5 Reasons Blended Learning is Effective for Staff Development
I'm a big fan of blended learning…
I like being able to have learners spend some time inside a virtual or in-person classroom, but I also like them to spend time learning independently or in groups outside the classroom.
Blended learning is a great approach to people development. In this episode, I’m sharing 5 reasons why.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
00:58 Why blended learning aligns with adult learning needs
02:51 5 Reasons why blended learning is effective for staff development
08:53 Is blended learning always the right choice?
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5 Reasons Blended Learning is Effective for Staff Development
It's funny…
As a parent, I'm not a big fan of homework.
My kids spend almost seven hours a day, five days a week, in school. I feel like if you can't cover the content there, don't send it home. And while I do think there are exceptions to this rule, like a project or something that you need to practice, I'm generally on the side of no homework. At least for K through five.
But for my adult learners, I'm a big fan of learning outside the classroom.
In fact, when working with my nonprofit clients, I design a lot of blended learning.
I like blended learning - I like being able to have learners spend some time inside a virtual or in-person classroom, but I also like them to spend time learning independently or in groups outside the classroom.
At first, I thought this was contradictory to how I felt about homework for kids, but I think it's the same.
As kids, we spend the majority of our time inside a classroom. That's our job.
As adults, we spend the majority of our time outside the classroom at our actual jobs.
So it makes sense to do things a bit differently.
Blended learning is a great approach to people development, whether you're training staff, “customers”, members, volunteers, or someone else entirely.
That’s why, in this blog post, I’m sharing five reasons why blended learning is a great approach to staff development:
1) Blended Learning Provides Leaner Flexibility and Autonomy
Blended learning provides flexibility and autonomy in when and where a learner accesses learning materials.
I can access self-paced components of a blended learning design from:
An in-office desk
My home office
My couch
The train or bus that I'm commuting in on
The coffee shop down the street
At my kid's soccer practice
A hotel room while traveling for work
Pretty much anywhere I have internet access
That means I have flexibility and autonomy in deciding when and where I want to learn.
If I can't focus at work because of constant interruptions, I can choose to access my learning from home or somewhere else.
If I need to get my kid to an appointment but want to be productive during that time, I can access my learning from there.
I get to choose what works best for me.
2) Blended Learning Reduces Training and Development Cost
Blended learning reduces cost compared to bringing people together in person.
Let's face it, it costs money to bring people together in person.
I need to:
Reserve the meeting space
Provide coffee
Order food
Print materials
And so much more
And that doesn't even include travel costs, hotel expenses, and food for the participants outside the training.
Bringing people together is a great thing. We need some in-person interactions to build relationships, and some things are easier taught in person.
But many things do not require that in-person component, which means we can leverage other ways of learning - eLearning, video, and podcasts.
All of which are accessible from anywhere.
Mentorship, buddy systems, and coaches - potentially available virtually and also in the flow of work - this can greatly reduce the cost of training.
3) Blended Learning Allows Your Nonprofit to Scale Rapidly
Blended learning allows organizations to scale to more people more rapidly.
I'm often working with nonprofits who are looking to scale a program or service and they need to train a lot of people quickly - that's why they bring me in!
Blended learning can help you reach more people more rapidly.
So in this case, I would recommend live virtual training as a synchronous component, so that you can scale to a lot of people quickly, but then surround it with those self-paced options.
Getting many people on a call at the same time is hard. And chances are you're going to need those same people to attend several calls to achieve your objectives.
So instead, what we can do is add self-paced components to relieve some of those scheduling burdens, and then suddenly we're able to scale more rapidly.
So yes, let's have some live virtual training, but let's include other things as well so that you can reach more people more rapidly.
4) Blended Learning Leverages Technology to Support Learning
Blended learning allows you to leverage technology to support learning.
Now, we can always use technology, but when we're doing a blended learning experience, I feel like the options become endless.
Sometimes, things are just easier when we use technology.
Gamification is a great example.
Can I use gamification in person? Sure. I could even bring in technology to do so, but it's a lot easier when I can use technology in a self-paced environment.
Another new tech area to explore is AI-assisted support.
Maybe you're looking at how to bring AI into learning. AI is providing us with technology support right now, right in the flow of work, and we can help our learners learn how to use it.
That's just two examples of how we can leverage technology to support learning when we're using blended learning experiences.
5) Blended Learning Leverages Relationship Building and Change Management Principles
When we use blended learning, we can still leverage relationship building and change management principles through those synchronous components.
If you've been around for a while, I talk a lot about relationship building through training, as well as change management - we have the opportunity to embed these things into training.
Even in a blended learning solution.
It's a bit harder to do those things when training is completely self-paced, but when it's blended, we can still incorporate relationship building and change management principles.
Here are two examples:
1. Cohort based learning
Learners go through the blended learning experience as a group. They have time to build relationships with each other, and we can design the experience so that happens.
That's huge for relationships.
2. Using the facilitator as a guide
When we have that synchronous component, we can use the facilitator to guide the learners through the change process.
This is much more difficult without that synchronous component because learners wouldn't have that guide to help them process through the change that is happening.
Using a blended approach allows us to still have this holistic focus on behavior change.
Take a look at some past episodes on relationship building and change management below:
Episode 86: 4 Ways Instructional Design Can Support Team Building in Your Nonprofit
Episode 85: Two Ways an L&D Leader Can Make Sure Their Training Is Creating Behavior Change
Episode 76: Nonprofit Leadership: Two Ways to Create an Effective Nonprofit Team
Episode 57: Change Management is Hard - How to Succeed with Culture Change in 2024
Is Blended Learning Always the Right Approach to Training and Development?
Is blended learning always the right approach?
No.
You may have a need for a quick solution that is only self-paced.
You may have a need for a more involved solution that is only synchronous (though you’ll probably have to work a little harder to argue that one to me).
But, most of the time, blended learning should be considered.
Even with the Learning for Good podcast which is entirely self-paced, I offer blended learning solutions:
The Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective: a growing community of nonprofit and association L&D pros. This community can have real time conversations about the things that matter to them. We could take this blended learning topic and have an in-depth conversation about what's working and what isn't inside their organizations.
The Learning for Good Playbook: a free download that allows you to reference some of the key points from certain podcast episodes. It includes a fillable component so that you can reflect and plan for how to implement what you've learned.
Most of the time, it takes a multi-pronged approach to learn something new, so blended learning is my go-to.
To hear the full conversation I had on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 97. You can access the Learning for Good Playbook here.
Apply what you learn.
Grab this free resource from the Learning for Good Playbook!
The Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective
Helping to change the world for good is hard enough as it is. Finding good support shouldn’t be difficult, too.
I know what it feels like to want someone to bounce ideas off of and to learn from, someone who really understands you and your work.
Nonprofit L&D leaders have been overlooked for too long. You need a place where you can meet like-minded talent development pros, learn from industry leaders and tech vendors, and find the support you need to make a real impact.
Thankfully, great nonprofit support is no longer hard to find or financially inaccessible.
Welcome to the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective – the only community specifically for nonprofit talent development professionals.
When you join this community, you will walk away with a new, diverse, and powerful network – and a sounding board for your staff development needs.
So if you're ready to exchange ideas and collaborate with your peers, come join the Nonprofit L&D Collective.
