Blended Learning: That Word Doesn't Mean What You Think it Means

This is a short post with a big impact.

After spending two weeks scoring Chief Learning Officer Learning Elite submissions it's imperative that I inform you that the word blended does not mean what you think it means.

It's not just the Learning Elite submissions either, I have run into this confusion many times when talking to training and development professionals. For some reason T&D professionals believe that if you offer a course in the classroom, and via e-learning, and via a virtual platform (or various other delivery methodologies) you are offering “blended learning.”

WRONG,

What you have is a menu.?

Here is an easy way to remember what blended is vs. what a menu of options is: Do you like your potatoes baked, mashed, or French-fried? All three are potatoes. You could eat all three “potato delivery methods” at the same meal, but you’d still be eating the same fundamental thing.

The same holds true for training courses. Three different iterations of the same class are still the same class.

What a blended course looks like is offering different portions of one course in different formats which are utilized to best achieve maximum learning.

For instance, if you were teaching how to use a graphic design software, you might have the learners first review a glossary of terms such as font, pixel, saturation, etc. You would not need to waste valuable classroom time teaching them terms and their definition. They could have a handy resource to do that prior to the class, as well as using it throughout the class as a reference tool. The next portion of the blend would be to have students come together in the classroom, to use the software hands-on. The next portion of the blend might be to give each learner an assignment to complete, asynchronously (on their own time, not with others) over the next two days and to bring it back for review and critique. During those two days you might offer “office hours” so that learners could contact you with any challenges they were experiencing during the independent assignment.

That is a blended learning experience. It utilizes four different training methodologies which, in total, create the entire course.

1.?????Independent study (reviewing terminology)

2.?????Classroom

3.?????Independent activity (practice over two days)

4.?????1:1 coaching

(and then back to the classroom for critique).

You don't need to take valuable classroom time teaching people terminology nor do you need to keep the group together for them to complete an independent assignment. So a blended course is divided into chunks, each of which uses a different teaching or learning methodology, to best achieve the learning outcome.

About the Author:

Nanette Miner, Ed.D. is Managing Consultant of The Training Doctor, LLC a future-leadership development firm that believes Leadership Begins at Day One. She has over 25 years of experience creating customized curriculums that get results.

Nanette speaks on Zero-Cost Leadership Development to professional and trade associations nationwide.?

Learn more about The Training Doctor's services, here , or give us a call at 843.647.6304 (US)

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Note: This article first appeared on The Training Doctor's blog