Blended Learning

WHITE PAPER ON BLENDED LEARNING INITIATIVES:

Trigger: Pure play training has been attempted as a quick fix developmental tool to manage serious performance mishaps.

However, as expected a short term `magic’ solution was never going to emerge from these initiatives. It has its limited advantages in terms of setting a common context for all the participants and getting them on a common page. It helps in technical skills and dissemination of information via values workshops etc...

But its biggest limitations include:

Poor long term retention
Inability to translate the learnings into actionable improvements
Inability to follow-up and get course correction support from anyone in the system
Specific individual skills and behavioural challenges are not managed due to lack of a platform to get a prescription based assistance
No real quantifiable measurable system to monitor and measure `behavioural’ progress leading to tangible results

With the above in mind, we have now developed a solution based on a model that looks at blended learning with the active support of all the stake holders an approach that attempts to take care of the various shortcomings listed above:

The specific advantages of this blended learning approach are:

The system is transparent
Completely online so geography is no longer a barrier
All stake holders are included in the system so a social positive pressure to update the scores is maintained
Since the scores are open, any difference in scoring is also discussed positively
It has a social media feel and helps everyone get positively involved
Helps improve working climate in the team
Since it is completely online can be tweaked as per need
Participant as well as his L+1, L-1 and peers are all part of the improvement process

Since the proof of the pudding is in the eating, we recommend you to read this Case Study to appreciate better the finer nuances of this approach.