Learning experience design is a hot topic, and there are always new tools coming up. Work and learning, both are going hybrid. The 3-star standard of learning is to make it efficient, effective and enjoyable (Neelen & Kirschner, 2020).

Just like we focus on the UI and UX on our products so much we need to focus on LI and LX – the learning interface and the learner experience. How is it similar to user – engagement is a key metric, and so a learning product which keeps learners hooked, might be a good contender for high engagement, but we have to see why the engagement is high – is it just because the content is enjoyable? Or is it also effective? Revisiting it again quite important.

Learning doesn’t happen in one session. It is a journey and benefits from a process oriented approach. The a priori knowledge and goals of the learner play a key role in choosing the route on the map of the learning domain. Think of blended learning like a multi-media art or a trialathon – both aim at evoking human excellence but use multi-modes to get there.

Covid-19 has accelerated the adoption and demand for digital transformation everywhere, including the field of learning and development. Teams are now hybrid and distributed across cultures and time zones.

Executives are looking to digital transformation for innovation, cost savings and the increased productivity required to stay relevant in the marketplace. But while ed-tech capabilities are advancing every day, many practitioners are struggling to make sense of when and how to leverage these new modalities.

When learners engage with the right blend of tools and content, structured in the right way, they learn faster and more effectively—and the skills or knowledge they build become deeply embedded.

Siemens et al. (2015) report in a systematic review that all of the evidence-based studies conclude that student achievement was higher in blended learning experiences when compared to either fully online or fully face-to-face learning experiences.

Definition

Blended learning, also known as hybrid learning, web-enhanced instruction, or mixed-mode instruction, is an approach to education that combines online educational materials and online interaction with live or physical sessions.

We cannot track learning directly – so we use the proxy of engagement and proficiency. Engagement defines how much attention people were paying, what is the completion rate, how many time people re-visited the content etc. etc.

Proficiency is usually measured by use of tests or situations where learner has to apply the skill/knowledge in a real-life or sample use case.

The Need

1. Age of distraction: Many learners (especially millennials and Gen-Z) are not content to sit for long periods in a classroom—or even at their computer— listening to or reading dense training materials. In the absence of a highly engaging learner experience, they face high temptation to multitask instead of focusing on the training.
2. Humans are social: Online learning performs poorly in isolation. Learners are seeking social interaction in their learning experiences. More than half of each generation in a recent LinkedIn Learning study said they value the ability to collaborate with instructors and other learners via forums, groups, or Q&A sessions. (“3 rd Annual 2019 Workplace Learning Report,” LinkedIn Learning, 2019)
3. Always-on learning: Across all ages, learners want access to learning content at the time of their convenience. The need for just-in-time access to material is coming out strongly. For eg: before a presentation, a meeting or sales call etc.
4. Emotional pull: Amidst the proliferation of media and tools, on-the-job training or instructor-led training is still important and is to be enhanced using technology. Live interactions by nature involve emotions. Good facilitators consciously create a learning environment that evokes the emotions that are most helpful in the learning process.
5. Importance of presence: The trainer/leader needs to be present, if the instructor can’t be present how will it motivate learners to work on collaboration and teamwork
6. Face to face or live session promote building of relationships which important for engagement and mutual accountability – especially important in leadership and soft skills settings.

Learners need to apply the new skills in daily life. To be able to do this they have to truly master their applied knowledge of the skills in a sustained manner. Digital environments offer lot more practice space for this real-life application in the sustenance phase of any learning journey.

Models

At the heart of effective blended learning design is the learning journey. Creating a blend is as much of an art and as much of science. Just like a good recipe or good music? The process should be evidence-informed and based learning designer’s experience.

Neelen & Kirschner (2020) share some key lessons from learning science about designing engaging learning journeys.

1. Focus on learning transfer and not just on comprehension
2. Include opportunities of reflection
3. Build on prior knowledge
4. Create learning environment
5. Focus on learning and instruction – not just on instruction
6. Focus on deeper conceptual understanding and first principle thinking

Choosing the appropriate model based on your learner demographic, context and setting is crucial for success. Following are some models of blended learning for you to consider while designing:

• Gamification: Letting learners play is a reliable way of motivating learners. By using game play elements such as points or levels, learners feel a little competition and are more motivated to experience the material on their own time.
• Online Lab: This blended learning model is entirely digital, with little or no instructor interaction, and takes place either before, during or after a training. Learners can access content on mobile phones, laptops or tablets. This modality engages and solidifies learning.
• Self-Blend: Self-blended learning is supplemental content—either in the form of webinars, white papers, industry blogs, or video tutorials—that help self-motivated learners delve deeper into a subject. A robust LMS can combine diverse content sources under one system to encourage curiosity and growth.
• Online Driver: Entirely self-directed, this model takes place in a digital environment. Learners can engage with an instructor through chat, email or message board. It provides a flexible schedule and personalized learning, but lacks the face-to-face interaction of other types of blended learning. An LMS is the best way to encourage users to direct their own learning while still monitoring their process as they enjoy media and eventually, engage in classroom discussion.
• Flex Model – Most of the curriculum is delivered via a digital platform and teachers/instructor are available for face-to-face consultation and support.

