Speaker 1: Hey there folks, Tim Slade here from the eLearning Designers Academy and in today's video, we're going to talk about how and why you should be designing blended learning even if your primary focus is on eLearning. So let's get to it. You know, when you're starting work on a new training project, inevitably the question is asked about how the training should be delivered. Should it be an eLearning course or an instructor-led workshop? Or should it be a job aid or a how-to video? And these types of questions are ones that you either ask of yourself or maybe your stakeholders and subject matter experts ask of you. Either way, I've never been a big fan of looking at training as a binary choice between two things. Should it be an eLearning course or an instructor-led training or a job aid or a how-to video? And the reason why this is, is because learning is not a binary choice between one thing or another. Learning is a process of experiences that occurs over a period of time. And I'll be honest, I didn't always think this way. If you're like me and your primary focus is on the design and development of eLearning, you might have had the same mindset I had when I first started in eLearning and instructional design. The truth is, I used to think eLearning could fix anything, but that's just not the case. Creating good and effective training is about looking at the desired outcomes you're looking to achieve and finding the best bondality to achieve those outcomes, whether it's an eLearning course or something else. So before I share with you my method for designing blended learning, let's talk about some of the benefits blended learning can offer. As I mentioned a moment ago, learning isn't an event, it's a process. And as a result, whenever possible, it's my belief that we should be avoiding the creation of singular training events, especially when the thing being taught can't be mastered within that single event. And here's why. When you create a singular training event, you might find that initially your learners retain the knowledge and skills being taught. However, after that, if they aren't engaged with additional resources or support, you tend to see a decline in retention as the forgetting curve starts to set in. Now on the other hand, when you create a blended or spaced training, let's call it an ecosystem, you actually have more opportunities to re-engage your learners with the knowledge and skills that they need to retain. So as the forgetting curve starts to set in, you can hit them, not literally of course, with some sort of retraining event that might come in the form of coaching and feedback or some sort of performance support resource. Now whatever the case might be, when you map this out over time, you can actually reduce the effects of the forgetting curve and better support your learners through the total learning process. All right, so if we can all agree that blended learning makes for better learning, how can you actually do it? Well, the good news is that it's far easier than it might seem. Creating blended learning is simply a matter of identifying the learning outcomes you want to achieve and then pairing them with one or more training objects. So when I say learning outcomes, what do I mean by that? Well, what you need to do is you need to look at your content and determine if you need to transfer knowledge, maybe you need to create opportunities for practice or opportunities for application, maybe you need to assess knowledge and performance, or maybe you just need to create some just-in-time performance support. And the truth is you'll likely need to accomplish a little bit of everything here, depending on the nature of what's being taught. So once you know what you need to accomplish, you can then start pairing those with one or more training objects. So for example, let's say you needed to create training to teach all employees how to use a new system that you're launching. As you look at what you need to accomplish, you know that you'll need to transfer some knowledge about the new system, you'll need to create some opportunities to practice certain workflows within the new system, and of course, you'll want to provide some performance support that your learners can reference on the new system after the formal training is complete. So how does this look in terms of a blended learning solution? For the knowledge transfer, perhaps you could accomplish that by creating a video that's sent out via email to introduce all employees on the new system and the upcoming changes. And from there, you might create an e-learning course with some system simulations to let your learners practice using the new system. And then finally, you could create a centralized hub on your company's internet, which will host a series of job aids that can be referenced as performance support. And before you know it, you've created a blended learning solution. It's really that simple. All right. So that's my take on why blended learning is important and how to create blended learning, which leads me to my question of the day. What other tips do you have for designing blended learning solutions? Share your tips by commenting below. And as always, I want to thank you for watching. Make sure to hit that subscribe button below. And of course, if you want to learn more about growing your e-learning career and designing blended learning, check out the e-Learning Designers Academy at elearningacademy.io. My name is Tim Slade, and until next time, I'll see you around.