three types of costs:
Normally it will take an upfront investment to get started with online and blended learning. That’s why I recommend starting small and then scale up.
Blended learning will work in most cases. It’s the type of blend that differs for every organisation. Some topics are 80% theory and others 80% practical. Learning a theoretical concept can be done mostly online. The instructor lead part also helps you differentiate your training business. (use videos, classroom or webinars in that case).
Here are a few examples of blended learning in different sectors:
Railway maintenance: Creating an appropriate mix of activities for 'on-the-job' learning
Retail: Creating an effective onboarding journey
Finance: Modernising learning delivery by introducing online components
Online and blended learning have been growing for the last 20+ years into a mature sector and delivery method. Adoption is now accelerated by COVID-19. If you still have doubts, here are some resources to take a look at.
Fosway recently conducted some research on digital learning realities, and the market as a whole.
The Learning and Performance Institute is also a great resource for training companies -check out this course for online facilitators.
If you would like to learn the '5 strategies to blended learning success', sign up for the Blended Learning Masterclass on 26 November at 3pm GMT, where we'll be speaking with Jan about how to get up and running!