Components

Blended learning happens when we combine live physical learning events with digital counterpart. The digital platform like learning weaver provides a scaffolding for the learner to contextualize their learning environment. In today’s hybrid world it is important to create a room or a space where the learning experience is placed and hosted. Mind you it doesn’t need to become a social network and doesn’t need to foster more than required engagement among the learners. For that learners already have a lot of tools. Instead, this needs to be focused space where the learners can just be with the facilitator or leader and engage with the material.

The gamification or the leader board provides the social angle to the learning it creates the motivation and urgency to master and engage in the material. Without it the self-paced nature might be good for some highly motivated learners but for others it might become something which they sign on but never use it back again.

Blended learning combines traditional learning tools and content with modern methodologies. Some of these include:

1. Games and interactive scenarios
2. Physical workshops and classroom sessions
3. Webinars and virtual classrooms
4. Digital learning courses (eLearning) and micro-modules
5. Mobile delivery of on-the-job training
6. Instructor/Facilitator Feedback
7. Peer Reflection Circles
8. Discussion forums & Peer communication
9. Virtual Reality (VR) experiences
10. Augmented Reality (AR) apps
11. Video and rich media
12. Podcasts
13. Chatbots and smart search tools
14. Infographics and resource packs
15. Spaced learning and spaced repetition
16. Time-bound assignments
17. Milestone / Key-stone projects
18. Action Plans
19. Gamification and Leaderboard
20. Case Studies

What is not blended learning design?

1. It’s not about replacing the instructor/facilitator with an online software. It is about enhancing and adding more ways of interacting with the teacher and the material
2. The ideal use of blended learning is if the learning is spaced, however, learners might use it to cram all the items together which is not a good idea. In that way scheduled learning helps in breaking up the material.
3. Blended courses include a mix of both face-to-face, instructor-led learning, and online or digital course components that give students some control over path and pace. Blended learning is not a completely online course or a lecture course that is broadcast online. It also does not include course changes that simply swap analog tools for digital ones. In blended learning, the in-person and online elements work together to create a richer learning experience and do not simply duplicate course content in varying formats.

Advantages

It’s important to understand that employees/participants are balancing the learning with many other competing priorities. This can result in learning taking a backseat to more urgent tasks.

Effective blended learning solutions not only maintain but deepen learner engagement over time, and integrate learning directly into the flow of work.

There are many advantages to creating blended learning journeys:

1. Provide a context to learning
   1. Often in adult learning situations, the learning events become spread out and sporadic without much structure, you take one workshop this month, read another work next week and maybe engage in some other activity next quarter. A blended learning journey can help weave all these separate learning events together and create a structure to contextualize the learning
2. Use the power of spaced learning
   1. In the traditional model it is difficult to space out learning and the tendency is to cram multiple modules/content in a small duration of a few hours to few days.
   2. Even for those with regular classes like dance classes, this can help to create a guiding context where learners can keep their readings, assignments and reflections organized, it also serves as a one stop communication platform within the cohort and instructor.
   3. If you are a self-directed learner who likes to lead, you can create a learning journey as a path for the novices in the field to get their journey started and get the basics right.
3. Harness the power of online and multimedia resources
   1. Using a learning journey designer can help you integrate various learning sources and materials.
4. Bring learners across geo-locations to interact together in one space. Proponents of blended learning argue that incorporating the "asynchronous Internet communication technology" into higher education courses serves to "facilitate a simultaneous independent and collaborative learning experience" (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004).
5. Community building: The virtual learning environment helps connect instructors with learners without physically being present, thus making this a 'virtual cafe'. Many schools use the online tool for online classes, classwork, question & answer forums, and other school related work. Blended learning yielded positive results from the online community. These results were comparable to that of Alcoholics Anonymous and Weight Watchers (Bradford et al., 2007).
6. Best of both worlds:  Studies have shown “blended learning” reduces failure rates, improves learning, and boosts engagement (Cramer et al., 2007; Day & Foley, 2006; Hunsu et al., 2016). Blended learning promises the best of both worlds. It integrates the best aspects of face-to-face teaching and online instruction in ways that enable students to learn at their own pace. For exa mple, a student in a blended learning course who masters a concept earlier than his peers can move on without having to wait, and conversely, a student who needs more time is not forced to move forward before fully grasping the subject. It is proving to be a scalable learning model that simply works for diverse populations of students (Journal, 2015) .
7. No one left behind: Blended learning takes every type of learner into account, whether they prefer the familiar traditional classroom, would rather learn online, or try a mixture of both. Skipping the limitations of a classroom or an all-online course, blended learning utilizes a variety of methodologies so the content can be customized to the learner and optimized for the subject matter. Though, not everything from face-to-face training is easily translated to digital content, it’s still possible to re-engineer existing content for online delivery in a way that complements the existing training.
8. Learning Trends and Feedback
   1. Instructors using blended learning can quickly adopt the latest learning trends and modalities into the curriculum. They utilise the built-in reporting features in most LMS software programs for deeper, data driven insights into learner progress and success.
   2. From learner’s perspective, a unique opportunity emerges to discuss, model, and practice their new skills in a safe space. They’re not just watching or hearing—they’re doing. By applying the new knowledge shortly after leaving the physical or virtual classroom, learners retain better.

