Photo: Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash
Blended learning – for some trainers and educators, you’ve been doing this for years. For others we may have been triggered to begin our journey into blended approaches, out of necessity – the global pandemic causing many organisations to shift their learning delivery online. But even for the recent starters, we have now being working online for over a year. As lockdown protocols begin to ease, I have not spoken with one single trainer who is of the opinion that we will return to pre-COVID ways of working. Blended Learning is here to stay.
So, if the first few months of lockdown were characterised by some scrabbling around (by both clients and providers) to keep learning on the agenda, by shifting it online, the last few months have been more about familiarity with the technology, establishing the pros and cons of working online versus face-to-face, and the development of more creative approaches to maintaining engagement online.
If we accept that blended learning will continue to form part of the offering that an organisation offers its staff, the next natural stage in the implementation of blended approaches is to assess how they are working.
If the pandemic is considered to be a complex problem, it was also novel. No one had encountered such circumstances. We had knowledge, we had experts, we had (some) data, but essentially we were all trying to work out what was going on and then create strategies to cope with it. This applied in the education and training sector as much as anywhere else. This initial period of ‘Working out what is going on’ is characterised by uncertainty, a level of fluidity and ambiguity. We are trying to understand the problem while simultaneously trying to implement solutions. During this period, the emphasis is on testing ideas, experimentation, collaboration and creativity. The goal is one of effectiveness. It is inevitable at this stage, that mistakes will be made as we test out different options.
As we begin to acquire new knowledge and we all settle into a ‘new normal’ – we get used to the idea of working online, for example – then our focus starts to shift from one of effectiveness to one of efficiency. Instead of thinking about ‘How do I shift the content of my leadership programme online?’ we now ask ourselves ‘Which elements should be delivered online and which are better delivered in the classroom? Or ‘If this element is best delivered online, what is the most time-efficient, engaging way of doing this? Our focus has shifted, from making a difference to optimisation.
What does this all mean for trainers, who perhaps work with multiple clients? I think one consequence is that we are going to have to able to explain not only our learning design, but justify our approach. Thankfully, there are some tools out there to help us do this.
One such is the European Maturity Model for Blended Education (EMBED). The model was created by a group of educational institutions and its aim is to
‘map blended learning practices, conditions, strategies and policies in a systemic manner, and ultimately, to identify tracks for optimisation or change.’
Reference European Maturity Model for Blende Education v7
The model provides trainers and educators with a simple assessment tool to guage the ‘maturity’ of their offering. ‘Maturity’ is differentiated from ‘quality’ and refers to the ‘degree of formality and optimisation of the design, evidence-based decision-making, documentation and continuous quality improvement which characterise the uptake of blended learning practices, or the implementation of blended learning conditions and strategies’.
The model contains three levels – ‘Course’, ‘Programme’ and ‘Institution’. We will restrict ourselves to the ‘Course’ level for this post, but it is worth looking at the criteria listed in the other two levels. (See their website)
The course level contains four dimensions, some of which contain sub-dimensions:
Dimension Sub-dimensions
Course design process Selection of blended learning activities and their sequence
Selection of blended learning tools
Course flexibility
Course interaction
Course experience Student learning
Study load
Inclusiveness
Each of these (sub) dimensions can be assessed on a three point scale that ultimately gives a maturity score for the course.
To illustrate the way it works, if on day one of moving your services online, you ran your session on Skype, because both you and your client already had it on your IT platforms, then that decision has likely been out of a pragmatic and necessary approach to get something done immediately, without any reference to course design. If you are now running the same course through Zoom, because of the balance between functionality, ease-of-use, access and ability to engage learners, you are making more of a design-led decision.
The concept of study load is an interesting one for me. I work with leadership teams in both public and private sectors. They tend to be very busy people, so although I don’t think about study load, specifically, it does cause me to be very clear about my reasons for posting tasks onto our Moodle platform, that are required to be done between any synchronous online sessions. I now try to add in the task description likely timings for the activity and whether or not an ‘output’ is required or whether it is additional resources that some learners may find interesting. If I am running a multi-module task, I attempt to add activities that have been highlighted as most relevant by the participants during online discussions.
There are other models out there (which we will cover in future posts), but I would thoroughly recommend EMBED as place to get started. It will quickly give you an indication of where you need to direct your own efforts around your blended learning offerings.
If you sell your services as a provider of training, it has always been the case that the client needs to feel confident in your ability to provide an excellent service. If you think Blended Learning is here to stay, at some point you are going to have to justify your approach to the client, or explain your methodology or ‘benchmark’ your services.
You can find much more information at https://embed.eadtu.eu/en . There is also a very helpful MOOC, ‘Making Blended Education Work’ (that you can sign up to through the website) which gives you opportunity to explore and understand the model.