Faculty department

Blended Learning Examples in Corporate Learning

Check out these real-life examples of blended learning:
When Ticketmaster noticed that their customer service left a lot to be desired, they switched to a blended learning model that combined self-paced custom eLearning with real-world practice that could be observed and assessed for on-the-spot feedback. Similarly, computer giant CDW found itself lacking when it came to a unified user experience. They made the switch to a synchronous learning platform to allow both in-office and satellite workers the same blended learning resources and tools. Those e-tools were then combined with hands-on experience where learners could practice their skills and become better employees.
Both companies proved that making the switch to a blended learning method means a more customizable experience, but more importantly, a better way for instructors to assess the effectiveness of the module.
3.How to start blended learning of foreign languages
Take a step back and consider what your training is providing, and what you want the learner to learn. You probably know this already, having developed instructor-led sessions. Using your experience and the help of the instructors, ask yourself: Where are the problems?
Nearly every trainer will tell you there are aspects of their programs that are difficult—both for them and their learners. Think about dry, factual information such as technical specifications, compliance information, or a complicated series of steps that may require practice to master. This is your crack in the door: what can you take out of the instructor-led sessions and develop as eLearning so learners can learn and practice on their own time—and at their own pace?
Contemporary instructional design approaches have developed some really interesting and engaging ways of making that assessment, making eLearning and instructor-led content excellent complements to each other.
Moving some course content to eLearning also benefits the instructor-led sessions, allowing instructors to concentrate more on the application of knowledge or on more complicated tasks. The eLearning can provide the “what” while the instructor-led content can focus on the “how.”
We suggest that you use a system that can track both offline and online training interventions, such as a learning management system that incorporates Tin Can (Experience) API. You can set up such a system to take reports from instructor-led and online learning events equally, and develop a “report card” for each employee to track their learning interventions.
You’re ready to start implementing your own blended learning program! Your learners will thank you for offering learning that works best for them. Need help developing your blended learning? Tell us about your project here! It’s silly to even have to say this, but knowing why you’re learning a foreign language is key to mastering it.
Many people start learning a language with no idea of what they’ll use it for. And, sure enough, they fail. You can know all the tips and tricks there are to learning a language, but if you don’t know the why behind it all, how it’s going to enrich your life, chances are you’re going to lose motivation and the learning will fizzle out like an engine sputtering out of gas.
Are you looking to start a new life in a different country? Are you learning a foreign language because you’re fascinated by the culture and want to dive in at the deep end? Are you planning a trip to a foreign land and simply wanting to be able to order street food and tell the taxi driver where you’re going in the local language?
These are all good motivations to learn a foreign language.
And yes, there are bad ones too. If you want to learn Russian simply to impress that cute Russian you met at the bar, if you’re thinking of picking up French phrases to impress people and look smart, well, I have bad news for you.
Motivation is a tricky thing. You can will yourself to learn something difficult for a short period of time. But in the long run, you need to be reaping some practical benefit from your efforts. Without that, you’ll eventually burn out.
Language-learning goals are best if they are short, simple and easily measurable. Many of us embark on studying a language by saying, “I want to be fluent in Japanese in six months!”
The problem is, what is fluency? Fluent in what way? Casual conversation? Reading and writing? Discussing legal issues for your business?
Instead, it’s better to set clearly defined goals. Start with something like, “By the end of today, I will know how to greet someone and introduce myself. In two days, I will learn how to ask someone what they do for a living and explain to them what I do. By the end of the week, I will know how to procure food and avoid starvation.”
And to get you started, I’ll give you the goal of all goals, the milestone that will take you furthest on the path to fluency: “Master the 100 most common words in X weeks/months.” Not all vocabulary is created equal. Some gives you a better return on investment than others.⁴
For instance, when I lived in Buenos Aires, I met a guy who had been studying with Rosetta Stone for months (not recommended). I had been working on and off with a tutor for a few weeks, but I was surprised by how he could not follow even the most basic of conversations despite months of study and living there.
It turns out, much of the vocabulary he had been studying was for kitchen utensils, family members, clothing and rooms in a house. But if he wanted to ask someone which part of town they lived in, he had no idea what to say.
Start with the 100 most common words and then make sentences with them over and over again. Learn just enough grammar to be able to do this and do it until you feel pretty comfortable with all of them. This made a much bigger difference than I expected.
I carry an English-Spanish dictionary app on my phone and I used it all the time when I lived in Spanish-speaking countries. My first two weeks in Brazil, I was lazy and kept forgetting to download an English-Portuguese application. I struggled in my conversations A LOT during those two weeks, despite knowing basic Portuguese.
Once I downloaded the dictionary, there was an immediate difference. Having it on your phone is great, because it takes two seconds to look something up in the middle of conversation. And because you’re using it in conversation, you’re that much more likely to recall it later.
Even something that simple affected my conversations and ability to interact with locals a great deal.
The other use for your dictionary is that you can practice while going about your day and not talking to anyone.
Challenge yourself to think in the new language. We all have monologues running in our head, and typically they run in our native tongue. You can continue to practice and construct sentences and fake conversations in your head in a new language.
In fact, this sort of visualization leads to much easier conversations when you actually have them.
