7 Key Benefits of Blended Learning to Strengthen Your L&D Program

L&D has evolved majorly over the last few decades. Given the constant change in the business landscape, training materials and methods have had to constantly improve to keep up with the need for good training to drive business goals.

Among the many innovations, one of the most successful ones has been Blended Learning. Its demand has increased manifolds, especially since the pandemic with organizations realizing that engaging learners requires an ensemble of methodologies instead of one single mode.

A blended approach to learning integrates the strengths of in-person and online learning. While in-person training requires the trainees to learn at the same pace by being in the same place, at the same time, online training offers more flexibility for employees to take the training course as per their convenience.

Combining both the modes of training means deriving the best of both worlds and maximizing the training benefits. This combination of both the settings increases the likelihood of learner success and ensures optimized training ROI.

What Are The Benefits Of Blended Learning?

Blended Learning provides several key advantages over traditional modes of training. Here’s a lowdown on some of the most important benefits of this kind of learning:

1. Enhances Flexibility

By adopting a Blended Learning approach, organizations can bring in more flexibility in the ways they offer training to their workforce. While it aligns better with learner needs and enables them to make the most of both mediums, it also engages them through a variety of different materials.

Thanks to the flexibility of cross-device learning, employees can make learning a part of their regular work, thereby ‘learning in the flow of work’. At a time when there’s so much demand for productivity, and learning can be ignored or neglected in the process, making learning a part of the work schedule is more important than ever.

Improving the flexibility of learning is a crucial way to enhance training completion rates as well as improve employee interest in learning at an organizational level.

2. Increases Employee Engagement

One of the biggest advantages of Blended Learning is that it allows employees to tailor the learning experience as per their own needs. By using multiple media training modes and combining it with classroom-based and face-to-face training, it’s possible to take employee engagement to another level.

For online learning, L&D can deploy immersive learning strategies that offer high engagement quotient and create sticky learning experiences. Blended Learning approach helps you shake up things up and provide multiple ways to present training information to employees, when they need it which makes it more likely that they will engage in the learning you are offering them.

Since employee attention spans are often on the lower side, it’s good to maintain engagement levels by making learning work on your employees’ terms.

3. Encourages Collaborative Learning

Offering a healthy mix of various learning styles is one of the best ways to encourage a more collaborative style of learning. Integrating technology, for instance in the form of webinars or online calls, with mobile or eLearning and face-to-face interaction in workshops gives rise to a dynamic learning environment. This kind of a setting is perfect for collaborative learning along with colleagues.

This is in fact a very helpful way for companies that still have a majority of staff working remotely because it gives them the chance to interact with each other – an element that would otherwise be missing given the scattered nature of the workforce. Combining technology with face-to-face learning also ensures learners are actively engaged in the experience.

The more the workforce is involved in their training, the more likely they are to retain the information provided during the training.

4. Offers Performance Support

One of the areas where Blended Learning proves effective is performance support. A blended approach can be used to offer additional support following an in-person learning session. For starters, it creates resources that are available to learners at the moment of their need, which means they can access them whenever and wherever they need to.

Besides, performance support tools also work as a learning repository system for employees to use across departments and teams, so that there is a strong support system as and when required.

5. Boosts Employee Motivation and Productivity

Employees always benefit when they are provided choice and freedom when it comes to their own training. Firstly, it motivates them by improving their morale in the workplace. A blended approach to learning means you are putting your employees in the driver’s seat and letting them take charge of their own training in a way that works for them.

Using multiple modes of training and learning techniques also allows you to get a better idea of what actually works for your employees in terms of engagement and knowledge retention.

6. Helps Customize Training

One of the most important things to remember is that a “one size fits all” approach no more works when it comes to L&D. Every learner is unique and his/her learning needs are also unique as per roles, needs, wants, aspirations, career expectations and development goals.

Blended Learning allows you to adapt your training to the needs of such different learners. It helps to make the learning content adaptable through a wide range of devices and situations, letting you meet the needs of more and more employees.

7. Improves Compliance Training Sessions

Traditionally, compliance training sessions have been considered tedious and employees have often found them to be boring and disengaging. It’s not enough to simply place learners in a virtual setting and conduct the training because it may not engage them or make them think critically about the subject matter.

If you are looking to augment engagement for employees in these important learning programs, it helps to adopt a Blended Learning approach where an in-person experience is supplemented by digital resources and aides.

In Conclusion

Deploying Blended Learning within your organization comes with myriad benefits. Right from building employee motivation to boosting business productivity, Blended Learning is a tried and tested solution to increase learner engagement.

With the use of effective and innovative eLearning techniques, Blending Learning helps you meet the needs of more of your employees with every learning initiative you wish to start.

Learn more about how our Blended Learning can help you accommodate your learners’ learning styles and get more bang for your buck.