How it works

Blended learning involves combining formal and informal learning methods. At its core, it has the power to teach and then offers the immediate opportunity to practice new capabilities, behaviors, concepts, strategies, and skills. From the purely technical (e.g., how to create and justify a budget) to the interpersonal (e.g., how to establish credibility with a new team), learning followed by practice, discussion, or coaching is much more likely to stick with the individual learner.   

looks_oneConsider what is to be learned and developed

Leveraging the competency model and assigning learning goals for the program(s) helps communicate the common shortcomings or skills gaps that group learning will be designed to overcome. Additionally, certain learning methods are best suited for certain competencies. For example, learning about business drivers and trends in a given industry is often done best by experts via either published articles or in a lecture with a question-and-answer session that follows. Interpersonal skills tend to be best learned when practiced or tried out with others, while completing an administrative task is best learned online or within a system and then followed by an evaluation of the output of that exercise.