How to Successfully Implement Blended Learning

Blended learning is proving to be an effective development strategy. According to ATD Research, 75 percent of organizations are expanding their use of blended learning, and 87 percent of employees value the flexibility it provides.

This ATD Research whitepaper explains that implementing a successful blended learning program takes a variety of skills. Furthermore, both internal and external organizational resources need to be balanced.

How to do that successfully depends on the organizational context as well as how to motivate your teams.

Motivate Your Audience

What motivates adults to learn? Clearly, there are different learning theories out there. Everyone has a unique mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. These factors range from perceived reward and social or contextual influences to the quality and flexibility of available training.

The UK’s innovation agency for social good, Nesta, details how to design a program to meet your audience’s readiness levels. For example, if you have a group in the precontemplation stage with no interest in learning, you can promote a change in cultural norms.

Blended learning can be particularly useful for this type of audience because you can emphasize the “fun” aspect. Gaming experiences or book clubs for greater team bonding are some examples.

As mentioned in our blog about why companies are moving toward blended learning, another powerful motivator is to integrate learning into the flow of work. The more people see relevance and the less it disrupts their work, the more they’ll appreciate the learning.

Other ideas to motivate your teams to engage with learning:

• Self-driven blended learning – With multiple learning approaches, it’s easier to let learners lead so they feel empowered. Only then does true curiosity and learning blossom.

• Digital and leadership champions – Not everyone will have the same digital literacy so it’s important to provide the right guidance. Moreover, make sure you get buy-in and advocacy from your leaders.

• Career guidance and coaching interventions – Learning needs to be as beneficial for the organization as it is for the individual. With coaches, individuals can better align their personal goals and needs to the overall organizational learning goals.

How Does Context Play a Role?

Implementing a successful learning program is both about the content and the organizational learning culture.

Promoting a learning culture and implementing blended learning encourages flexibility and innovation because of exposure to various learning modalities. As such, people find themselves becoming more curious and they feel empowered as they choose what works for them.

Not only do they bring this energy and mindset back to the workplace but they also bring new perspectives.

As this article on blended learning and learning culture describes, blended learning offers varied viewpoints and different problem-solving approaches that also nurtures greater diversity.

Book clubs are another transformational activity because they create a group setting that boosts collaboration and reflection as detailed in this whitepaper on what separates good teams from exceptional ones.

How blended learning supports a learning culture and vice versa:

• Continuous improvement – With small continuous feedback loops and incremental steps, learners gradually shift their mindset to bring this approach to their everyday work.

• Knowledge sharing and collaboration – Through blended learning, various groups and forums are created, which naturally encourages cross-learning. As this behavior becomes instilled, conflict shifts into a natural sharing of ideas rather than a competition over who is right.

• Personalization alongside team focus – How to balance individual with team needs is a constant paradox. Blended learning provides another opportunity to explore this balance, which shifts mindsets back in the workplace.

Maximize Your Blended Learning Efforts

Gone are the days of reading out slides to people in classrooms with the hope that they will improve their day-to-day work. With technology, we have an opportunity to make learning fun, personal, and relevant.

Most importantly, blended learning creates a more memorable and meaningful learning experience. It also encourages collaboration and innovation because of the varied multimedia methodologies now available.

Don’t forget to watch the ATD webinar recording with more tips for how to apply blended learning effectively. To learn is to evolve and embrace life, so let’s keep moving forward in how we learn.