It's been an instructor's conundrum since the beginning of time - finding an instructional technique that maximizes comprehension and enhances the learning experience. Why is it so difficult?

In part, it's because people process and learn new information in different ways. This challenges the trainer to develop the right mix to meet the needs of each learner. Safety trainers also face the difficulty of putting together a curriculum for various work forces that are distributed around the world. One solution they're turning to is a blended learning approach. This article will look at what blended learning is and what its advantages are.

Blending Technology with Tradition

A blended learning approach involves identifying the best way for your audience to learn and combines traditional classroom training with web-based training (WBT) and other technologies. Developing your blended learning initiative can be a compromise among:

• Business and performance objectives;
• The best way for a particular group of people to learn;
• The various ways that materials can be individualized, presented and learned;
• Available resources that support learning, training, business and social activities; and
• Ways to maximize capabilities for access, interaction and social relationships.

The Technology Options

As a trainer, your goal is to make an informed decision about how to manage and use the palette of instructional resources available. These include classroom and online technologies, such as:

• Web-based training;
• Online meeting services;
• Chat rooms; and
• Answer lines

Additional technologies include data and performance measurement tools, which let you take a management system approach to training. The ability to capture metrics helps drive business efficiency and individual performance improvement.

Blending is an optimal solution because it combines the advantages of WBT and personalized instruction. Let's look briefly at these advantages:

The Advantages of WBT

Cost: Typically, in any training program with predominately instructor-led classes, two-thirds of the cost of the program is in attendee travel costs. WBT eliminates travel costs. So while WBT may be initially more expensive to launch, the cost savings over time make it a worthwhile investment.

Faster learning: A recent study by WR Hambrecht & Co. found that WBT cuts training time by between 25 and 60 percent. Employees not only learn faster via the web, but they are able to put their newly acquired skills into practice more quickly.

Improved retention: With WBT, students learn at their convenience and can take the training at a time of day when they are alert and ready. They can also review information as often as they want. This is significant because repetition boosts retention.

Removal of learning barriers: Because WBT is less intimidating than classroom learning, passive participants don't need to hide, as they might in a classroom setting. Peer pressure also lessens with online training.

Facilitation of administration: Many WBT packages are equipped with a backend, behind-the-scenes communication infrastructure, including a learning management system, which helps you to:

• Enroll students;
• Build curricula; and
• Issue reminders to track regulatory compliance with interval training deadlines.

WBT systems also help you test learners and evaluate and track competencies. A comprehensive WBT system can analyze data in the aggregate, allowing you to assess a specific department for fundamental understanding and identify training weaknesses.

Curriculum assistance: Many WBT packages come with course-authoring tools that allow you to customize your content and equip it with company-specific information.

The Advantages of Personal Instruction

Of course, there are also significant advantages to instructor-led learning. Training is a social process and face-to-face interaction between instructor and student will always be a vital part of learning. And there are certain hands-on motor skills, such as operating a forklift or donning a respirator that cannot be completely mastered through technology-based learning alone.

Finding the Perfect Blend Between WBT & Personal Instruction

The blended learning experience can range from an all technology program with limited classroom time to mostly classroom experience with limited technology. There's no such thing as one perfect mix of blended learning. The right blend depends on your audience, objectives and company culture. Which criteria should you consider to create the best blend? You should ask the following questions:

• Does the approach improve learning outcomes and support the business objectives?
• Is the blend appropriate for my audience?
• Does the blend fit into the culture of my organization?
• Do we have the resources to support the program over time?
• Is the blend scalable?
• Is the blend sustainable?
• Most importantly, does this blend lead to the best combination of benefits and cost savings?

Conclusion

Providing safety training to employees with different learning styles is challenging enough. But many safety professionals must also make that training available to a large audience spread across the globe without compromising the quality of the education. Today's global workplace needs a new "blended" approach to training.

This article originally appeared in the June 2004 issue of Priority Press and is reprinted with permission from EORM, Inc. (http://www.eorm.com).

INTRODUCING SAFETY JOHN

Editor's Note: Every profession has a handful of sages - grizzled veterans who've been around and seen it all. Textbooks and seminars are all well and good. But if you want real insight and wisdom about the profession, you're much better off finding one of the sages and picking his or her brain.

John Lowrie - Safety John - is one of the sages of the safety profession. He's been doing the safety thing for 26 years. So SafetyXChange will be presenting occasional pearls of wisdom from Safety John in the weeks to come. Here's the first.

PEARLS OF WISDOM FROM SAFETY JOHN

The Importance of Being There

I've found that most companies don't hire an actual safety "professional" to handle safety responsibilities. They stick a safety "hat" on someone with other responsibilities such as the HR director. These poor souls tend to be intimidated by their lack of technical knowledge about safety. So what do they do? They avoid going to the floor because they don't want anybody to approach them or ask them a question about safety.

Of course, this is precisely the opposite of what a safety director should do. The unavailable and invisible safety director doesn't fulfill the needs of the employees; and he or she misses out on an opportunity for personal and professional fulfillment.

I know because my greatest source of fulfillment comes from being on the floor and making myself available, even when I'm off visiting another plant. I want employees to ask questions. And when I don't have an immediate answer (I've learned it's ok not to know everything), I make it a point to look it up and get back to the person.

I work with a guy at a plant who most people find intimidating. He's big enough to play in the NFL. I'm big too, but this guy towers over me. But I've made it a point not to shy away. Whenever I see him on the floor, I motion to him, give him a "How ya doin'?", and he nods back. When I got to speaking with him I learned that this mountain of a guy is actually humble and eager to share his feelings about safety issues. He even commented about how he likes the holster I carry my cell phone in.

The point is this: I didn't have to "know anything" to be an effective safety leader to this guy. I just needed to be there. Other safety directors would do well to take this to heart.

"Safety John" L. Lowrie, CPP
Safety and Security Specialist

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