Converting a Face-to-Face Course to a Hybrid Course: Best Practices for the Trainer

So we have a manager who has done face-to-face meetings with trainees but he is not too happy with the communications with the trainees so he wants to do something new.  With his supervisor’s permission, the trainer plans to change all current training module’s to a blended learning format, which would provide trainees and trainers the opportunity to interact with each other and learn the material in both a face-to-face and online environment.  In addition he is considering putting all of his training materials on a server so that the trainees have access to resources and assignments at all times.

Before the manager can start the process he has to do some pre-planning.  He needs to look at what aspects of his original face-to-face program could be enhanced in the distance learning format.  He also needs to contemplate how his role as a trainer will change in a distance learning environment.  Finally he needs to find ways to encourage his trainees to communicate online.

In the pre-planning stage facilitators and instructional designers (IDs) need to be familiar with the technology they are going to use. Piskurich (Laureate Education, n.d.) states that the facilitator needs a good lesson plan.  A good lesson plan will have a variety of activities for the students to do; it will have tools that the students will be using and it will have poles that the teacher has to do and monitor; there is going to be small group activities they are going to participate in and there are questions that are going to be asked.  The facilitator needs to know the software he or she is going to work with, what can the facilitator do with it and what can the students do with the software.  The facilitator should keep in constant communication with the students to know whether the student is going to be late on turning in an assignment; they may have some problems at home.   The facilitator has to be involved, has to be engaged, you have to care, you has to have a presence in this learning environment.  The facilitator has to use the activities that the ID put in the program and if there are no activities provided by the ID then the facilitator has to create activities that keep the student engaged in their learning.  The facilitator needs to make sure that the students know how to use the technology; they need to make the technology transparent to the learner (Piskurich, n.d., Simonson et al. 2012) because once it becomes transparent then the instructor can reflect on the lesson quality, the outcomes, and the plans for subsequent lessons.

The manager who is preparing to do a blended approach to train his coworkers can use some do a live course using Elluminate Live! McMenomy (2010) writes about a professor who teaches a live course with Elluminate using a headset and he can talk and use PowerPoint slides to teach his course.  Florida Virtual School encourages instructors to integrate synchronous experiences through voice conferences, chats, IM, and whiteboards (Beldarrain 2006, p. 142).  Face-to-face education is probably best for the facilitator and the learner to connect but the other ways suggested above can help decrease the distance felt between the instructor and the learner by doing some video conferencing or even using Skype to connect with the audience.

The manager who will be implementing the blended approach to his training of future coworkers will have to think about his role going from a teacher centered environment to a facilitator.  As the managers role changes he will no longer be the center of learning but he will become more like a coach.  Simonson et al. (2012) discussed the difference from the teacher centered class to the student center class where the instructor’s role also changes:

1. From lecturing to coaching (the manager will now provide tips and feedback to the learners to challenge them to learn).
2. From taking attendance to logging on (the manager will see who is present by the responses in a threaded post).
3. From distribution requirements to connected learning
4. From credit hours to performance standards (competency based education)
5. From competing to collaborating (group projects)
6. From passive learning to active learning (the student becomes more self-directed, Artino 2008 explains that self-regulated learning (SRL) refers to “learning that occurs largely from the influence of students’ self-generated thoughts, feelings, strategies, and behaviors, which are oriented toward the attainment of goals). 

As the students takes on more of their own education and makes it person the manager will have to find ways to encourage the learner to communicate with him.  He can start off by doing icebreakers, or sessions in which students get to know each other, serve as positive experience in developing the community of learners especially in the distance learning environment (Simonson 2012, p. 200).  The instructor can also have clear expectations of how many times a learner has to post to a discussion post and constitutes a strong post and what constitutes a weak post. 
Now that you have some idea of what the facilitator is to do when implementing a hybrid or blended learning environment and how to get the students actively involved I will now provide a list of best practices for the manager to help him begin to transition from face-to-face education to a mix of online learning and in class learning.

There is a PDF file at the end of this article please click on the google docs link and when the drop down box appears click go to google docs for the tips for the instructor. This PDF can be viewed in Google Chrome or cut and paste the URL into the address bar in Internet Explorer

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zSfOW5Jfm6K3TvqJ8W-nmz4wafs7WCncIu1xoviUtwg/edit?usp=sharing