Are you a passionate team leader who wants to see your team excel at their jobs? Do you feel a sense of pride every time one of your employees does something exceptional?
As a development and learning professional, you are searching for new and innovative ways to train your employees. You want to come up with effective strategies to develop the potential you see in the people you are leading, even though you are working in an online setup.
This is where remote blended learning comes in. Let’s find out what it is!
What Is Remote Blended Learning?
Simply put, blended learning or hybrid learning, is a unique approach to education in schools and training in the workplace. It combines online educational opportunities and materials for effective online interactions.
Remote blended learning is a method that can help you maximize the potential of your team members. It especially comes in handy when training and onboarding employees, as it combines a number of delivery methods.
According to this concept, no one solution can fit all. This is why you need a mixture of a bunch of methods and models.
The Best Ways To Implement A Remote Blended Learning Approach
Thinking about how to switch from remote learning to blended learning? Consider the following ways!
1. Ensure That Your Content Is Engaging And Accessible
If you want to add impact and variety to your training methods, you can enrich remote blended learning with appropriate audio, video, and images. Just make sure that any digital content you provide during or after training is copyright-friendly!
2. Change The Way You Present
Take a quick look at the way you design and deliver presentations. Can it be made more interactive? There is always room for improvement. You can use web conferencing or have live practice sessions as part of instructor-led training.
3. Use Tools To Collaborate
Numerous remote blended learning approaches tend to have backchannels. These allow learners to have more informal channels of collaboration outside of work. Your team members can use this opportunity to share ideas or network with their peers.
4. Bring In Technology
A learning management system (LMS) can help you mix technology with your approach to remote learning. Moreover, engaging in custom LMS development allows for the creation of a more personalized and effective learning environment, catering specifically to the unique needs of your remote team
It has various features that allow you to invite employees to meetings, present content in an engaging manner, and track progress.
5. Encourage Team Members To Socially Interact
There have been instances where remote workers have reported that networking or chit-chatting with their colleagues ensures motivation throughout the day. So, you can use this method to help your employees interact in an informal environment.
You can also encourage them to have social or face-to-face experiences so that they feel more connected to each other and the company.
Types Of Blended Learning Models?
1. Individual Rotation Model
In this model, employees are sorted into unique learning pathways via specialized software. This is done as per their individual needs. Once they have been sorted, employees are provided with customized schedules for their learning journeys.
The schedule makes room for them to reap the benefits of independent learning, collaborations, and even individualized interventions.
2. Enriched Virtual Model
An enriched virtual model allows employees to finish most of their training from the comfort of their homes. Some companies also offer face-to-face or in-person training, without expecting attendance on a daily basis.
3. Flex Model
This model provides employees to choose to have learning sessions according to their time preferences. While your employees make their way through the training and reading materials, you can offer guidance on a when-needed basis.
4. A La Carte Model
The A La Carte model gives employees the freedom to take an online course with a reputable instructor. But they also need to take other in-person courses. In such a model, the freedom of scheduling lies with the employee.
While these models of remote blended learning sound interesting, when should you start implementing these?
When Should You Apply Remote Blended Learning Models?
Remote blended learning allows you to onboard and train your new employees to bring out their best skills. It is up to you to guide the behavior of your team members and prioritize their professional development.
You should consider implementing these strategies if you´re after:
- Implementing employee engagement and onboarding programs.
- Improving the productivity of new hires.
- Boosting employee retention.
- Identifying and closing skill gaps.
Let’s now jump into some tips to help you devise blended learning approaches to ensure growth for your employees.
Tips To Implement A Blended Learning Approach
1. Survey Your Employees
Before you can create a remote blended learning program for your employees, you need to figure out how comfortable they are with the various methods. Be sure to ask them which methods they prefer and what they would want to improve.
2. Figure Out The Best Approach
It is not enough to learn how to implement remote blended learning; you need to be prepared to make various assessments. This includes comparing the skills and knowledge of all your employees to figure out gaps. This will help you come up with the best delivery methods that suit your team members.
3. Combine Online Content And ILT For Impact
Keep in mind that the various training methods you use should complement each other. One way that you can do this is to mix online learning and ILT sessions. You can include important points in online settings and then follow up with a reiteration and test in person.
This will also boost your team member’s retention skills. Another way to do this is to assign content to employees online and then have them discuss it together later. With both these methods, you can surely boost engagement within the organization in a remote setup!
4. Gather Feedback
Using different training methods can help you create more opportunities to collect feedback. This can also provide you with suggestions to improve your training program.
However, try to gather feedback anonymously for honest answers. Employees tend to be more candid when given the opportunity to conceal their identity.
Now, the question arises, is it worth implementing remote blended learning?
The Benefits Of Remote Blended Learning
There are a number of benefits of implementing blended learning techniques in your fully remote organization. This includes its ability to be both asynchronous and synchronous.
As a rule, an instructor or trainer does not have to be physically or virtually present all the time, and employees are given a certain degree of autonomy in their learning process. Below are several advantages of blended learning methods.
- A positive and enriching learning environment.
- Enhanced collaboration among team members.
- Excellent development and learning strategies for large groups.
- A wide variety of different learning styles can yield valuable data.
- Lower costs generate a higher training ROI.
- Employees are allowed to control learning methods.
- More engaging and fun.
Where there are pros to a remote blended learning system, there are some cons as well.
The Drawbacks Of Remote Blended Learning
- Not all employees want to or can adapt to blended learning methods. They prefer structured learning.
- Difficult to set up efficiently and quickly.
- Requires knowledge of technology.
Adopting Remote Blended Learning Strategies
Remote blended learning can provide a refreshing break from the age-old traditional and structured methods of learning. It combines different effective methods to come up with various solutions and cater to different types of employees.
So, have you decided which strategy you will use for your beloved team members?
