Blended Learning - Seamlessly Integrating Different Forms of Learning

Cost-effective, practical, inspiring, motivating, and offering better learning outcomes – yes, please! These are the benefits provided by a framework implemented as a learning path through blended learning methods. Blended learning has only winners: the benefits to the company are undeniable, and employees developing their skills can learn flexibly alongside their everyday work.

Blended Learning to Support Corporate Skills Development

When it comes to professional development and promoting continuous learning, one form of learning and skills development stands out: blended learning. This approach enables flexible, versatile, and practical skills development that seamlessly integrates theory and practice. By combining blended learning with features that enhance the transparency of development measures in an online learning environment, the benefits of skills development can be fully realized.

What is Blended Learning?

Blended learning combines traditional face-to-face teaching and learning situations – often classroom-based training – with digital learning. In the context of the workplace, blended learning can be seen even more broadly, as it can also include various practical exercises, work samples, or other concrete milestones in skills development that occur within the context of everyday work.

Blended learning is particularly sensible to implement in skills development in the workplace, as it is a flexible and efficient way to learn while working.

Blended Learning Benefits Both the Company and the Employee

When learning paths and learning activities can utilize both face-to-face (remote or in-person) teaching and online courses, the flexibility of skills development increases. A flexible study that fits into one's schedule is important for adult learners, and flexibility is also crucial when considering on-the-job learning during work shifts. Learners – that is, employees – are more motivated to progress in learning, commitment to training increases, and learning outcomes are better when learning can occur autonomously and guided.

Blended learning is also a cost-efficient choice, especially compared to traditional, purely face-to-face training situations. It is easier to schedule just a few face-to-face or remote or in-person training sessions in the calendar of someone working multiple shifts and to implement most of the content to be learned as online courses or work samples, rather than planning all the contents of longer-term training as in-person sessions.

Blended learning, therefore:

• Improves learning outcomes
• Increases motivation to learn and commitment both to the content being learned and to the broader employer organization (providing opportunities for skills development enhances the employee experience and is an attraction and retention factor)
• Reduces costs in terms of work shifts and travel expenses.

Blended Learning in Learning Paths

The easiest way to implement learning experiences that utilize blended learning is if the learning path features of the online learning environment can be utilized. Ideally, a learning path can consist of various types of online courses, face-to-face, remote or in-person teaching sessions, diverse performances (for example qualifications and formal training, such as first aid courses), and even task lists or different milestones and achievements in the workplace.

How to Use Blended Learning

As with planning any training and development initiative, when utilizing blended learning, it is worthwhile to first stop and think about what you want to achieve. So, define your goal first.

"What do we want to change? What is the purpose of this learning experience?"

In addition, when considering using blended learning as the framework for the implementation of a learning experience, it is worth taking a moment to also consider the target audience for the training. For example, if the participants are mainly going to study online courses via mobile devices, this is worth considering from the outset in the design of the blended learning path.

After defining the need or goal, it is worthwhile to proceed in the planning process to form more specific learning objectives. Just as in the planning of learning paths and the planning of a training program utilizing blended learning, learning objectives can be considered in many ways: time-bound, through certain milestones, starting with competencies, or even from the perspective of learning job tasks.

Let's explore blended learning through two examples of learning paths in more detail.

Example Learning Path - Case Expert Work

A blended learning path aimed at a target audience working in expert positions could be constructed as follows:

1. An initial survey to assess the learners' level of competence and motivation
2. An interactive online course, that also enables interaction between learners, introduces the learning objectives and teaches the basic information on the topic to be learned
3. Teams or a classroom meeting between the learner and the trainer, focusing on a specific theme introduced in the online course
4. A discussion note-taking activity, where learners can record their answers to questions asked by the trainer
5. An online course guiding peer-to-peer learning where learners can work together to advance the learning topic
6. An online course that guides the learners deeper into the topic
7. Teams or a classroom meeting between the learner group and the trainer, addressing questions raised by learners while studying the latest online course
8. A task list to remind the learners to apply the learned material to their daily work and to facilitate monitoring of skill utilization
9. A final survey to assess the changes in learners' skill levels and gather feedback on the implementation of the learning path

Such a learning path allows for an individualized learner experience, studying according to one's schedule, collaborative learning, and reflection on one's skills in the form of initial and final surveys. There are only two learning activities directly tied to the calendar; all the other learning activities can be scheduled by the learners themselves, provided that all the preceding learning activities are completed before the whole group meeting.

Example of Learning Path - Case Production Work

A blended learning path for a target audience working in various production tasks could be even more integrated into everyday work, perhaps as follows:

1. Online course welcoming learners to the learning path and briefly introducing the purpose, learning objectives, and working method of the learning path
2. Meeting between the instructor and learners at the workplace, introducing the learned work method/assembly line/machine or other subject to be learned
3. An online course emphasizing video content to support the learning of often very practical work stages. Opportunity to test one's understanding of work stages with multiple-choice questions.
4. Meeting with the instructor at the workplace, the first practical training session
5. First practical training session as a milestone achievement, for example, "Using Machine X successfully with the instructor"
6. Review of using the machine/work stages/assembly line or other subject learned
7. Meeting with the instructor at the workplace, second practical training session
8. The second practical training session as another milestone achievement, for example, "Using Machine X independently with excellent performance"
9. Online course reviewing the basics of using the machine and testing one's understanding
10. Meeting with the instructor at the workplace, the third practical training session, which also serves as a competence demonstration
11. Competence demonstration as a performance-based assessment, for example, "Using Machine X independently goes smoothly. Permission to use Machine X."

The blended learning path described here is suitable for many purposes. The key is to have a clear understanding of the learning path and the learning objectives for both the learner and the trainer. It is also very important to immediately apply the learning to practical work tasks and thus practice the concrete subject being learned.

Implementing the learning of various production processes, stages, and equipment used in production as blended learning is very cost-effective and allows learners to monitor their learning. Doing and learning are rewarding when the goal is clear and one's skills are constantly visible to oneself, the trainer, and the supervisor. For the employer and the supervisor, it is useful that the completed qualifications can be found as an up-to-date list in the online learning platform. Additionally, monitoring employees' learning and development progress is easy with the analytics of the online learning platform.

Getting Started with Blended Learning Easily

The first comprehensive initiative that could be implemented in an organization using blended learning as a learning path could be a training that is much needed and partially delivered in an online course format, saving both employees' and management's time. Such training could include various qualification-leading courses, for example. Also, onboarding training for summer employees can be well implemented using blended learning as a learning path - as long as the young employees are adequately supported also in their orientation in everyday work. For example, our client, Moominworld implemented summer employee onboarding using blended learning by combining independent online learning with on-site learning.

With blended learning solutions, as with any other development project, you are never completely ready. It is good to gather feedback on learning experiences, modify and improve, test, and develop new ones. As experience with utilizing blended learning and learning path thinking accumulates, it becomes easy to promote such learning in the organization and expand it to various types of training.