Definition: Blended Learning

If you’re familiar with eLearning, you’ve probably heard of blended learning. It’s a concept that has gained popularity in recent years, and its benefits have been praised by e-learning professionals and learners. Despite acceptance of the effectiveness of blended learning, its definition remains ambiguous. So, what is Blended Learning? In this article, we’ll take a detailed look at what Blended Learning is, and highlight some of the benefits it offers to organizations and learners. We’ll also discuss some pitfalls to avoid and explore how you can use blended learning as part of your online learning strategy.

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Blended Learning: What is it?

How blended learning is delivered typically depends on the circumstances, making it difficult to establish a universal, overarching definition. Wikipedia offers the following definition:

« Blended learning is an approach to education that combines online teaching materials and online interaction opportunities with traditional classroom methods in a natural environment. It requires the physical presence of the teacher and student , with some element of student control over time, place, path, or location.”

However, when it comes to online learning, “classroom teaching methods” can be replaced with webinars, making learning even more accessible and convenient. Here at LearnUpon, we believe blended learning encourages the personalization of the eLearning experience by combining the best aspects of in-person teaching with technology-based eLearning methods. It expands the learner experience by enabling them to learn anytime, anywhere, and reshapes the role of the instructor. When applied to online learning, blended learning again depends on the circumstances, but it generally involves:

• Part of the learning is done online, with the student being able to manage the pace at which they learn
• Another part of the learning is instructor-led, usually through webinars, making it easier for remote learners to engage

Essentially, thanks to the blended learning method, online training and training provided by an instructor are complementary and create an integrated learning environment.

The advantages of blended learning

A blended learning model is undoubtedly a great way to increase the learner experience, but its benefits go beyond that. Whether you are training employees, partners, customers, or planning compliance training, organizations that use blended learning will reap many benefits. Let’s look at some of the benefits for learners and organizations:

Benefits for learners

• Blended learning offers the learner convenience and flexibility; he has the possibility to control his learning pace and learn remotely.
• Academic research suggests that blended learning allows the learner to better understand the course content.
• As blended learning allows learners to interact with instructors and other learners, social learning is promoted.

Benefits for organizations

• Blended learning reduces the costs of face-to-face training, such as travel, accommodation and printed training materials.
• Companies can offer different online learning methods, such as webinars, gamification, etc., which help improve learner engagement.
• Since blended learning is a more efficient and cost-effective training method, you will see a faster and greater return on your investment.
• It is also easier to know exactly who has or has not received training

The pitfalls of blended learning

• Now that you know more about what blended learning is, we hope you are excited about what it can offer. Before explaining how you can start using it in your training strategy, we will first show you some major pitfalls to avoid.
• The most important pitfall to avoid is using an LMS that doesn’t meet your needs. You’ll need an LMS like LearnUpon to manage and implement your blended learning strategy, including webinar software integration.
• Keep in mind that what works for in-person training doesn’t necessarily work for online training. You should not automatically assume that existing courses are ready to be delivered online. Analyze who your learners are, identify what they need to know, examine the content of your courses and, based on this analysis, develop a blended learning strategy.
• If you are moving from only face-to-face training, take your time to integrate blended learning into your learning strategy. Starting slowly not only allows you to evaluate what works and what doesn’t from a content perspective, but also gives your learners time to gradually adapt to the concept of blended learning.

Of course, it is important that blended learning is not used just for fun. Once you have identified your learning objectives, you can think about how each objective could be achieved in an online and/or offline setting.

Webinars: an easy path to blended learning

To get started with blended learning, you can use webinars in the instructor-led portion of the course. To host a webinar, you will need a webinar tool. Many options are available; you just need to find the one that suits you best. Things to consider when choosing the tool include the size of your audience, their needs, and the experience of the learner. Here are some webinar tool options:

• Zoom
• GoToWebinar
• Cisco WebEx
• Adobe Connect
• Google Hangouts
• AnyMeeting

These tools integrate with your LMS to sync setup, registration, and attendance reporting. Be sure to record each session so you can use these recordings later. This is a great way to generate reusable training content. These videos can then be added to eLearning courses and delivered to your learners.

What are the benefits of integrating a webinar tool into your LMS?

If webinars are part of your blended learning, integrating the chosen tool with your LMS makes sense. This will allow you to do this:

• to schedule sessions in your LMS that are automatically reflected in your webinar tool. This means you will only have to set up a session once, and there will be no scheduling conflicts.
• Register your participants via your LMS, with the data automatically sent to your webinar tool.
• Monitor attendance data that is automatically transferred to your LMS, meaning you don’t have to waste time manually updating this information.
• Stop repeating tasks, improve reporting, streamline workflows, and more. It is also very easy to set up.

When using blended learning, keep in mind that its purpose is to combine the strengths of traditional and online learning methods to give your learners a more engaging learning experience. With blended learning, you’ll get the best of both worlds, benefiting both learners and instructors. LearnUpon LMS makes it easy to set up blended courses that contain any combination of face-to-face and online training components.