Tips for blends 1: Don�t jump to solutions � start with a sound analysis

This one�s a bit obvious, but it needs saying. It�s oh so tempting when confronted with a new project to jump straight into the creative process of selecting the ingredients for your blend without a clear understanding of what it is that you�re required to achieve. There will be plenty of room for creativity later on in the design process, although you may find that the �how� becomes all too obvious once you have answered the questions �what�, �why�, �who for�, �by when� and �for how much�.

To conduct a thorough analysis you need to be systematic and persistent; systematic to make sure you fully explore all aspects of the learning, the learners and the logistics, and persistent, because project sponsors may be reluctant to answer so many questions. A good test is how clearly you feel you could articulate the requirement to a third party; if you cannot explain it properly, then you don�t understand it well enough.

Next: Try to stop the subject expert and the client dictating the solution

My tips for better blends

This is my self-proclaimed year of the blend and I'm releasing a new book on blended learning in the new year, so it's time to collect my thoughts.

There is nothing inherently wonderful about a blended solution. Making the decision to design an intervention in a blended format is only your first step � the quality of your end result depends on what you include in the blend and when, and how well these decisions reflect the learning requirement, the characteristics of your target population and the particular resource constraints within which you are being asked to operate.

Every day for the next week or so I will be sharing some of my tips for better blends. None of these will guarantee that you will make great design decisions but they may just point you in the right direction.

Here's what's coming:

1: Don�t jump to solutions � start with a sound analysis
2: Try to stop the subject expert and the client dictating the solution
3: Focus on performance, not knowledge
4: Don�t overdo the self-study
5: Build in lots of opportunities to practise new skills
6: Use guided discovery to get across the big ideas
7: Keep a balance between the synchronous and asynchronous
8: Keep all ideas about technology out of your mind until you�ve fixed on a suitable method
9: Recognise that face-to-face learning still has an important part to play
10: Extend the blend along the whole learning journey

The new self-directed learning toolkit

For practically thirty years now, the default corporate solution for any sort of formal, self-directed learning intervention has been self-study e-learning, specifically some form of interactive tutorial. While this format certainly can deliver the goods, and provides  a simple, trackable means to monitor compliance, it frequently falls down on many fronts:

• Interactive tutorials are time-consuming, expensive and complex to put together.
• It takes a great deal of expertise to do a really good job of designing an engaging solution, and this is in short supply.
• The format has hardly advanced since the 1980s, except perhaps in superficial graphical terms, and there appears to be little interest among producers for fully exploiting the potential for intelligent, adaptive tutorials.
• The learner is isolated from peers, experts and others who can assist their learning.
• Assessment is often superficial and knowledge-based.
• It can be tricky to deploy these tutorials on mobile devices.
• It is hard for the learner to re-visit any of the elements of the tutorial for reference, without getting caught up in the sequential, page-driven navigational system.

This would be a depressing state of events, if there weren't simpler, cheaper and better alternatives available, with lower barriers to entry. These days I hardly ever suggest an interactive tutorial as a solution for a client, unless I know it can be produced to a very high standard. So what do I believe are the essential components of my everyday online learning toolkit?

• Videos can be easily delivered to any device and can be highly-engaging as long as they are kept short and sweet. Even when professionally produced, they cost little and can be ready in as little as a few hours. Whether you need interviews, demos, how-to's or animated explanations of difficult concepts - video works perfectly. 
• Web articles and PDFs are not a glamorous or high-tech solution, but they are the resources we normally turn to for a more in-depth examination of an issue. Web articles are the more flexible of the two options, but PDFs are better when you know the document is going to get printed.
• Scenarios are the one ingredient of contemporary e-learning which I would keep in my everyday toolkit. They do not have to be technically difficult to develop (they can be as simple as a piece of text followed by a multiple choice question) but they do have to be challenging, authentic and relevant to the learner's real-world problems. Scenarios are a form of guided discovery; they encourage insights; they help to get across the big ideas.
• A forum is another simple, inexpensive tool which sits nicely alongside the packaged self-directed materials. Forums allow for Q&A, for debate and for the externalisation of learning. Obviously there are other ways to achieve the same result, not least a face-to-face discussion, but the forum does the job.
• Links might seem too trivial to be considered a self-directed core learning tool, but they act as a gateway to all sorts of other resources beyond the packaged materials that you have put together. You can act as a content curator and suggest links, but then so, of course, can learners. Come to think of it, they can come up with some pretty good videos and web articles too.

These are the staples for a predominantly self-directed solution. There will be other tools that need to be brought into action for the special cases:

• Learning journals (blogs) provide a way for a learner to record and share their reflections over a longer course of study.
• Wikis provide a way for groups of learners to work together in building a knowledge resource. Not strictly speaking a self-directed element but who wants to be self-directed all the time?
• Sims and games provide highly-authentic opportunities for skills practice and discovery learning.
• Quizzes provide an indication of what the learner knows. They also provide a means for rehearsal of facts, concepts, rules, principles, etc.
• Narrated slide shows are probably second best to videos but if your starting point is a slide show then this is probably the way to go. And you can always turn it into a video!
• Practical assignments are going to help learners put ideas into practice, individually or in groups. They also provide a means for assessing competence. Ideally a facilitator will be on hand to provide feedback. If not, you could ask the learner's manager to step in or provide some means for peer assessment.

Nothing I have suggested here needs to be complex or expensive, although all have to be skilfully blended into a solution, often in combination with live events, whether one-to-one or in groups, face-to-face or online. There's nothing here to frighten an experienced learning professional with only average computer literacy, because the emphasis is on learning and teaching, not technology. What's stopping you?