What Is Blended Learning?
Blended learning is training that mixes self-paced online learning with live sessions led by a trainer. The live part can be in a room or in a virtual classroom. The point is not the mix for its own sake: it is giving each part of the training to the method that does it best.
A typical blend puts the knowledge online, where people can work through it at their own pace and take an assessment, and saves live time for discussion and practice. It is one of the most practical ways to use an e-learning platform without losing the conversations that make training stick.
The CIPD’s factsheet on methods of delivering learning interventions looks at blended approaches alongside the other ways of delivering workplace learning. For continuing development more broadly, see our guide to what CPD is.
Common Blended Learning Models
There is no single right blend. These are the patterns you will see most often in workplace training.
Online First, Then Live (the Flipped Approach)
People complete e-learning before the live session, so the trainer doesn’t spend the session reading out definitions. Live time goes on questions, case studies and applying it to your workplace. This is often called a flipped classroom, because the “lecture” happens at home and the “homework” happens together.
Live First, Then Online Follow-Up
A workshop introduces the topic and builds commitment, then short online modules reinforce it over the following weeks. This suits skills training, where people need to try things at work and come back to the material.
E-Learning Plus On-the-Job Coaching
Staff learn the principles online, then a supervisor or trainer coaches them on the job. HSE lists coaching and on-the-job training alongside classroom, distance and computer-based learning as methods employers can use.
E-Learning for Breadth, Live for Depth
The whole workforce completes core e-learning, and only the people with more responsibility, such as supervisors and managers, go on to longer live courses.
When Does Blended Learning Work Best?
Blended learning earns its keep when:
- Your people are hard to get in one room. Shifts, sites, leave and customer demand make whole-day sessions expensive.
- The topic has a knowledge part and a practice part. Facts and rules suit e-learning; judgement and technique need people.
- You need a record. E-learning gives every learner the same content and logs completion and assessment results.
- Training has to be repeated. New starters and refreshers can go through the online part as needed, without waiting for the next group.
It works less well when the content is almost entirely practical, or when the group needs to build trust and work through something difficult together. In those cases, keep it live.
Photo: Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash
Designing a Blend for Compliance Training
Compliance training is where blended learning is most useful, because the law cares about the outcome, not the format. In Great Britain, regulation 13 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires adequate health and safety training on recruitment and when people face new or increased risks, repeated periodically where appropriate and during working hours. It doesn’t say how to deliver it.
HSE’s brief guide to health and safety training sets out five steps: decide what training you need, decide your priorities, choose your methods, deliver the training, then check it has worked. It also suggests using a variety of methods, and making sure training works for everyone, including people with poor literacy, limited English or disabilities affecting sight or hearing.
A practical way to design the blend:
- Start from the risk assessment. It tells you who needs training and on what. A training needs analysis does the same for skills more widely.
- Split knowledge from practice. Put the facts, the law and the “why” online. Keep anything people must be seen doing for a live or on-the-job session.
- Use live time for your workplace. Generic content is fine online; live time should be about your tasks, equipment and products.
- Decide how you will check. An online assessment shows knowledge. Only observation at work shows whether people work safely.
An Example Blend for a Team
Here is an illustrative blend for a cleaning or facilities team that uses hazardous substances. The COSHH Regulations 2002, regulation 12, require “suitable and sufficient information, instruction and training”, including the substances people may be exposed to, the significant findings of the risk assessment and the precautions they must take, given in a manner appropriate to the level, type and duration of exposure.
- Week 1, online. Everyone completes a CPD-accredited COSHH e-learning course: what COSHH is, hazard symbols, safety data sheets, PPE and safe storage. Completion and certificates are tracked on the dashboard.
- Week 2 or 3, live. The team joins a live COSHH session, online in a virtual classroom or on-site, built around the products they actually use and the findings of your COSHH assessments.
- Supervisors. Team leaders and managers who are responsible for health and safety go on a longer live course, such as IOSH Managing Safely, which we run in a live virtual classroom or on-site.
- Ongoing. Supervisors check at work that precautions are being followed. New starters complete the e-learning in their first week and join the next live session.
The same shape works for other topics. For manual handling, for example, the principles go online and the lifting technique needs hands-on practice.
How to Measure Whether It Worked
The CIPD’s factsheet on learning evaluation stresses that evaluation must be linked to the performance gaps you identified at the start. So decide what success looks like before you train.
HSE’s final step, check that the training has worked, gives you the questions. Ask:
- Do people understand what you require of them?
- Are they working the way they were trained to?
- Has your health and safety performance improved?
- What are line managers and the people trained telling you?
- Was the most suitable training method used?
E-learning completion rates tell you who has done the online part. They don’t tell you whether behaviour has changed, so pair them with observation, feedback from supervisors and your incident and near-miss records. Keep training records so refreshers happen when they are due.
Common Blended Learning Pitfalls
- Treating e-learning as the whole job. Ticking the online module is not the same as being competent at a practical task.
- Repeating the online content live. If the live session re-reads the e-learning, people stop doing the pre-work.
- No link between the parts. The trainer should know what the e-learning covered and pick up from there.
- Squeezing online learning into breaks. Required health and safety training must happen in working hours, so give people time to do it.
- Nobody checking at work. The blend isn’t finished until a manager sees the new way of working on the job.
What to Do Next
Pick one training topic you deliver this year. List which parts are knowledge and which are practice, and check whether your current method matches. If you are pulling people off shift for a full day to hear facts they could learn online, that is your first blend.
If you want the online part ready to go, with tracking and certificates for every learner, see our e-learning subscription accounts.