For instance, you can envision and practice a conversation about a topic you’re likely to have before you actually have it. You can begin to think about how you would describe your job and explain why you’re in the foreign country in the new language.
Inevitably, those questions will come up and you’ll be ready to answer them.
The main stages to teach foreign languages
In today`s intercultural society, no one can deny the importance of learning a second language. In our institution we believe that major action should be taken to guarantee that all of the students are given the chance to practice this ability to communicate with people from all over the world. This task will require working with a holistic approach and will imply the participation of a very committed group of people willing to help each other. There are many methods for teaching foreign languages, but in my opinion the cycle shown in the present article is one of the best approaches to learn any language. So are you ready?
1. Initial communicative practice: If one of the principles of the particular didactics for languages is analyzed: the determining role of the need for communication in a specific and concrete context, it is understood then that it is impossible to begin from something that is not communication itself. The process begins with the need for communication with a situation intentionally provided by the teacher. At this stage, students use the communicative resources they have to interact and talk about a topic that will gradually guide them to need new linguistic elements to be able to express their ideas. This stimulation is an additional motivational element that allows the students to learn better because the new elements become necessary and significant. The students face a polemic-communicative situation that they cannot handle by themselves with the knowledge and abilities they have acquired. This practice is said to be communicative because the teachers permits the use of the linguistic resources by the students in a free way he does not impose anything he does not demand a given structure or the other, but he will be guiding the students through the need of the new knowledge. In this moment the students immerse themselves in a communicative activity from which some contradictions occur in one or more components of the communicative competence, as well as in one or more components of communication (sender, receiver, message or way of expression).
2. Determination, analysis and solution of the problem: This moment of the process propitiates the immersion of the students in a situation in which they should solve a problem. The new linguistic-communicative content can provoke contradictions with what has been previously learned. The contradiction is assimilated by the students, who make it in a polemic situation in their minds. The polemic situation is the unknown, what they cannot solve only from their experience. When the students understand what they should look for, then they have defined the problem. Then, the teacher isolates the example on the board and adds more similar examples. Usually, the teacher tries to write the examples from the communicative situation itself and not from the textbook. The students discover the rule, from the different polemic methods, which are mainly partial search (guided discovery) and heuristic conversation.
3. Controlled practice addressed to form: This stage is essential for the formation of linguistic habits after the comprehension of the phenomenon. Stage number two by itself does not lead to communication neither does the combination of stage two and three. The most important thing at this stage is the form, the reproduction with accuracy of the different grammatical patterns, pronunciation, etc. It is also important that students know the meaning of what they are saying in each moment, and that the teacher is able to listen to one among the rest of the students, in order to make the necessary corrections. At this stage the teacher has to correct to guarantee a minimum of success in the subsequent stages in which the content is as important as its way of expression.
4. Guided practice: Unlike controlled practice, in this fourth stage the teacher propitiates the use of the linguistic-communicative content without making explicit her intention for the students to use it. Here, the students face exercises which claim for the use of the linguistic element, but not in a mechanical way, but almost in a communicative way. This type of practice has been also called pseudo-communicative exercises and it constitutes the so called, the missing link that existed when it was expected that the student could communicate fluently only from the repetition of mechanical exercises. This practice is developed in a very gradual way, that is, the previous exercise is more guided than the next one, up to approaching its free use automatically.
A very useful exercise within the guided practice is the role-play exercise. This exercise is eminently a communicative one, and therefore it is based on a gap of information, opinion or judgment. Nevertheless, the role-play exercise needs previous preparation, mainly for those students whose development of communicative skills is not so high and have poor knowledge of the vocabulary.
5. Integrated free practice: This practice differs from the initial one in that in this moment the students are ready to integrate themselves in a communicative activity of spontaneous and free expression, drawn from the communicative resources they have assimilated, in which they put into practice the skills developed in the new unit together with the previously ones acquired.
6. Creative production. This stage is mainly developed out of the classroom. The students apply their knowledge, skills and strategies acquired to solve communication problems independently in the social context they have prepared for. Learning does not end in the classroom. If the five previous stages are developed satisfactorily, in such a way that the students learn to learn, to solve problems without the permanent teachers guide, then they will be able to face the sixth stage. Technology has changed the way we acquire knowledge – making education more accessible to all. Education has undergone a revolution of its own and 2020 is a stark example of this. As per statistics put out by the UNESCO on its website, over 190 countries faced disruption in formal learning and teaching impacting nearly 1.5 billion learners at one point. As per the same report about 320 million learners have been impacted in India alone.

What is blended learning? Simply put, blended learning approach is a mixture of e-learning and traditional learning which is increasingly being adopted by educational institutes. This approach helps cater to the individual learning styles and needs. Blended learning brings together the best of both worlds - online study and face-to- face learning - helping students stay motivated and engaged. There are different models of blended- learning that educators across the world have been experimenting with: