From classroom to blended with passionate expert

The pitfall of trainers who have started training from their expertise is that they prefer to impart as much knowledge as possible to the participants. One example is more beautiful than the other and a large amount of content is enthusiastically presented. When designing a new training course with an expert, this enthusiasm often creates challenges in defining the scope. Any (e-)learning consultant can probably imagine all kinds of things about this. However, establishing the content for the e-learning did not turn out to be the biggest challenge in this 'blended learning' project.

The solution

One of our clients employs trainers with a great passion for the food industry, the largest industry in the Netherlands. Based on their knowledge and experience, they train employees, staff and managers on topics such as HACCP, quality, safety, legislation and process knowledge. These trainings are knowledge intensive, leaving little time for practice and deepening during the meetings. The client asked Précon e-learning to help reduce the knowledge component in the trainings, so that during the trainings the focus would be on experiences and behavior of the participants. The result is the realization of several training courses based on blended learning: through an online training course participants are prepared on the content of the subject, which then allows more time for practice, deepening and reflection in the face-to-face meetings.

The learning objectives

The start, of course, was conducting various audience and content analyses together with the experts. Initially, the verschrikte experts saw the basis of their classroom training disappear like snow in the sun, when it turned out that a large part of the current training could well be offered via the online part of the training. By jointly formulating clear learning objectives, however, it became more and more clear how online and offline could complement each other. With the experts, based on the learning objectives, the learning line was outlined, which the e-learning consultant filled in with instruction, exercises and assignments. By keeping the experts closely involved during the process, the development went smoothly and efficiently.

What to look out for when blended?

Full of enthusiasm, the trainers set to work on the new format for the meetings. After the implementation of the first training, however, it turned out that not all that much time was gained and that there was still too little time for practice, deepening and reflection. It turned out that many trainers still discussed the entire theory during the classroom training.

Letting go

The safe harbor, their expertise, had to start letting go more in order to benefit from the newly composed training. This requires other training capacities, such as checking and anticipating prior knowledge, flexible use of multiple work formats, giving feedback and guiding the learning process. This was not sufficiently considered in the design.

How to move forward?

At the moment, the trainings are still offered blended and with the help of peer review meetings and peer feedback, the trainers are becoming more and more familiar with the "new" way of training. In a while, we hope that there will actually be more time left for depth and practice in the training, so that the trainees will leave the training room with even more baggage.