Blended Basics
How to pick from the best of both delivery worlds
By Justin Hearn

 During the past 10 years, buzzwords have come and gone in the training software industry. Such terms as "managed training," "leadership," and "objective-based" have been replaced by "e-learning," "interactive," and "learner-centric." When it comes to the learners themselves, the term "information worker" is out and "knowledge worker" is in.

Knowledge workers require a great deal of flexibility, not to mention continuous training, to keep their skills honed and remain at the forefront of their professions. Because the new economy puts a premium on intellectual capital, companies need to exploit advances in technology to train employees more rapidly, more effectively, and less expensively.

The best of both worlds

The future of e-learning lies in a more practical concept called blended learning. According to most industry experts and participants at conferences such as the 2001 Training Directors' Forum, the delivery method of choice for both soft-skills and IT training is still the classroom, accounting for approximately 75 percent of the market.

The remaining 25 percent comes from various technologies including the Internet, intranets, CD-ROMs, satellite broadcast, audio/video, or a mix of any of these. Yet, these numbers are expected to change, especially as trainers mix and integrate different learning delivery approaches. With blended learning, technology-delivered learning and the classroom come together to generate the best possible offering.

In theory, blending technology-based training and classroom learning makes a lot of sense. "Many times we get caught up in the excitement of new technological solutions and forget what was done in the past," says Denny Yost, director of marketing for MindLeaders, a Columbus, Ohio, company that has been developing training for presentation over the Web since 1996.

He explains that the idea of blended learning isn't new. "Instructor-led training has been the primary method of training for decades, but supplemental training through such activities as reading books, doing research, using self-paced training presented from videotapes or CD-ROMs, and listening to audio presentations have also been used to complement stand-up instruction over the past 25 years," Yost says. Thus, incorporating Web-based training is a natural progression.

Finding the right blend

Determining the right blend of technology-delivered and classroom-based learning is almost like perfecting a recipe. Because so much training still takes place in the classroom, many trainers suffer from a lack of vision as to how they might incorporate technology-based lessons into their stand-up courses. Also, trainers must get past thinking that technology-based training sacrifices basic learner needs, such as being mentored by an instructor and interacting with peers.

Industry analyst Brandon Hall noted the advantages of alternate training methods in his Dispatch newsletter. In it he stated that learners can forget 50 percent of what they learned in a traditional classroom course in about 24 hours, but that they retain nearly 90 percent of what they learned in a computer-based simulation. As bandwidth increases, e-learning developers will be able to incorporate more hands-on interactions, realistic simulations, personalized lessons, and live instructor-led training delivered over the Internet.

In all cases, creating the best training programs starts with taking a hard look at the objective. In other words, trainers need to look at what must be taught and why. Most often, the objective of a training initiative is to solve a problem. If it's poor sales performance, the ultimate objective is to increase sales, and one way to do this is by offering some sort of motivational sales training.

Learning that involves changing habits, behaviors, or attitudes, for example, may not be accomplished best through e-learning channels alone. Famed behavioral scientist, B.F. Skinner, notes in his operant conditioning theory that changes in behavior are the result of responses to events or stimuli that occur in the environment. On the other hand, if the objective is to provide an overview of the organization to a new employee or group of new employees or to teach end-user applications such as Microsoft Office, e-learning suffices.

Other variables for trainers to consider are:

* The appropriate delivery of training. If the company is dealing with veteran salespeople who are experiencing slumps, then the training doesn't involve teaching a new behavior or a new strategy. These employees simply need motivation, which could be accomplished in a number of ways including through synchronous, asynchronous, and experiential events. An organization could use an instructor-led online event to deliver a motivational message, follow-up with some computer-based instruction on new products and services, and end with an experiential team-building exercise. The key is isolating each case and considering the learning approach accordingly.

* The students. While course content often dictates the way learning is delivered, learners also must be considered. For example, if a company has 12 salespeople and nine are experiencing performance problems, the three who aren't having trouble may just need theoretical instruction, if anything at all. Their employer could arrange for those who are experiencing performance problems to go through an additional simulation in order to put theory into practice. Based on the realities of today's e-learning environment and the training options that will become available in the future, it's important that trainers understand the role that blended learning can play. The options are there; the power is in your hands.

Reprinted from e-Learning Magazine, June 2002