| What is Blended Learning?
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| In these changing times, training and re-training
employees is a crucial element in an organization's ability
to attract, retain, and maximize the performance of its
employees.
Up until recently organizations have been faced with
a choice between on-line learning and instructor-led
training. On-line learning offers a range of benefits
as an instructional medium, such as self-paced learning,
consistency of delivery, verified and proven content,
manageability, cost efficiencies, and 24x7 accessibility
from any location.
But the successful learning organization understands
that the social aspects of traditional classroom training
can be an essential element in effective training. This
use of "a range of training methods and media to enhance
and maximize learning opportunities" is known as blended
learning.
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| At PrimeLearning.com®, we don't just
recognize the power of social learning … we design it
into our products! Using the power of the Internet our
customers harness the rich features of the eLearning
System to build the solution that's right for them. With
PrimeLearning.com, on-line learning is only a part of
what eLearning has to offer.
In this feature we examine how PrimeLearning.com has
successfully designed social learning features into
the eLearning System. We also examine how organizations
can harness eLearning and instructor-led training to
create a harmonious and effective blended solution,
and consider one current example of a successful blended
approach from the PrimeLearning.com community.
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| Community & Collaboration
in the eLearning System |
| PrimeLearning specializes in professional,
business skills training. Soft skills are curious: it's
easy to learn the concepts, but a lot harder to perform
the skills. They need a very high level of practice
- and that practice has to be in a social context, precisely
because they are social skills. PrimeLearning.com® recognizes
the difference between learning the concepts … and actually
experiencing and practising those concepts. That's why
we design for both theory and practice learning opportunities.
We in PrimeLearning believe in the need for a blended
solution so much that we design not simply for on-line
learning but for a range of learning experiences. Along
with high levels of graphics, audio, scenarios, and
interactions that our customers expect from our courseware,
we design a range of socialized learning experiences
into the eLearning System.
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| Using virtual classes, lectures
and tutorials can be delivered on-line to a widely
dispersed community of learners, using full broadcast
and interactive audio facilities to complement the
animated visual presentations. A wide range of features
are included, one of those being the participants'
ability to 'raise their hands' and be given control
of the microphone to make a point or ask a question.
Using this feature, a distributed organization can
administer blended programs using a 'virtual classroom'.
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Learners can also participate in on-line
chat sessions that can be scheduled and moderated,
or un-moderated if you prefer. Learners register for
chats and classes through the eLearning System,
at which point these events become part of
their individualized Learning Plan. |
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| And for asynchronous discussions,
the eLearning System also includes discussion
threads which can be constrained to a specific
learner community. For learners who need the human
touch, on-line mentoring is always available.
Learners can ask our mentors for clarification on
a teaching point, or they may have an idea they want
to tease out, or they may just want some advice. Our
mentors are here to help. Hi-touch through hi-tech.
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Our eLearning resources also include
features such as Workplace Exercises, both
self-directed and trainer-driven, and for small and
large groups. These can be used to help root classroom
sessions firmly into a coherent blended program. |
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| Blended Learning Programs
- How and Why |
| Some learners like to work on their own,
without any direction at all. Others also like to learn
on their own, but in a structured and directed environment.
Still others prefer socialized learning - working through
concepts and formal principles by experimentation in a primarily
social context. And others like to reflect privately on
material, whether presented on the electronic or traditional
page. So the need for blending is simple enough: people
are very different, and if we are to deliver a training
solution that works for many people, then those differences
must be acknowledged, accommodated and catered for, by ensuring
the maximum range and variety of learning opportunities.
There's no doubt that the key underlying concepts can
be learned on-line. Few will deny that to be an active
listener you need at least to know that there are certain
key factors in the skill, such as direct eye contact,
open body language, frequent paraphrasing for confirming
understanding, open questioning for elaboration, and closed
questioning for confirmation and closure. And so it is
with the other soft and social skills of negotiation,
closing sales, solving problems in a group setting, being
assertive and so on.
Using online training materials in this preparatory
way - to teach the fundamental concepts, leaving the practice
opportunities for the social context - is entirely appropriate
and makes a lot of sense. The technique:
- maximises learner time because they can take this
learning any-time, any-place
- crystallises and prioritizes the concepts that should
be practised in a social setting
- promotes elearning for groundwork to be accomplished
in advance of the classroom experience
- guarantees that this groundwork achieves a standard
entry level, that can then be consolidated in the social
context
- frees up traditional classroom time for what it's
best at, the exploration and practice of social skills
in the best possible place, a social gathering
- shortens actual classroom time - thereby reducing
the costs significantly - because the basics have been
covered effectively and imaginatively long before the
learner gets to the classroom
It is also possible for the organization to interleave
eLearning as a central component of the training experience,
with face-to-face tutorials in which the program is introduced
and study targets set for each participant. The group
then meets at pre-defined intervals to reflect on their
learning, share their thoughts, and establish their next
set of learning goals.
Or, the organization can use eLearning as a reinforcement
take-away, where students are given access to eLearning
to study following on from the classroom component.
Blended Learning Solutions
PrimeLearning is currently offering a course in Project
Management Training (CAPM)
Click here
for details.
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| Case History |
| Click here
to review our Blended Learning Case History
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Contact Us
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| As we have seen, on-line learning is only
part of what eLearning offers. True blended training addresses
the needs of all learners, designs an appropriately wide
range of learning solutions, and blends those learning experiences
into a holistic solution.
eLearning doesn't dismiss old teaching methodologies
or abandon proven educational philosophies; it enhances
them with a rich mix of interactive media and specific
material for those contexts.
To learn more about PrimeLearning.com®, please contact
us at info@primelearning.com
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