To apply blended techniques to your corporate training, you need an LMS to support your chosen tactics. Once you have that in the bag, how exactly will you facilitate blending?
How To Blend Offline Learning Experiences Into Your LMS
Online and offline Learning Management Systems have their own advantages. But to get the best of both it’s helpful to merge them in a functional way. Hence blended learning. You need the right tools and equipment to enable this approach. An LMS is a big part of that. Lay out your blended learning strategy, then find an offline learning LMS that flows well with your chosen training direction. Here are some suggestions for offline learning and blended elements you could incorporate into your curriculum.
- Video Demos
Corporate training differs from academic (school-based) training because it’s more practical. Say you work in IT. At school you may have learned the history of binary code. Or the biography of a trail-blazing tech pioneer. In office training, you’re more likely to learn practical programming. For example, how to create certain functions through coding language. Or how to build specific apps. In online training you could watch a video demo or run a simulation. Take your blended learning program a step further: Shoot the video demo on-site using actual workstations and equipment. Then have the trainee go to the room, location or machine where the demo was shot. Have them ‘try it out’ first-hand, repeating the steps they’ve just seen. They can refer to the video when they get stuck or replay a step-by-step audio and follow along.
- Weekly Skill Prompts
Online training can be broken down in ways traditional training can’t. In the corporate space, instructor-led offline sessions are often crash courses. It’ll be a weekend workshop or a two-week conference. Its nature means everything is tied together. You can’t attend selected classes and skip others. And you don’t learn comprehensive lessons in each session. With online lessons, each online training module can stand alone. This is crucial because it may be weeks before the next lesson. Blended learning combines both systems, so you can help your learners focus. Knowing they sometimes have extended waits between study times, help them dwell on one skill per week. Invest in an offline learning LMS that allows you to send notifications and nudges. Whether they have one lesson or five lessons that week, the goal is to ensure they’ve mastered at least one skill. Your pop-up could be in the form of a quick online quiz to see how well said skill was mastered. If they fail, it can prompt them to review the online lesson again.
- Collaborative Projects
Group work is a popular teaching tactic. In theory it makes sense because it prompts active learner involvement. In reality, one or two group members do all the work, then their teammates share the credit – and the grade. Blended learning provides more oversight. Team members can stay in touch via group chat, and online instructors can moderate to ensure participation. Trainees can use regular check-ins, reminding everyone to contribute their portion. These consistent updates avoid last minute rushing, or overburdening team members. The nature of the task should ‘force’ actual meetings and problem-solving round tables. Either in person or via webcam video call, design a task that requires active involvement and deliberate presence.
- Peer Mentoring
Learners can use online tools to share their experiences and help each other overcome work-related challenges. However, peer mentoring can also take place offline to enhance relatability. Encourage the pair, or coaching team, to create a contract or outline that maps out their mission statement. Such as which skills they want to develop and short/long-term goals they want to achieve. Then they can use the offline learning software to access support resources before the next coaching session. If they have to venture out off the office, there’s always the option to use video conferencing tools to follow-up. Another way to incorporate peer-based mentoring into your strategy is to host weekly or monthly brainstorming events where everyone can address one pressing issue. For instance, they’re having trouble dealing with their workload or a particularly challenging client. Then their co-workers can help them think of creative solutions using their fresh point of view.
- Rotational Training
Job-swapping is one of the best forms of training. Ideally, everyone should spend some time at someone else’s workstation. This helps them empathize because they understand what their colleagues do. They recognize and value everyone’s role in the company. It’s also a good efficiency technique. If everyone has a rudimentary understanding and familiarity with others’ tasks, it’s easier to fill gaps when anyone is indisposed. Online training using an offline learning LMS enables simulated rotation. Blended learning takes the job-swap into the real world. Let each trainee spend at least a day (but ideally a week) literally doing someone else’s job. Supervised, naturally, to avoid pricey mistakes. It’s not about mastery. It’s about broadening perspectives and fostering cohesion. It also identifies hidden skills and shows staff members who to ask when they need help in a given department. It’s useful for troubleshooting as well.
Blended learning approaches to corporate learning offer a new training angle. Corporate learners can do their theory online and their practicals offline. Have them watch contextual video demos, then try out what they’ve just seen. Assign them a single skill to master every week, sending reminders to keep them on task. Issue carefully crafted collaborative projects where they’re ‘forced’ to play an active role. Online tools can help you monitor the assignment, ensuring none of the team members slack off. Finally, after theoretical training and simulations, do a physical job-swap for a day, or a week. It gives everyone a real feel of their colleagues’ contribution to the company.
Does your current LMS support social and informal learning? If not, it may be time to look for a replacement that helps you get the most from your in-house talent. Adobe Captivate Prime has a native app that allows learners to download resources and view them offline, as well as push notifications to keep your entire team on track.
For more details, please write to Adobe Captivate Prime team at captivateprimesales@adobe.com
Rotational Training is great for continuity of operations. What reinvent the wheel?
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