Many trainers fear what will happen after they say these words. For how to ensure the knowledge gained stays top of mind among participants? How do you know if they apply the lessons learned in practice? How do they deal with pitfalls and questions in between sessions? In a week, will they still be as enthusiastic as they are now, or will they have forgotten half of what they've learned?
If you embrace blended learning, there's no need to ponder these questions. If used effectively, it will basically allow you to extend your training course. Creating continuity, you'll turn it into an ongoing learning process. The result? You'll get a lot more out of it.
Online learning platform: build your training course on a solid foundation
Your participants are likely professionals who have a full-time job. They take your training course in addition to their daily activities. If you don't stay in touch in between sessions, everyday matters will quickly take over. An online learning platform prevents this. It keeps people involved and encourages them to translate passive knowledge into concrete actions. You can provide them with extra materials, have them complete short (interactive) assignments, and interact with each other.
As participants can communicate in a blended learning environment, they benefit from a positive form of peer pressure: if a participant sees their peers have already submitted a certain assignment, that's often an extra incentive to keep up with them.
In other words, people don't have to work through the training course all by themselves, which can be very difficult considering their other daily activities. The interaction and additional materials within the online learning environment allow them to get off their islands and stay focused on the training course.
How to get the most out of a blended learning environment: a practical tip
Setting up an online learning platform is a step in the right direction. But if you really want to turn your training course into an ongoing process, you should of course use it properly. The key lies in keeping participants engaged. How to use blended learning to achieve this goal?
We'll illustrate it using a real-life example. At LearningStone, we always listen carefully to our customers’ demands. We regularly enrich our blended learning environment based on their ideas. Recently, a customer submitted an interesting request to us. As a trainer, she wanted to give likes in the learning environment so she could get to know her participants better. We built and incorporated this option. When the new feature was launched, she created a contest: the first participant who'd give a like would receive a copy of her new book.
It was a great idea, as promotions like these encourage participants to log in more often, communicate on the platform, and take their efforts up a notch. For who wouldn't want to be labeled as a winner and receive a nice gift for their efforts?
Need more creative ideas? Keep an eye on our next blog posts!
