5 Reasons Blended Learning is Effective for Staff Development

It's funny… 

As a parent, I'm not a big fan of homework. 

My kids spend almost seven hours a day, five days a week, in school. I feel like if you can't cover the content there, don't send it home. And while I do think there are exceptions to this rule, like a project or something that you need to practice, I'm generally on the side of no homework. At least for K through five. 

But for my adult learners, I'm a big fan of learning outside the classroom. 

In fact, when working with my nonprofit clients, I design a lot of blended learning. 

I like blended learning - I like being able to have learners spend some time inside a virtual or in-person classroom, but I also like them to spend time learning independently or in groups outside the classroom. 

At first, I thought this was contradictory to how I felt about homework for kids, but I think it's the same. 

• As kids, we spend the majority of our time inside a classroom. That's our job.
• As adults, we spend the majority of our time outside the classroom at our actual jobs.

So it makes sense to do things a bit differently. 

5 Reasons Blended Learning is Effective

Blended learning is a great approach to people development, whether you're training staff, “customers”, members, volunteers, or someone else entirely.

Why is it effective?

1. Provides learner flexibility and autonomy
2. Reduces training and development costs
3. Allows your nonprofit to scale rapidly
4. Leverages technology to support learning
5. Includes relationship building and change management principles

Is Blended Learning Always the Best Choice?

Short answer: no.

• You may have a need for a quick solution that is only self-paced.
• You may have a need for a more involved solution that is only synchronous.

But, most of the time, blended learning should be considered.

A Multi-Pronged Approach to Learning

Most of the time, it takes a multi-pronged approach to learn something new.

Even with the Learning for Good podcast which is entirely self-paced, I offer blended learning solutions:

1. The Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective: a growing community of nonprofit and association L&D pros. This community can have real time conversations about the things that matter to them. We can take any learning topic and have an in-depth conversation about what's working and what isn't inside their organizations. 
2. The Learning for Good Playbook: a free download that allows you to reference some of the key points from certain podcast episodes. It includes a fillable component so that you can reflect and plan for how to implement what you've learned.

To learn more about why blended learning is a good strategy for staff development, tune into episode 97 of Learning For Good.

Upcoming Events

Let's Talk about the Future of L&D!

Learning for Good is going LIVE to celebrate our 100th episode!

Hear first hand from L&D and L&D-adjacent professionals about what they hope for the future of L&D!

💻 LinkedIn Live

📅 Sept 19

🕛 9:15 am CT

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Using Miro in Your L&D Workflow!

Taking a Learning and Development project from idea to completion takes a lot of management. Keeping track of priorities, needs, changes, strategy, and deliverables, along with making sure that what you create actually does what you want it to do, while collaborating across teams…that’s going to take more than a to-do list and some sticky notes. 

Fortunately, there are new tools and software for L&D professionals to take advantage of. At the Nonprofit L&D Collective’s next free Tech Talk, Dan Smith of Miro will show us how to use the AI-powered, visual workspace for L&D workflows. 

Join us on September 30, at 12:00 PM for a demo and private Q&A on Zoom.

💻 Zoom

📅 Sept 30

🕛 12 pm CT

This event is open to all Nonprofit L&D Collective members. Join today!

Additional Resources Just for You

➡️ Follow or subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify so you don’t miss next week’s episode. We'll be talking about how you can make generative AI your L&D thought partner with Valerie Ehrlich.

➡️ Join the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective, a community of nonprofit and association L&D pros where you can connect with each other, learn from industry leaders and tech vendors, and find the support you need to make a real impact.

➡️ Training and Leadership Development for Your Nonprofit: I help nonprofit and association teams create the exact training and leadership development solutions they need to create behavior change. Schedule a call to discuss your organization's training needs.