Taking Blended Learning to the Next Level

In industry blogs, conference presentations, and journal articles, youcan’t help but notice the news that the learning and development field ischanging fairly dramatically. We are seeing—and will continue to see—realchanges in what our organizations expect from us in terms of how we do our workand the contributions we make.

The message is that our old models of supporting learning inorganizations need to be set aside, and we need to find modern ways to championand scaffold learning. The techniques that are gaining attention includeinformal learning, social learning, narrating our work, and learning in theflow of work—techniques that, by the way, don’t necessarily need L&Dsupport to flourish.

What’s next in L&D

Whether we talk about breaking up with training, revolutionizingL&D, building a learning ecosystem, or defining new roles, it’s clear that,if we want to remain relevant, we need to craft ways to support learning wellbeyond designing training. It’s equally clear that learning remains the lifeblood of organizations in our fast-paced, ever-changing workplaces, so theright kind of support would certainly be welcome. Learning resources may bewidely available, but finding the most useful can be a daunting task. Whilelearners appreciate diverse options and individual control over when and how toengage, they also like to have some guidance and support in identifying thebest sources, checking their understanding, and getting feedback onapplication.

In A New Culture ofLearning, Doug Thomas and John Seely Brown conclude that one of thechallenges we face as learning leaders is “To find a way to marry structure and freedom tocreate something altogether new.”

But what is the “something altogether new” that L&Dprofessionals should be creating? To answer that question, we can draw on whatis emerging from the efforts of learners themselves.

The notion of a personal learning environment has beenaround for over a decade. A personal learning environment consists of resourcesand practices that a person pulls together to support his or her own learning.To develop a specific knowledge base or skill, an individual might find andaggregate static resources like articles, books, and web sites as well as “follow”thought leaders, develop a network of like-minded peers, and perhaps seekformal learning. A personal self-directed learning process is also likely to involvedocumenting and sharing learning, envisioning how to apply new knowledge andskill, monitoring one’s own results, and discussing implications with trustedothers.

You’ve probably created personal learning environments foryour own development goals. Having identified what you wanted to learn, yousought out a variety of resources to explore the topic and began talking withpeople who share the same interests. The resources in this environment arelikely quite diverse: a bookshelf of resources behind your desk (or on yourtablet), a few document files on the computer, new names on your contact list,new people whose blog or Twitter feed you follow, and your own notes or blogposts on what you’re learning.

Communities of practice have also been identified asimportant learner-generated learning spaces. According to studies of thisphenomenon, communities are formed by committed people who have a shared bodyof knowledge and a desire to collaborate on emerging practices. In theworkplace, these groups find many ways to work together and to share theiremerging understanding of their practice field. They engage in ongoing discussions,share documents, and wrestle with problems. The community often interactsthrough digital common spaces that hold multimedia repositories, discussionforums, blogs, and instant messaging.

You may be personally familiar with communities of practice.It is fairly common in our field for work teams to share stories and ideas withone another, often using some kind of electronic platform to house shareddocuments and allow asynchronous conversations. Developers share code andtroubleshoot issues; consultants share presentation templates and discusslearning strategy with one another. These kinds of communities work best when thecommunity itself founds and maintains them—too much company “support” cannegatively impact the camaraderie and commitment that holds them together.

Personal learning environments and communities of practiceare solid models for what we might do to marry structure and freedom for thelearners we support. Taking cues from these kinds of learner-driveninitiatives, L&D professionals can move from designing learning events to designing robust learning environments intended to supportspecific learning needs. A well-designed learning environment is a deliberatelycurated collection of resources and activities for learning related to aspecific need—it’s blended learning taken to the next level.

A learning environment can be designed by assembling arecommended collection of materials, and then making those resources accessibleto learners who need them. The list of potential learning resources is quitewide-ranging, including information sources (books, articles, web resources,performance support, etc.), tools that allow knowledge sharing and timelyconnection, people (mentors, peers, experts), training and education options,company development programs, and tools to support learning by doing. Thedeterminant of a learning environment’s worth is active curation of theresources and activities (a topic for another article). The point is to guidelearners to the best learning resources.

All of these resources and activities are typically madeavailable through an electronic gateway of some kind (e.g., web page or documentwith embedded links). Given the tools we now have at our disposal—especially onlinecapabilities, social tools, and access to Internet-based resources—we caninvest our energy in ferreting out the best available resources instead ofcreating material from scratch.

Types of learning environments

Learning environments can be designed in a number of ways.Initial forays into learning environment design have been in creating blended learninghubs. You build the collection ofresources in this case around aformal event on a specific topic (e.g., a management-training class or salesskills). The hub extends the learning by providing additional links, articles, tools,application-support materials, feedback, coaching, a place for ongoingdiscussion, and more.

L&D leaders have also engaged in efforts to create spacefor knowledge exchange. Building from the approaches popular in knowledge-managementcircles, a knowledge exchange provides space for both experts and learners toshare resources, engage in Q&A, and collaborate on relevant projects. The mostimportant feature in this kind of learning environment is the extent ofuser-generated materials.

A third approach is to assemble a learning resource portal.When learners have widely varying needs, or the knowledge base and skill sethas many elements, learners need to be able to pick and choose the learningresources that will be most useful. A learning resource portal organizesresources and activities to be easy to search and browse. It offers manydifferent modes of learning (text, videos, courses, live discussion, etc.) sothat people are able to find an approach that matches their preferences.

In a different vein, a collaboratory recognizes that aparticular knowledge base and skill set is so new and evolving that documentedresources are hard to come by. A collaboratory-type environment focuses onenabling timely robust exchange among participants—to share knowledge, yes, butmore importantly to invent new ways of doing things and discover new conceptsand ideas that are useful to the group as a whole. In a collaboratory,knowledge is generated by doing and learning from experience.

These approaches are just prototypical designs—every learningenvironment design project generates a different set of resources and calls fordifferent kinds of interactions. Learning environment design is a way ofconceptualizing how we can support learning without necessarily controlling it,how we can incorporate powerful learning techniques like social learning andexperiential learning without getting in the way.

A recommendation

The L&D profession, then, is steadily expanding fromcreating targeted training, to conceptualizing blended learning programs, todesigning more comprehensive learning environments. For your more-robustprojects, consider the ways that you can support learning and application in anongoing way rather than defaulting to an instructionally designed event ortraditional blended learning approach. Employ readily available tools tocollate additional resources and enable ongoing interaction.

By advocating and facilitating the development of learningenvironments, we can provide highly valuable support to learners in theirefforts to keep up with ever-changing knowledge and skill demands.

For additional information

For a small sample of opinions on what needs to change,check out David Kelly’s blog on breaking up with training, Clark Quinn’s thoughts about revolutionizing L&D, Mal Poulin’sarticle on building a learning ecosystem, or Jane Hart’s perspective on defining new roles in L&D.

Also, for more on personal learning environments, see Harold Jarche’s PKM resource page; for more oncommunities of practice, browse the Wenger-Trayner web site. For more onlearning environment design, see here.

References

Thomas,Douglas & Brown, John Seely. A NewCulture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of ConstantChange. Scotts Valley: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011.