What Worries Your L&D Team About The New Blended Learning Platform And How To Ease Them
There are lots of different ways to facilitate blended learning. Your L&D team can use an LMS to develop blended training courses and track employee performance. They’ll also have to craft the offline bits of the course, such as the ILT curriculum, or training activities that incorporate the human element. So, their concerns could be about either component or maybe both. Let’s look at some of the blended learning platform issues they may be worried about, and how to assuage these matters.
1. Feasibility
It’s unusual to have L&D teams with experience in blended learning because it’s a relatively new approach. So, you’ll have older trainers who are used to seminars and workshops. You’ll have Millennials and below, who are more at ease with virtual learning systems. The first barrier is simply convincing them it can be done. They’ll be thinking ‘… how … ?!?’ Take the team to interviews, meetings, and demos. Expose them to organizations that have successfully applied blended education. You could even sign them up for an online training tutorial on how to design effective blended learning programs. Naturally, the course will be… blended.
2. Low Tech Savvy
The traditional wing of your L&D team might have a bias against eLearning. They may be uneasy about tech themselves, and they’ll point out staff members with limited tech knowledge. However, you can soothe them by putting them in charge of the tech aspects. Have them explore the new blended learning platform. Let them lead the tech development portion of the course. Tell them if there’s anything they have difficulty with, you’ll help them simplify it, or replace it. That way, they can comfortably tell employees ‘If I can use it, you can too.’ Plus, once they start engaging with it, they’ll realize tech isn’t as alienating or as scary as they imagine. Another great way to get them familiar with the blended learning platform is to create quick troubleshooting guides which can cover everything, from how to handle login errors to tips on how to use the reporting features.
3. No Human Contact
Fans of traditional training may worry about the fact that it’s a blended learning LMS or may feel your eLearning component will over-rule face-to-face interaction. Walking them through the blended learning platform may ease their concerns about this. Explain all the digital options, teleconferencing, webinars, group chat, coffee dates, which are all blended learning options that can be implemented on your new platform. Stress out the fact that your new approach isn't a replacement, but an expansion of your online training program. In fact, now they can even use video conferencing tools to collaborate with remote L&D team members.
4. Added Expense
As for your team members on the eLearning side, they may think about the expense, especially those who are in charge of the expense sheet. Online training can cut up to 70% of the cost of conventional training. So, moving towards a blended learning approach may feel like pressing the budget upwards. Remind them that implementing a blended learning platform doesn’t necessarily require off-site sessions. And even if it does, it will be an hour or two, maybe a single day, as opposed to the entire course, which could take weeks. You can even go through the numbers with them. It will lay their worries to rest, and this matters because if they have a negative attitude, it will seep into training content and trickle-down to learners.
5. Language Barriers
In an adult classroom setting, communication can be a little less formal. Employees and instructors might use slang, tell jokes, or communicate non-verbally. Blended learning courses have a heavy online component, which could be an issue. Because employees are working on their own, you may not notice comprehension challenges. It’ll be hard for them to explain why they’ve failed a test or dropped a course, especially if they simply hadn't understood what was being said, or maybe they can use conversational English but get lost in jargon. Solve this by providing a hovering dictionary. Employees can subtly look up complex words, whether it’s a technical term or just unfamiliar vocabulary. You can also offer translated modules.
6. Workflow Woes
Some members of your L&D team might be worried that the new blended learning platform is going to make their lives difficult. Simple tasks will take twice as long with the blended learning LMS. You can help ease them into the new system by evaluating their current workflow and identifying potential areas for concern, then mitigating the risks by offering pointers or ‘shortcuts’, such as new features that can help them improve their workflow and be more productive. They need to know that the system isn’t going to be another obstacle to slow them down, but a tool to help them create effective blended learning content that benefits everyone involved.
A lot of bosses operate like strict parents. They don’t want to be questioned. They want things done ‘because I said so’. But in matters of corporate training, the position of your L&D team is likely to be adopted by employees. These can happen deliberately through snide comments, or subconsciously through ‘bad vibes’ and half-hearted content. So, it’s important to identify our course developers’ concerns and address them. They may worry blended learning LMS platforms will cost more or prevent human interaction. The language may be too dense, the tech too advanced, and the entire blending process impossible to execute. Take them through demos and respond to each query, translations, webcam, and low-tech options, which are all helpful.
How is conventional training problematic, and how can the blended learning approach fix it? Is there any way to convince employers blended learning software is the way to go? Download our eBook Blended Learning LMS Buyer's Guide: Tips To Bring The Best Of Both Worlds To Your SMB and discover how to remedy traditional training gaps, leverage your blended learning platform for managing online training, and how to bring the best in your SMB by using a blended learning LMS.
