Last few years have seen a steady increase in demand for conversion of Instructor Led Training (ILT) to fully online or a blended training.
In this blog, I outline what exactly is blended training approach and what are the benefits it offers to the learners and organisations.
What is the blended training approach?
As you can determine from the name, the blended training is the “middle of the road” approach between the fully facilitated Instructor Led Training (ILT) and self-paced, learner driven online training (eLearning or mobile learning). As a result, it offers best of both training delivery formats. It is also referred as “hybrid training”.
Given the nature of the training, dynamics, content type and so on, you can arrive at the blend that will help you meet the program and learning mandate in the most optimal manner.
What is pushing the demand to adopt blended training approach over the traditional Instructor-Led Training, or ILT?
The acceleration in adoption of blended training approach over the traditional Instructor-Led Training is on account of push from learners as well as changing dynamics most organisations face.
- The learners want more flexibility in the way they want to learn and would like to see a combination of facilitated sessions and self-paced online training.
- The challenges on budgets, limited trainers and need to reach a spread-out audience in short time are the reasons organisations are adopting blended training approach.
What are the benefits that blended training offers?
The blended training approach offers several benefits over the traditional Instructor Led Training or ILT. I have grouped the top 10 benefits into two categories (for learners and for organisations).
Benefits for the learners
- Learner centric and offers better control to the learner. They can leverage on best of both training delivery formats.
- The access to online resources provides additional flexibility to the learners. They can access this even post the facilitated session.
- The blended training option features online resources that are now accessible to learners 24×7. They can decide on how they consume this or use it to reinforce the learning.
- Even after the facilitated session or workshop is over, the learners have a room to collaborate with their peers as well as trainers. This is possible through the collaboration features like threaded discussions and chats. More significantly, they can exchange ideas on the knowledge application.
- Research confirms that online training offers better retention. As an extension, the blended training approach offers better retention vis-a-vis ILT programs.
Benefits for the organizations
- Blended training approach enables organisations reach a geographically spread out audience in a shorter time. It also enables organisations to reduce their budget outlay.
- Blended training approaches consume lesser time than ILT sessions.
- They also enable oraganisations to assess the impact of the training more easily (through online assessments).
- They can leverage on current trending and immersive learning strategies that resonate with learners, create a superior learning experience leading to higher retention of learning.
- The training need not stop with the facilitated session. Instead, it can continue through the online platform and through learning paths.
I hope this blog helps you understand the impact you can create through blended training. I hope the benefits showcased here provide compelling reasons on why you should adopt a blended training approach. If you have any specific queries, do contact me.
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