Communication technologies have changed our lives. We constantly have direct access to information and can connect with people. Just think of a typical day. Perhaps you are one of those who check the weather on your smartphone in the morning or read the newspaper on your tablet. Traffic reports can also be interesting sometimes. In the car, you quickly call your partner to ask something – or you write it down on the train via chat app. At the office, you talk in person with a colleague who had sent an email. In the afternoon, this colleague receives an update via email on their laptop. In the evening on the couch, there are the news and you might search the internet for websites or videos about your new project – whether it's a private garden shed or a work-related issue.
And even if you don't recognize yourself, I bet you know some people like that. The digitalization of one's life is an increasingly widespread process. But always in areas where the individual user perceives a direct benefit for themselves.
But back to work: here, various forms of learning and communication are constantly mixed to absorb information. Some of these forms of communication are very interactive, others rather monotonous. We learn during a workday by listening to another person, discussing, reading something, writing it down or sketching. Interaction can happen either synchronously (e.g., in meetings, on the phone, or in video chats) or asynchronously (such as via chat, email, or letters). Between interactions, we reflect on the exchange. Insights and realizations don’t usually happen immediately. It is only after repeated engagement and a few sleep cycles that the eureka moment suddenly comes. Sleep plays a very important role in memory formation and the retrieval of learned content. Just from the examples used, it can be seen that digital media are indispensable here.
From Blended Working to Blended Learning
What does this have to do with the topic of Blended Learning? In a way, cooperation in the modern (work) world is a continuous Blended Learning course. A Blended Learning course is your chance to take advantage of these conditions of the modern working world and to combine the benefits of online and offline learning. A Blended Learning course can achieve better results and offer participants more flexibility:
Participants can learn during their ideal learning times (owls and larks learn differently).
The training content is always accessible. Since appointments can also come up on short notice, participants are not tied to fixed course times.
The content can be individualized, and the trainer has the opportunity to give individual feedback to each participant.
The learning process is stretched over a longer self-learning phase. This leads to repeated engagement with the learning material and contrasts with "cramming".
How do you utilize the strengths of Blended Learning?
Ideally, you start with a kickoff event. In this in-person session, you present the course flow to the participants and discuss the approach. Here you can emphasize that as a trainer, you can only offer a proposal. Of course, you contribute to motivation by ensuring that your course content is as relevant as possible and reflects the reality of the participant group. For personal progress – through learning and implementing the exercises – the participants are responsible themselves. In this first session, you also show how participants can interact on the online platform and how you can be reached personally. Those who need your support, seek your advice, or need suggestions should receive them. In this first session, you also give the group a first impression of the online platform to make the entry smoother.
Also explain that the learning content on this platform is accessible. Your Blended Learning course will likely progress over several weeks. During this time, you can inform participants through the online platform, for example, by introducing new exercises or conducting a survey for the following in-person session. This way, you can adjust the content in the session to fit the participant group, making your training more valuable. For example, in the sessions, you conduct role plays and discussions where participants engage intensively. The prerequisite knowledge for this event does not necessarily have to be presented by you in the seminar room. Participants can also learn the content themselves in advance. Such content is only really learned and internalized after the second or third repetition.
Through the online platform, participants can exchange ideas during the course period. This allows discussions in the in-person session to be initiated and continued online. This linking of online and offline activities and the interaction between trainer and participants, as well as among participants, makes a good Blended Learning course. Here you can get creative as a trainer and shape the exchange.
Do you want to see why the blink.it app should be your online platform of choice? I will gladly show you what the app looks like and how you can implement a Blended Learning course with it.
