Blended learning for management development

Thanks to Ron Orme for bringing to my attention Learning at work: e-learning evolution or revolution?, a paper published In October 2008 by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). The paper is based on a study conducted in the UK by Professor William Scott-Jackson, Terry Edney and Ceri Rushent from the Centre for Applied HR Research at Oxford Brookes University involving an online survey of 1087 CMI members and in-depth interviews with fifteen leading public and private sector organisations.

There are so many interesting elements in this report that I'm going to quote it liberally:

"Work-based experiential learning is the most dominant mode of management and leadership learning. 92% cited this as their most common learning experience and 53% as the most effective."

This is not so surprising, because employees regularly cite on-job learning as the most valuable.

"Usage of online videos increased from 21% a year earlier to 51%, discussion forums from 24% to 40%,and social networking sites from 12% to 34%."

So, here's some real evidence of online video and collaboration having a real impact in mainstream learning and development.

"A significant minority of managers (28%) agree that Web 2.0 technologies have the potential to transform management and leadership development activities and that in the next ten years virtual worlds and gaming technology will enable all development to be experiential. This push is being led by the younger generation."

I could have predicted the Web 2.0 forecast, but not the virtual worlds and games. Looks like Gen Y sees this going all the way.

About blended learning:

"It has been in practice a long time but its usage has grown in response to the impact of e-learning."

Good point.

"The e-learning element should not just be about preparing people for face-to-face courses." (National School for Government)

Good advice. It is this format which put so many people off the idea of blended learning a few years back.

"Several companies stated that the up-front design costs of blended learning were higher than for pure face-to-face learning, but that the lifetime costs were lower as delivery was less expensive."

Presumably this is because most blends include some formal e-learning materials. Without these, I'm not sure the argument holds true.

"The number one reason for using blended learning was 'better learning provision', although respondents also cited the ability to deliver more for less."

Could be the ranking of these two arguments shifts in the next year, but it's good to see the aim at the moment is better training.

The fact that individuals in their everyday lives are using and becoming familiar with technologies such as gaming, mobile video, on-demand TV, massive multi-player games and information sources such as Wikipedia and Google suggests  that there will be little resistance to major advances in learning technologies and, in fact, some pressure on training designers to utilise them fully.

Absolutely. There's little reason for technophobia to get in the way in the future - at least not so far as learners are concerned ...

"Most organisations consider that it is the nature of the training and development function, where one exists, that is being most affected by the adoption of blended learning. Blended learning requires very high learning design skills but much less face-to-face training delivery skills."

... but when it comes to the trainers, that's another issue.

"An appropriate blend of online, self-directed learning with face-to-face, coaching and other techniques seems ideally suited for management development."

Yes, it does.

The report makes some predictions for the future:

• a greater integration of offline and other technologies to provide the best aspects of both;
• a focus on informal learning as a continuous process, rather than one-off isolated blocks of learning separate from 'real' work life;
• the need for careful and skilled design of programmes;
• the need for mechanisms for sharing knowledge informally;
• self-directed learning;
• a far greater access to information on demand.

What can you say? Right on the ball.

"One key theme appears to be that online learning experiences will become more socially interactive and so remove that feeling of isolation that was identified in terms of traditional e-learning."

Yes, and let's not restrict that argument to management development.

"This latest report presents blended learning as a present reality and an accepted part of the organisational learning and development environment in a way that was not true last time, when there was a strong sense of the jury being out on blended learning. In addition there is a much stronger sense of structured learning, self-directed learning and experiential learning being consciously integrated by organisations as part of a blended approach,whereas a year ago these three elements seemed more on parallel tracks."

This is progress indeed. In case anyone hadn't noted, I'm a big supporter of the concept of blended learning and so I'm really pleased to see how it's developing beyond simple 'formal e-learning + formal classroom' into something more flexible, work-based and progressive.