The right blends

I’m working with a client right now where we’re offering a range of new classroom-based courses, which we’re linking to on-the-job training via online learning resources. The online stuff includes course notes, facts, figures and formulae, plus animated diagrams (models of engineering products). This means the learners can refer back to coursework while they’re learning on-the-job. It’s a blend that works well, and it prompted me to consider what other models are effective.

The sandwich
The course sandwich is one classic blend, where pre- and post-course work is offered online. This is online learning with a ‘traditional’ course as the sandwich filling.

The milestone
Another classic model is to start with an online course and add on face-to-face training events (group-work or one-to-one) as milestones, which help to pace the programme.

Knowledge-and-skill
A third is to use the online part of the blend for underpinning knowledge, while using a face-to-face approach for skill development.

But there must be countless others!

Offering learning resources for self-managed learning is a flexible option that can complement almost any learning programme, but the clever thing is to integrate the online learning seamlessly. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has experience of running another model successfully.