A New Day for Employee Learning: Will a Blended Approach Work for your Organization?
As organizations continue to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of uncertainty, the only constant is change. Organizations have adjusted accordingly, adopting flexible working models that combine office-based, remote, and distributed teams. Top of mind is the ongoing conversation around how to best support the needs of employees across distributed working arrangements. And perhaps most pertinent, how to cultivate continuous learning and development for employees both together - and apart.
Live workshops are impactful - they allow learners to engage deeply with important material, have discussions that create a sense of alignment and shared community, and allow questions to be answered in real-time by facilitators. Nothing quite recreates the experience of being in a room and learning together. However, live workshops are challenging to scale for large, fast-growing, remote-first, or globally distributed organizations. We also know that learners need more than one way of receiving important content and content needs to be accessible to all types of learners to truly have an impact. Adding self-directed learning to live workshops can be an effective way of scaling and increasing learning accessibility.
Why add self-directed learning to your learning and development approach? Blended learning is defined as “the thoughtful integration of classroom face-to-face learning experiences with online learning experiences.” It offers learning and development leaders a useful frame to support the varied needs of all learners and to maximize impact. We know that live workshops are effective. Self-directed learning, when done well, can add value to any learning curriculum by adding important elements to the learner’s experience.
Why Add Self-Directed Learning to your Program?
1. SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING CAN GIVE PEOPLE A SENSE OF OWNERSHIP
Research shows that adult learners move towards more autonomy in their pursuit of learning. Motivation tends to be more effective for learning as that independence can fuel the desire to learn and change. Self-directed learning also hinges on critical reflection that can lead to transformation in the form of learners assessing their assumptions and beliefs to make new meaning. Incorporating self-paced learning modules like ReadySet NewDay’s interactive courses that supplement live workshops and trainings, allows learners to tap into their intrinsic motivators, and pursue learning in a way that interests them. Interested learners learn more!
2. IT ALLOWS SPACE TO PROCESS
We know that an adult learner's working memory only absorbs 7-11 minutes worth of material. Live workshop pacing tends to be brisk, with the ever-present battle of balancing content delivery with audience comprehension. While live learning is great for facilitating foundational concepts in real-time, this can limit opportunities for learners who need more time to digest, and apply what they’ve learned. That reflection is a key part of the learning process; research has found that reflective learning can increase performance by 23 percent. The hybrid approach of blended learning can fill that critical need and accommodate a diversity of communication and learning needs. ReadySet’s hybrid learning journeys that include both live workshops and NewDay self-led journeys leverage the importance of learning in community, supplemented with asynchronous modules that allow learners the time and space to pause and reflect in their own time.
3. BLENDED LEARNING CAN ACCOMMODATE ALL LEVELS OF LEARNING
Not everyone starts on the same page with concepts, especially when they are diversity, equity and inclusion related. Live workshops tend to be very broad and welcoming of people no matter their level of expertise, and try to accommodate as many people on different parts of their journeys as possible. They may be very focused on novices or advanced participants and may lose participants who are not as far along. Adding self-directed learning on platforms like NewDay offers participants a way to learn at different levels by allowing them to explore. More advanced folks farther along in their learning may add on modules to level up or go deeper while other more novice learners may want to go back and review basic concepts. NewDay allows people to take the journey they need to and gain the knowledge that will most help them learn while embodying a spirit of discovery.
4. IT MAKES ROOM FOR EXPERIMENTATION
In order to shift mindsets and integrate new frameworks, learners need the opportunity to integrate new learning through practice. Research shows that as adult learners challenge their own assumptions and beliefs, it’s important to engage in the process of experimentation. Because changing behavior can be intimidating, learners often leave workshops with new tools but no brave place to test out and practice what they've learned, making change slower to happen or stall altogether. Shedding old ideas and identities to integrate new ones may include role-playing, visioning and piloting in order to build confidence and capacity for new skills. Training sessions that offer practice like ReadySet Lab, help support learners by providing dedicated space to practice concepts from live workshops and, with the addition of self-paced modules, can take learning to the next level. Practice is key to learning.
How ReadySet Takes a Blended Learning Approach
As organizational learning and development leaders continue to iterate on how to cultivate a culture of learning in our new world, a blended learning framework can provide a holistic approach to enhance the experience of learning in a way that’s agile, scalable and sustainable.
ReadySet takes a holistic, blended approach to learning. We know that learning isn’t one size fits all; while most traditional training focuses on visual and auditory learning, just 30% of people are auditory learners. Our approach combines self-paced and live learning elements to support different learning styles. Our live, expert-led sessions are geared toward deep, interactive learning, where people can come together and build community, practice having difficult conversations together, and have real-time questions answered by our experienced facilitators. Many of our clients report that these sessions have been invaluable to their work experience and learning journeys.
To accommodate different learning styles, scale learning opportunities for large audiences and add richness to learners’ journeys, ReadySet’s continuous learning platform NewDay empowers teams to build new skills through engaging content and tailored experiences. Interactive, video-based courses are supported by self-reflection exercises to reinforce concepts and important takeaways. Learning and development leaders can also track and maximize engagement through data on learner participation and email campaigns to nudge learners. NewDay provides a unique experience for learners to create their own learning, for what works best for them.
While both types of learning stand on their own - live workshops and self-led learning journeys - together they can maximize learning and engagement, all while being inclusive.
Fill out our contact form here or view a demo to learn more about NewDay.