Blended Solutions: Assuring Knowledge Retention

We live and work in a world where personalization is the standard and becoming increasingly present in the mainstream communication tools we use daily such as iPods, MySpace, search engines and blogs. Consequently, learning professionals need to adjust their thinking about training in the workplace. To design and deliver a personalized training experience effectively, learning professionals must develop a heightened awareness of the relationship between learner and the different types of learning activities they develop.

We know people learn in different ways, so workplace training should be made available in a variety of formats. Blended solutions were created just for this purpose - to address the many personalized training needs and learning environments of employees in order to solve a business challenge. The key to a successful blended learning solution is to find the right mix of delivery methods for the best results, knowledge retention and skill mastery.

The Buzz Around Blended Solutions
A carpenter doesn't live by his hammer alone. Based on that adage, you'd be hard-pressed to find a learning professional worth his or her salt who would advocate the exclusive use of one form of training delivery in every situation. We need to use the right tool for the job at the right time. And that's what the different methods of training delivery are - a set of tools that should be found in a learning professional's tool belt.

Blended solutions can help learners retain information, but it can also reduce training time and costs. We've all heard the argument that traditional instructor-led training can be costly and time- and labor-intensive, so pairing it with e-learning and other business collaboration tools can be cost-effective, reduce learning time and improve knowledge retention. According to Bersin & Associates' industry analysis in "Blended Learning Program Management: WhatWorks," blended learning is the combination of different training media (technologies, activities and types of events) to create an optimal training program for a specific audience. The term "blended" comes from the concept that traditional instructor-led training (ILT) is supplemented with other electronic formats.