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Blended Learning Challenges from Instructional Design
When learning technologies are introduced, attention is often paid to thetechnology implementation—while the actual design of appropriate content isleft with too little time and budget to create a successful program. Continuingthis article from the previous one, here are the blended learning challengesthat arise from the instructional design process itself.
Challenge #6: Looking at how to teach, as well as what to teach
“Strategy” meetings about moving content online often have one or twopotential foci: “How do we get all of our content online,” or “Let’s get Xonline by next week.” The conversation is about “How” or “What,” but rarelyboth. This results in a less than optimal delivery.
Challenge#6: Solution
Don’t predetermine the delivery answer for a particular program. Looking toput your customer service program online? Go through a thoughtful designprocess and determine what pieces may require face-to-face time and what piecesrequire collaboration. If, after the process is over, you realize that thiscontent is not appropriate for online or blended delivery, don’t bedisappointed. Call it a success because you have not created bad training.
Give yourself enough time and make sure you bring the right players to thetable. And remember, technology is a tool—the people need to get it done.
Exampleand evidence
Your instructional design team has been tasked with converting threetraditionally delivered programs to a blended learning environment.
Evidence that your organization may run into obstacles during this processincludes:
- The team, consisting of experts, project sponsors,facilitators, and instructional designers, have different expectations of theprogram outcomes. Some want to use technology because they think they will savemoney, or because it is trendy.
- There is a lack of understanding concerning what technologycan accomplish and how easily content can be converted; the perception is thatif the content exists, you can just drop it into instructional technology.
- A needs analysis was not conducted to determine if theselected programs were the most appropriate for blended learning:
- Too high risk or exposure for early conversion.
- Content may not lend itself to blended learning technology.
Challenge#7: Matching the best delivery medium to the performance objective
Training teams often don’t have the time or experience tocreate great blended programs. Because of this, it has become acceptable totreat skill or behavioral objectives as we would treat a knowledge objective.When this happens, the training technologies are blamed, when it was really alack of instructional design. (You don’t believe this? How often do you hearabout skill objectives being taught in the virtual classroom and then thesession is recorded for anyone who wasn’t able to attend? Watching a recordedsession is rarely an appropriate treatment of a skill-based objective—yet we doit all of the time.)
Challenge#7: Solution
Technology selection should be the last step of thedesign process. Instructional designers need to go through a thoroughevaluation to validate learning objectives and determine appropriate assessmentmethodologies before determining how to deliver content for each learningobjective. Don’t try to determine if you can deliver your employee orientationcontent online, instead look at each learning objective of the programindividually.
If you can assess the objective in a self-paced format, youcan probably deliver the content in a self-paced format. If you need to assessin a live setting, then the content for that objective needs to be delivered ina virtual classroom, or perhaps even a traditional classroom. This process iswhat determines what your blend will look like, and what technologies youshould include.
A great tool for matching delivery mediums to performanceobjectives is Bloom’sDigital Taxonomy.
Examples and evidence
- Yourinstructional design team has been tasked with converting three traditionallydelivered programs to a blended learning environment.
- Evidenceyour organization is not correctly implementing blended learning includes:
- Thereis a “one-size-fits-all” philosophy with regard to delivery mediums; either allvirtual classroom, all eLearning, or all traditional classroom.
- Thereis a desire to teach all content all ways in order to appeal to amultiple-learning-preference approach.
- Theblended development plan does not include time or resources to redesigncontent.
- Thedesign team has not been trained in blended learning design techniques.
- Facilitatorlectures through all content in live lessons, even if the content wasintroduced in self-paced lessons.
Challenge#8: Keeping online offerings interactive rather than just “talking at”participants
Let’s face it, too much lecture, reading, or content in anyformat (including the traditional classroom) is disengaging. The mediumbecomes the message—and after a while even the most motivated participant has adifficult time retaining information.
Challenge#8: Solution
When designing for self-paced learning for knowledgeobjectives, consider a 12- to 20-minute maximum per topic or module. If youhave content that requires more than 12 minutes of treatment, try to find a wayfor the learner to save their work, and come back later. (If you are wonderingwhere 12 minutes comes from, it’s the time between commercial breaks on networktelevision. A large part of our population has been trained to keepconcentration at least this long.)
