Blended Learning: Part Two

As with any initiative, we can expect challenges in the implementation of blended learning.  Here are some people-related ones:

Managers

1. Not releasing staff for training

2. Do not participate in staff's learning process

3. Placing obstacles to transfer of learning, largely due to pressure to deliver

4. Not modeling appropriate behavior

5. Block staff's development out of desire to protect own position within the organization

6. Protect the status quo

7. Do not possess skills to develop others

8. Not incentivised to develop others

Learners

1. Do not see the need to be developed

2. Do not see the value of taking time out from work for training & development

3. No consequence for non-participation in training; no incentive for participation in training

4. Cultural differences

5. Programmes cannot satisfy all learners

Organisation / Culture

1. "We've always done it this way!"

2. Operate in silos

3. We want a learning culture, but we don't want to pay for it

4. Sense of entitlement amongst staff

5. Proactive vs. reactionary staff development

6. Check box mentality towards staff T&D

ASTD suggests 4 Cs to implementation success:

1. Communicate constantly to all stakeholder groups involved;

2. Support and nurture the development of a learning community, which is highly likely to mushroom in blended learning environments;

3. Sustain efforts to introduce and integrate blended learning into the organisational culture; and

4. Exercise control over the blended learning curriculum, from planning to implementation.

Here is the output from the class discussion about the blended learning life cycle:

Stage 1: Content Maintenance

Challenge: -

1. Lack of in-house technical expertise to develop / maintain content

2. Version control

3. Too much content

4. Keeping up with technology change

Advice: -

1. Build up an internal team to address issues

2. Invest in dummy-proof technology

3. Put in processes to ensure development and IT teams work closely together

Stage 2: Ongoing Ownership

Challenge: -

1. Some content lie in the "gray areas" with no obvious content owner. Need for cross-agency collaboration.

Advice: -

1. Engage content owners early and maintain constant communication. Do not depend on a single contact and establish relationships throughout the organization.

Stage 3: Ongoing Budget

Challenge: -

1. Annual projections are done very early on. Therefore, they are not entirely accurate, which pose some challenges when we try to deviate from them later on.

Advice: -

1. End the project!

Stage 4: Management of External Resources

Challenge: -

1, Teams work in silos, therefore the programs do not turn out the way they were designed / intended to be.

Advice: -

1. Bring IT in early

2. Unambiguous service level agreements

3. Backup external resources

Stage 5: ROI

Challenge: -

1. Difficult to collect ROI in public service.

Advice: -

1. Substitute with indicative-type questions (e.g. L3 evaluation) or focus on return on expectations instead.

2. Adapt to the business world

Sueann