Good day all.

I wanted to write a post to speak about my views on Blended Learning in Professional Development because I have some experience in this area. I work with some different training providers and I would like to see more Blended Learning in this area. So, I thought I would share my thinking and see if anyone agrees, disagrees or hates this idea, just for fun.

I have used Blended Learning in both the University and College courses I teach and I have honestly seen mixed results depending on students. Some are really into it and others barely put the effort in. But results have been better over time. The sessions I conduct after providing students with online content have been some of the best classes I have done. Over time, I have increased the number of blended sessions I do, but only when it makes sense for the material.

In terms of Professional Development, I conduct anywhere from 1 – 3 day sessions on one topic. My thought process on longer sessions is, why do participants need to spend 3 full days in a training room? Why can’t some of this be online and then have them come into the training room and apply that learning to activity/scenario/situations that show them how to use the content in their day to day work?

I think it would be a better service to participants, as well as training providers, to introduce some blended content. I think using some online elements where participants can learn theories and background on the topic before coming into a training session would open up opportunities to learn how to use the new information in real life. Sometimes there just isn’t enough time in a day to practice what we learn. Sometimes the information simply flies away as soon as we depart the trining room. This information needs to be retained, otherwise, what is the pint of attending the session?

Through feedback I receive from participants, they are asking for ways to implement information they learn. They are asking for understanding and how to use new learning in their day to day work. They are asking how do I use this when I get back to my workplace? This is where I think Blended Learning makes sense. Using the training room as the guided practice area should provide learners with the opportunity to apply what they have learned from the course, before they get back to work. I think this is especially true now as we move to Live Online sessions instead of face-to-face. For some it can be easy to get distracted with a virtual session. If we simply lecture and discuss content virtually, we may lose some learners along the way.

Now, there may be some training providers that are doing this already. But I am not associated with these companies. I realize that my thinking may not be revolutionary, and I am surely not the first to think of this. I really hope that someone is doing this already, and I would love to hear the success stories and failures that come from this type of offering. I am curious to see how things are going with companies that are doing this. Perhaps I can use this information to convince some partners to at least consider this type of offering. Time will tell.

Thanks for reading.