When it comes to employee growth, there are few methodologies that have been as successful as hybrid learning. As organizations around the world continue to search for ways to engage and develop their employees more effectively, it’s become clear that a hybrid approach delivers a learning experience that gets results. In this article, we’ll look at 6 distinct benefits and advantages of the hybrid learning model – to illustrate just how it’s changing the learning and learning and development landscape.
What is Hybrid Learning?
Hybrid learning is a model that combines a range of different methodologies into one cohesive program. Typically this would include traditional classroom experiences, experiential learning objectives, and digital course delivery – all knitted together in a way that gets the best out of each mode of learning. When done well, hybrid learning is a fully immersive and holistic learning experience that has proven extremely successful when it comes to employee growth.
6 Advantages of Hybrid Learning
Here’s why it’s so powerful:
- Flexibility. Learning is not a one-size-fits-all experience. Every employee will have a different aptitude for different types of learning and a hybrid model is able to accommodate all of them because of its flexibility. Coaches can adapt their learning to the room, employees can be flexible in how they engage with the material, and it just results in a much more personalized environment because the program is flexible to individual needs.
- Exploration. In traditional educational paradigms, there would be a set path that everyone would walk down, guided by the instructor. The hybrid model, on the other hand, encourages a sort of exploration through its flexible delivery and focus on experiential learning. This sort of exploration has shown itself to be a large part of keeping employees engaged by allowing them to take the material and apply it in a relevant way to their unique circumstances, thus greatly improving its efficacy.
- Efficiency. Hybrid learning makes much better use of resources by maximizing the value of in-person time, while also taking advantage of the scalability of digital learning. For the same investment, you can squeeze a lot more value out of such a methodology than you could out of a dedicated lecture series or a fully asynchronous digital education program. And by bringing these costs down, you can deliver a much wider range of development opportunities to your employees overall.
- Measurable. In any learning experience, the ability to track and measure progress is a key component that will greatly impact how effective that development actually is. Normally, companies are limited by how much feedback they get and can therefore find themselves a bit out of touch with how the program is being received. In contrast, a hybrid learning model provides a number of opportunities to track progress and to receive feedback from employees – which can be immediately used to iterate and improve on the overall delivery.
- Self-Paced. Hybrid learning allows for each employee to tackle the material at a pace that suits them. Instead of having to work at the cadence of the average, employees can take their learning into their own hands and go as fast or slow as necessary to truly engage with the material. This proves much more effective and is a key reason why retention is so good in a hybrid model.
- Novelty. The combination of a range of different learning modes keeps things fun and interesting for the employees being trained. As humans, we rely on novelty to stay engaged and a hybrid model can deliver that expertly to turn any material into an interesting and meaningful experience for employees. This is crucial in a world where our concentration spans have been reducing and there is so much distraction out there.
Hopefully that gives you a sense as to why hybrid learning is so powerful. There’s a reason that all the top companies in the world are doing it for employee growth, and you should be too. Regardless of what sector you’re in, or how big your organization is – hybrid learning represents the future of learning and development and it’s something you should be taking very seriously.