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Blended learning: why you need to mix online learning with the classroom

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John Sherman
2017-02-07

We've discussed before how beneficial eLearning can be to the health of your organization. We comes to training your staff, it’s one of the most effective and affordable solutions available today. For many companies, the best solution is actually a blended learning approach.

Blended learning is combining modern technology resources with traditional face-to-face instruction. This gives you the opportunity to reap the best rewards of classroom learning along with the benefits of online and e-learning systems.

Here are just a few of the advantages to using a blended learning approach:

Advantage #1: Your employees can access training resources anywhere and anytime.

Traditional training approaches are extremely limiting because they depend on having your employees stay in one location at a specific time. Blended learning, on the other hand, gives you access to promote learning resources that can be used from anywhere and 24/7. This is a huge benefit when you have employees on the road or working from home.

Advantage #2: You can personalize the training experience.

In many cases, the most effective training programs will focus on delivering a highly personalized experience.  When you combine the technological resources of eLearning, with the face-to-face benefits of a traditional approach then you can do this much more efficiently. Instructors can evaluate the progress of employees as they undergo training and they can provide guidance to help them when they get stuck.

At the same time, if you deliver your content in smaller multimedia chunks then you will not need to waste time with long classroom events. Your team members can access the modules and information that is most appropriate for them and they can go back to the areas that they need to improve.

Advantage #3: A blended approach is much more cost effective.

It’s no secret that traditional learning models are exceptionally costly to most organizations. After all, your productivity is guaranteed to take a dip when a significant percentage of your employees are stuck in a classroom setting for long periods of time.

On the other hand, blended learning can be delivered over shorter periods of time and when it is more convenient for your teams. Plus, you don’t need to keep spending huge amounts of money on training material because you can reuse your eLearning material over and over. You don’t need to spend money renting out classroom space or hiring instructors.

Advantage #4: Blended learning delivers a more collaborative learning experience.

Blended learning gives you several tools to facilitate collaboration between learners and instructors. For example, you can create your own forums for discussion and learners will have an easier time communicating when you give them multiple opportunities to do so. Contrast this with the traditional classroom approach where learners have a limited opportunity to work together and you can see why the blended approach is so much more effective.

Advantage #5: More engagement=better results.

The blended learning approach gives you so many more opportunities to increase engagement. You have access to a wider variety of tools to keep the material interesting and you can deliver content across multiple channels and break things down into much easier to digest chunks. Learners can also upload their materials via the cloud and evaluate their performance in real time using online grading tools. All of these resources will help you keep your learners focused and engaged, and this means that they will be much more likely to retain and use the material correctly.

Advantage #6: Online tools give you better data.

Online learning tools give you more ways to crunch the numbers and evaluate the data that means the most. This means you can optimize your learning experience for higher performance and you can do so much faster than if you were delivering your training using traditional models. Instructors can evaluate where each individual student is making progress and they can also see where there is room for improvement.

Blended learning is a must-have resource for training Millennials. We’ve already discussed the fact that this demographic is the largest group of people entering the workforce and how much of an impact it will have on companies moving forward.

Millennials have grown up on YouTube, Wikipedia, and online forums, and this means that they are accustomed to learning via multimedia channels. Since more and more companies are relying on the creativity and innovative thinking that this population brings to the table, it only makes sense to provide them with the learning resources that they are accustomed to.

Some people may say that blended learning is making us to dependent on technology, but that has been our reality for a long time now. Most companies today would be completely hamstrung without high-tech solutions for logistics and customer service management.

In an increasingly competitive and faster moving work environment, blended learning can help you get the edge you need by saving you time and money on training your people.

The Go1 Marketplace provides you with thousands of resources you can use to train your teams, as well as allowing you to include classroom learning events in your online training programs. To browse through our library of eLearning resources, click here.

 

Go1 helps millions of people in thousands of organizations engage in learning that is relevant, effective and inspiring.
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