At Beedeez, we sometimes make crazy assumptions about our readers to support our articles. And so, for the discussion that follows, we assume that you know the Internet, that you use it, and that you have already gone to school.
Yes, we are like that, daring.
Surely you have known teachers who bravely tried to set up their own version of blended learning, blended learning, for example by starting to watch a report on YouTube in class. This initiative is very much appreciated by students who are not very motivated, since, while it works, it can easily take a good quarter of an hour, which they will spend lazing around with passion.
However, today, you are a serious adult: when your company offers you training, you go and take notes. Including on the YouTube videos shown by the trainer. You may have even requested this training, driven by your thirst for knowledge! And to learn better, you boldly mix Google searches, listening to the speaker, or even using a dedicated app.
Is that blended learning? Can't we go any further? Don't you know that if someone asks the question, the answer is yes?
Forward for more details.
Combining face-to-face and digital: a daring method... Twenty years ago
The Blended Learning, what is it? Or rather what was it? Try to remember the 2000s. From the 90s, even. At the time, the use of the Internet was already not popular when it came to looking for supermarket hours, so to teach valuable things to people, do you think! However, valiant pedagogues saw in this almost new tool numerous opportunities to enrich their courses.
Over the years, the idea came to some that all the training could be done online, without the teacher being present. The advantages ofe-learning ! However, everything digital is not perfect either. So why not mix? This is where blended learning was born: a mix between digital training and face-to-face training.
In fact, blended learning can take many forms: support from a digital platform during lessons, alternating online and face-to-face courses, phygital learning... Some forms of blended learning require you to go to a specific location to take a course that is online. And this for multiple reasons: secret center with ultra-secure Intranet (if you are the CIA), establishment where we will check that you are there to learn what you are supposed to learn (if you are any student, or an exceptional student, whatever), local where you are given a computer and connection (which does not seem to be free).
In a blended learning course, you of course benefit from the advantages associated with the presence of a trainer and those associated with the use of the Internet. In fact, it is practical for both the learners and the speakers. More interactive courses, possibility to better record your progress, better knowledge of learners' performance, etc. As a trainer, if you forget a detail, Google will remember it for you. And if he does not, even better: you will have discovered information that is not on Google (a real quarter of an hour of fame)! Training that takes advantage of virtual as well as face-to-face training has a better chance of being rich, effective and engaging.
However. Blended learning is not a simple layering of formats. Unlike Mr. Jourdain and his prose, you don't do blended without knowing it.
Does opposing face-to-face and digital still make sense? Most of the time, regardless of where you are, you have a smartphone with 4G in your pocket (hence the interest of Mobile learning). Even in a green classroom at the bottom of a tent, you could use web services to help you determine if you have just picked up field rat or vole droppings. So would any form of pedagogy be combined with blended learning? However, both teachers tired of “discreet” texts and trainers who prefer to disconnect ask you to turn off your devices. This does not prevent them from showing YouTube videos. Would there be confusion in the world of training?
It was of course a rhetorical question: no, things are not especially more confusing than before; blended learning is always a mixture of genres. It simply has more ingredients than meets the eye.
A duality that blocks reflection
Let's say you want to train your employees on French manners before their next evening at the ambassador's, or other event during which you don't want to pass for a sagouins company. Naturally, you are going to want to find out about existing solutions. And now we tell you: “so we are doing blended learning, that is to say face-to-face AND virtual learning, which is great”.
There, you sigh in annoyance at such brief information! Face-to-face and virtual at the same time, this involves a whole range of possibilities, and it does not tell you much about the specificity of the training. Will there be fact sheets? Videos to imitate? Exam dinners in luxury restaurants with at least fifteen types of forks? Blended training can contain much more elements than “face-to-face” and “remote”.
So, it can be synchronous and/or asynchronous. During synchronous training, students and speakers communicate in real time, in a room or by videoconference. Conversely, during asynchronous training, there is no need to be all connected at the same time to exchange; this can be done via any messaging application. Of course, you can definitely have hours of live training (but not necessarily in person) in addition to access to a messaging application dedicated to training.