For virtual classroom interactions, find a way forparticipants to do something (click on a green check mark, send a chat, orparticipate in a breakout exercise) every three to five minutes. If you have avirtual lecture that goes more than five minutes, break it up with polling orQ&A.
Exampleand evidence
Your organization has implementeda new blended training program. The content was well designed, and wasoptimized for the blended environment. The time has come for you (as thefacilitator) to deliver the first instance of the program. Evidence you are notready to facilitate a blended learning program includes:
- Youlecture through all content in live lessons, even if the content was introducedin self-paced lessons.
- Interactionsare skipped in favor of lecturing.
- Focusin live sessions is on “finishing” the slides, not on content comprehension.
- eLearninglessons feel too long and are too text heavy.
- Participantscan leave virtual lessons without the facilitator realizing they are gone.
Challenge #9: Ensuring participant commitment and follow-through with“non-live” elements
Participants (and managers) tend to pay the most attention to the livecomponent of a blended program. Self-paced work is viewed as optional.Facilitators often reinforce this by re-teaching self-paced work in the liveclassroom.
In a blended environment, this causes problems. The money invested increating quality self-paced components is wasted, and precious live time setaside for collaboration in the virtual classroom is reduced in favor ofteaching content that should have been mastered with the self-paced work.
Challenge#9: Solution
When creating a blend, realistically look at the content in the context ofyour audience. Do you really think that your sales force will complete 12 hoursof self-paced work prior to a live session? If not, don’t make the investment.
Start smaller, and design more live components. When you do includeself-paced content, include stringent assessments. Make sure participants knowabout the assessments, and send the message that they will not be able to moveon to live sessions unless the assessments are successfully completed.
Then, enforce the requirement. As soon as you let one participant “slide,”you have sent the message to everyone that self-paced work is not required.
Ensure everyone understands the requirements by including a “learningcontract” (change the name as you think best!) that is reviewed by theparticipant and his or her supervisor, so everyone understands the fullrequirements of the program.
Example and evidence
Your organization has implemented a new blendedtraining program, with the knowledge components delivered via eLearning.Evidence that your facilitators and participants may not be ready toparticipate in this blended learning program includes:
- When asked if it is acceptable to skip an eLearningassignment, the facilitator says “Yes.”
- Participants assuming that if a piece of self-paced content istruly important the facilitator will cover it in the live lesson.
- The facilitator, concerned that participants did not completethe self-paced work, covers the content in the live lesson, degrading thedesign of the live lesson.
- The blended learning program does not have a way to trackcompletion of all parts of the blend.
- Supervisors do not fully realize the entire time commitmentrequired by blended learning.
Challenge#10: Ensuring all the elements of the blend are coordinated
Blended programs can be complex and often last many weeks or months.Without the proper coordination and oversight, participants will tend tocomplete the “easy” parts of the blend, or only participate in the scheduled(read: live) components.
Other potential issues with a complex blend is that participants will notread everything they receive, so they don’t become aware of requirements, andthe facilitator may be overwhelmed by the amount of items that need to bemanaged.
Challenge#10: Solution
A visual course map with a suggested schedule for self-paced work can helpparticipants get organized. You can accomplish this on a course web site, whichalso has all of the links for content, virtual classroom, and materials.Contact information for the facilitator and technical support should be easy tofind on this page.
Also, a frequently asked questions section can provide a forum forparticipants to work through logistical and technical roadblocks.
Make sure you have a solid communication plan—with template content anddates for each communication—keep a copy of each email on the course web pageso participants can access them when they are away from their primarycomputers.
Example and evidence
Your organization has implemented a new blendedtraining program that is delivered to participants over a period of eightweeks. Evidence your organization, facilitators, and participants may not beready to participate in this blended learning program includes:
- A lack of communication about the requirements of the blend,especially the self-paced lessons.
- The facilitator does not have a full understanding of thelessons that are not delivered in the live format.
- Supervisors do not fully realize the necessary time commitmentrequired by blended learning.
Conclusion
The success of any blended learning implementationis determined in the planning stage. When you plan for blended learningchallenges from technical, organizational, and instructional sources, yourorganization will reap the benefits of investing the time and resources increating a well-equipped workforce.
