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How to convert Face-to-Face to blended for Repeatable and Improving Training

Jill Kraynek

Dr. Ron Paige



How to convert Face-to-Face to blended for Repeatable and Improving
Training

Congratulations for doing your research to find that a blended model of learning is often
more powerful than the individual pieces (CastaoMuoz, Duart, & SanchoVinuesa,
2014). Now comes the harder part. What do you do? How do you do it? How to do it
Step-by-Step

What do you do?


To make the transition smoother, here are some basics.

Remember why you chose to blend your learning. Was it to ease scheduling woes in
your company? To speed delivery? To increase the amount of content covered? To
alleviate burdens on the company when the entire workforce is in training? Stay
focused on the goal and design with it in mind.

Know your software. Technology should be transparent to enhance a training session.


Fumbling, restarting, pausing to open the next piece, any interruption for the lesson
should be avoided.

Find the software limitations. Dont run so many programs that it slows down and forces
videos to pixilate or crash. Conversely, remember to push the boundaries of the
technology. The technology makes the lesson come alive, use it to its fullest.

How are you doing it? Several tips for starting out

Tip 1 Think about the end result, start with small steps.
Explanation The end result may be fully flipped and 100% online or it may be blended
with online materials. What is the goal? Aim for the goal but understand it
will happen in phases. It is often too big of a job and will need a learning
curve to find the best style for the course.
Example As in gymnastics, we learn to crawl, then walk, then summersault, then
cartwheel, then back handspring, then back tuck, then, Add difficulty as
you master a task.

Tip 2 Start with the objective from your F2F course


Explanation Youve already done ADDIE for your F2F, use the first steps and roll it
over to new instruction. Which activities need to be F2F? Plan which
topics or parts of topics can be moved online.
Example Taking blood-pressure or learning to titrate are difficult to replicate at a
distance but the steps that lead up to them can be taught that way easily.
Tip 3 Use media in your training and training in your media.
Explanation Refer to content from each mode of learning. Make sure the content
crosses over. They are designed to enhance each other, not be two
distinct lessons.
Example Have training discussions continue as Discussion Board activities. Use
examples from the training session in the media.

Tip 4 Find solutions before there are problems.


Explanation Learners will often have excuses for not completing their work. Think of
any possibilities and plan solutions into the lessons. Dont let excuses ruin
the plan. Plan for them.
Example I dont have wifi. The learner should be given a map of free wifi locations
nearby.
My computer doesnt have XYZ software. It isnt a problem if you only
use open source software.
I dont have reliable electricity. Facilitators should allow learners to
charge up at work and could provide a cd of the lessons that would rely on
wifi.

How to do it Step-by-Step

1. Analyze the needs of the learners. How is this going to improve their learning?
Change should not just be for the sake of change. It should improve the
experience and the learning.

2. Set criteria for the type of technology needed. What types of experiences are
planned for this course? Will they be primarily video or will there be coding,
typing or researching?

3. Analyze the technologies available to meet the needs. Which devices best
match your needs? Determine which platform is best. Do you need IPads?
Chromebooks? Laptops? Is durability most important or battery life? Should it
run Windows or HTML5? Is cost a limiting factor? (What Is Successful
Technology Integration?, 2007)

4. Choose the technology. It may not meet all your needs but it should match
best of the choices that are available.

5. Develop and select instructional materials and activities. Choose activities


that enhance the training and required higher level processes. Dream big but
remember there is a time and cost limit to adhere to. This chart may be useful
for laying out the materials in a way that shows clearly what tasks will be
completed to achieve the stated goals.
(Blended Learning Toolkit, 2012)

6. Be prepared to change your teaching strategy. Online facilitating required


different strategies than face to face. It needs different ways to find out if
learners are paying attention, if they are understanding and participating.

7. Design evaluations to determine if the objectives were learned. If the


objectives have been learned, there will be evidence that this was the best
method to use (Create A User Manuel, n.d.). Make sure to ask questions that will
give the evidence stakeholders will need to determine if the learning occurred
faster, in more depth, or more enjoyably.

8. Be prepared to train the trainers. Trainers are not all familiar with the
technology and how to present in an online environment. They will need support
to feel comfortable and efficient. They will need to encourage online discussion
to continue thoughts and promote conversation and buy-in. Student engagement
and satisfaction both increase when blogs or discussion boards are used thereby
limiting the isolation and dissatisfaction that lead to learners not completing the
training (Dai, 2007).

9. Be prepared to train the learners. This may be the first time the learners have
been expected to get a large portion of their content from an online format. They
will need to develop new strategies to make sense of the process. Help get them
started with a toolkit of strategies.

10. Make sure there is support for the first time the course is offered.
Technology and teaching issues will come up as the course progresses. There
needs to be extra attention to catch mistakes that made it to the final draft.

11. Revise as needed. Once the training is completed, evaluate the data to see
where is should be altered. There will always be areas to improve.
References

Building Your Course. (2012, January 23). Retrieved February 25, 2017, from
https://blended.online.ucf.edu/process/building-your-course/

CastaoMuoz, J., Duart, J. M., & SanchoVinuesa, T. (2014). The Internet in face
toface higher education: Can interactive learning improve academic
achievement? British Journal of Educational Technology, 45(1), 149159.

Create a User Manuel. (n.d.) Retrieved February 24, 2017 from Wikihow:
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-User-Manual

Dai, M. (2007, December). 10 Ways to Engage Students in an Online Course. Online


Cl@ssroom.

What Is Successful Technology Integration? (2007, November 05). Retrieved February


25, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-description

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