There is also the question of whether teaching will take place collectively or individually. In general, face-to-face training is done by several people, but it is not systematic. For example, with tutoring (which is a form of Peer learning), there is only one learner. Many e-learning solutions offer courses to be completed alone, in particular in the form of series of videos and quizzes. And therefore, some courses offer group sessions in addition to individual sessions.
We can also organize training formally, like the good old classroom, or non-formally, outside of an official framework and initiated by the learner himself. Some speakers, after giving a conference that collaborators were required to attend, offer documents and sites for further study. This is what some learners will do on their own, in a non-formal setting (for example at home).
In other words, blended learning training can perfectly offer interventions sometimes face-to-face and sometimes not, partially in real time, half individually, half collectively, partly collectively, partly formal and partly not. Meetings can be organized in a place that is both urban and rural, with sea and mountains, rain and sun. Sometimes you will drink tea, sometimes coffee. Sometimes with sugar and sometimes without. In short, a mixed formation may contain a lot of ingredients.
Are we adding a small parameter? One last one. The data. The information you collect about learners (and possibly speakers) is a game changer even for face-to-face training only. Indeed, we can now collect all sorts of data, which, once analyzed, will make it possible to assess the quality of training and to make it evolve according to the results. So, even in person, we do not necessarily escape digital technology.
The big advantage is that with such a choice, you can vary the pleasures as much as you want and surprise employees (preferably pleasantly).
Towards the disappearance of learning boundaries
Do you know the expression “OK boomer”? “Boomer” refers to “baby boomer,” and that more or less means “OK, old nerdy guy.” It is used against someone who has just given a point of view that is, well, corny. If you are told that vocational training is necessarily within the framework of the company, you can therefore avoid answering “OK boomer” because it is childish and very annoying. Nevertheless, the idea is there. And since the expression has recently been floating around all over the Internet without everyone fully grasping, we're letting you know. You're welcome.
There are in fact a number of solutions for training outside the company: thanks to an external training organization, courses available online (sometimes free), books (they still exist, yes, but at worst if paper scares you there are digital versions). Thanks to the Internet, information is circulating more and more, there have never been so many autodidacts. And these acquired skills can very well be put at the service of the company for which you work.
What's more, companies are generally in favor of the initiatives taken by their employees to train, and do not hesitate to call on resources external to the structure. It is in this spirit that LXPs, or learning experience platforms, emerged. These are personalized around the user and bring together all the resources made available to them: content provided by the company internally, relevant elements found on the Internet, or even created by users.
It is also the era of knowledge communities. They create exchanges between learners and trainers, between learners, as some learners can become knowledgeable on other subjects. These communities revolve around areas of interest, jobs, skills, and sectors of activity. There is no “no business” sign at the entrance of these communities. They can therefore become active there and even create new ones, thus becoming experts and leaders in their field. The support of experts with a slightly different specialization and style can help them in this process.
So dry your tears if your hierarchy refused you the good manners training. Perhaps the next one will be more open. Perhaps you will be able to acquire this knowledge outside of a professional setting. We seem to have mentioned a respectable number of training solutions, and this is only part of what is available. It is even only a tiny part of what will be available in the near future as educational innovation is in turmoil. At worst, if you really want your company to send you on a courtesy course, you will only have to eat like a pig at the next lunch with your boss. If he looks at you with disapproval, include a discreet reference to Johnny (“What the hell? What is wrong with my face?”). Your behavior will necessarily elicit reactions.
Finally, are these notions of presential/remote or digital/non-digital still relevant? At a time when you can hold a conference even if the participants are each in a different country? Where, even if you are still working on paper, do you have your smartphone in your pocket, ready to check information? We told you in the introduction that we could go further: maybe you didn't realize how much. In reality, digital technology should not be considered as an element that changes the pedagogical methods of training. Digital is a format, a virtual place, a place where data is centralized, an element that simplifies logistics, but not a form of pedagogy. Starting from this, blended learning cannot be a simple mix of face-to-face and digital, but teaching methods that can combine many elements. It's education without limits!
(PS: Warning: there are all sorts of videos and materials for learning manners. Leave your boss alone during meals. Otherwise we are the ones who are going to get in trouble. And you even more so.)