9. Fun and Engagement

Blended learning is a highly interactive experience. Learners reinforce the offline lessons by practicing online through a variety of different content media, each crafted to suit a certain learning style. Learners choose which type of content to interact with, practice what they learn, and communicate with instructors and other learners on their own time and on any device. The community experience keeps learners engaged and informs teachers about their progress and areas needing more attention.

10. Lower Costs

In-class training might come across as cheaper than eLearning development. But the true cost of face-to-face sessions is high: Time away from work, paying instructors, and flying in remote employees can take up significant amount of the learning budget. A blended eLearning approach minimises on travel costs and can be re-used, which reduces instructor time as well.

Conclusion

Online learning offers personalized, self-paced learning with eLearning components that lend themselves to interactive media such as games, videos, tutorials, quizzes and social media components, all accessible from the learner’s home page in the Learning Management System (LMS)—and accessible from the learner’s smartphone or tablet.

Blended learning happens when we combine live physical learning events with digital counterpart. The digital platform like learning weaver provides a scaffolding for the learner to contextualize their learning environment. In today’s hybrid world it is important to create a room or a space where the learning experience is placed and hosted. Mind you it doesn’t need to become a social network and doesn’t need to foster more than required engagement among the learners. For that learners already have a lot of tools. Instead, this needs to be focused space where the learners can just be with the facilitator or leader and engage with the material.

The gamification or the leader board provides the social angle to the learning it creates the motivation and urgency to master and engage in the material. Without it the self-paced nature might be good for some highly motivated learners but for others it might become something which they sign on but never use it back again.

Links and References:

What is Blended Learning? Examples & More | ELM Learning

Blended Learning: Create the Perfect Learner Journey | LEO Learning | LEO Learning

New Data Backs Blended Learning - The Atlantic

Optimizing the Learning Journey for Soft Skills.pdf (windows.net)

Online Communication and IT education (jite.org)

Bradford, P., Porciello, M., Balkon, N., & Backus, D. (2007). The Blackboard Learning System: The Be All and End All in Educational Instruction? Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 35(3), 301–314. https://doi.org/10.2190/X137-X73L-5261-5656

Cramer, K., Collins, K., Snider, D., & Fawcett, G. (2007). The Virtual Lecture Hall: Utilisation, effectiveness and student perceptions. British Journal of Educational Technology, 38, 106–115. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2006.00598.x

Day, J., & Foley, J. (2006). Evaluating web lectures: A case study from HCI. CHI ’06 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 195–200. https://doi.org/10.1145/1125451.1125493

Garrison, D. R., & Kanuka, H. (2004). Blended learning: Uncovering its transformative potential in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 7(2), 95–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2004.02.001

Hunsu, N. J., Adesope, O., & Bayly, D. J. (2016). A meta-analysis of the effects of audience response systems (clicker-based technologies) on cognition and affect. Computers & Education, 94, 102–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.11.013

Journal, E. D., National. (2015, September 23). New Data Backs Blended Learning. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/new-data-backs-blended-learning/432894/

Neelen, M., & Kirschner, P. A. (n.d.). Evidence-Informed Learning Design. Learning Design, 328.

Siemens, G., Gašević, D., & Dawson, S. (2015). Preparing for the Digital University: A Review of the History and Current State of Distance, Blended and Online Learning. https://research.monash.edu/en/publications/preparing-for-the-digital-university-a-review-of-the-history-and-