Structures in companies are currently changing remarkably quickly: Digitalization is increasing and hierarchies are being dissolved. As a result, professional communication is automatically changing. The requirements for further training are also in flux – with agile processes, your training meets the pulse of the time. A good mix of collaborative and individual learning methods is key.

Digitalization should no longer be a foreign word in training

Digital transformation? You have probably already come across this buzzword. Behind the phrase lies the fact that digital devices and especially the increasingly interconnected internet are changing our lives in almost all areas.

In companies, the digital transformation is in full swing. Managing directors can no longer hold onto the excuse “Technology is not my thing.” In the magazine managerSeminare from May 2018, the expert on digital learning, Isabel De Clercq, aptly describes this phenomenon with the words “Digital illiterates have no chance anymore”. Therefore, she makes a plea for internal social networking within companies, which is no longer just a pipe dream.

A need for digital and agile working methods

We note: Employees want a professional everyday life that does not lag behind their private life in terms of progress. More and more HR developers recognize this need for digital and agile working methods. For professional development, this trend means that new training methods should be found to support this need.

The desire for a more agile and digital way of working goes in two opposing directions:

On one hand, the dissolution of corporate hierarchies gives individual employees more power and promotes their individual working style: wishes for self-determination, such as control over one’s own working hours, are becoming louder.

On the other hand, the introduction of digital communication tools fosters communication and collaborative teamwork: wishes for closer networking between colleagues and managers are also becoming louder.

Individual or Collaborative Learning?

For you as a trainer, coach, or consultant, the question arises whether you should focus more on individual or collaborative learning forms. Both have their own advantages for your participants:

Advantages of individual learning Advantages of collaborative learning Participants can choose their learning times freely Participants can strengthen social skills, which is particularly helpful in soft skills training Participants can choose their own learning pace Participants can motivate and inspire each other to learn Participants can fully bring their own strengths to the table Participants can learn from the strengths and experiences of others

Individual and collaborative learning should also continue to have a roughly equal importance, as the results of the Trendmonitor 2018 show. Training and workshops should therefore not solely use one of the two learning forms but ideally combine both.

Hitting the pulse of the time with Blended Learning

As a trainer, benefit from the advantages of individual and collaborative learning, instead of limiting yourself. This way, you not only convince your clients but ultimately also your participants.

Trainings, coaching sessions, and workshops should be structured in such a way that they

• support agile communication structures,

• enable individual learning, and

• promote collaborative learning.

With the method of Blended Learning, you get exactly that: By complementing your face-to-face events with online phases, you enable your participants to experience agile learning. In the online phase, they can continue learning both independently and self-directed, as well as collaboratively with other participants in exercises.

By linking various learning forms, the following advantages for participants in Blended Learning arise:

• All learning types are addressed

• Everyone decides on their own learning pace

• All participants are on the same level

Is the face-to-face phase responsible for cooperative learning and the online phase for individual learning? Or vice versa? Both are possible. In principle, both phases are suitable for both learning forms.

Important in Blended Learning: The “blended” should also be lived – ideally, all learning forms should be effectively linked together. This means, for example, that in the face-to-face event, groups are brought together and continue to work collaboratively in the online phase.

“Face-to-face events gain importance when group learning processes are initiated and group work is carried out in e-learning.”

This is written by education expert Susanne Kraft in her paper “Blended Learning – a way to integrate E-Learning and face-to-face learning.” According to Kraft, incorporating cooperative learning methods into the online phase simultaneously supports the face-to-face phase of your Blended Learning.

Methods in Blended Learning

The face-to-face event is traditionally the place where participants and trainers interact personally. This fact does not change in Blended Learning. However, the combination with an online phase allows ongoing discussions to be continued and content to be explored in depth – both individually and collaboratively.

Individually achievable tasks are relatively easy for trainers to create. With quiz questions, research tasks, or practical individual exercises, you provide your participants with the foundation to secure their individual transfer.

Collaborative exercises in the online phase are also possible and should not be missing in good Blended Learning. Below are three methods that focus on agile and collaborative learning:

Method: The Virtual Discussion

Why the method works: Many people are already familiar with virtual discussions from their private lives – from social networks or comment sections under online articles. In your training, the digital exchange probably works similarly: Different perspectives enrich each other.

Tip for implementation: Provide an impetus for discussion during the face-to-face training or also in online support, for example in the form of a short video. Provocative theses or content-related questions, for which there will likely be differing opinions, work well. Then encourage your participants to actively participate in the discussion, for example in the comment field of your online platform.

Method: Mutual 1-to-1 Coaching Between Participants

Why the method works: Have your participants work in pairs (tandems) and create accountability towards their partner. This motivates your participants and supports their individual strengths.

Tip for implementation: Ideally, organize the learning partnerships during the face-to-face phase when your participants have warmed up and already met personally. Then let them continue to work together online and support them with guiding questions like “What do you commit to by the next meeting?”.

Method: Letting Participants Create Exercises Themselves

Why the method works: Agile work means breaking through rigid structures and being open to new perspectives. An agile method for your Blended Learning is a role reversal: Have your participants think about what exercises would make sense for the topic. This shift in perspective enables new ideas and fosters the feeling among individual participants that they are an active and important part of the training.

Tip for implementation: You could start in the online phase and ask your participants to come up with exercises for the coming week. Then let them exchange ideas about it in the face-to-face training and implement the best exercises directly.

blink.it Expert Tip: The three example exercises mentioned are methods from our rocket pack, the card game for Blended Learning. If you want more inspiration and background information on methods in Blended Learning, the rocket pack offers you exactly the right support and a starting point for digital learning.