How to implement a successful blended learning approach for adult learners

Learning in an adult world is not like being at school. Adults have busy lives, plenty of existing experience in their role, and often an expectation that they're "done" with learning new things. How can we create a successful blended learning approach for adult learners?

As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. Nothing is truer in the context of adult learning, and two decades of experience has taught us some fundamentals that need to be in place to support the change in the workplace. Here are our top 10 tips for success when working with a group of adult learners for a successful blended learning approach;

1. Adults enter the learning process with years of experience. It works when you acknowledge that adults come to a learning event with a sack-full of beliefs, experiences, values and excuses that could make the ‘new way’ anathema to them. The only way to change that is to help them change their long-held (and dare I say, stubborn) beliefs.

2. Adults need direction to learn effectively. It works when adults direct their own learning on the basis of their own perceived needs. They should be working towards goals they have set for themselves and that are meaningful to them.

3. Make sure that learning is centered around things they need to ‘fix’. It works with a ‘problem’ based approach to learning rather than a ‘subject’ based one. Adults often look back on their school days and think "Did I really need to learn THAT?" It's essential to offer them an education they will actually use.

4. Use the group to discover the learning. It works when the ‘trainer’ is a facilitator of learning, rather than a teacher. They should be an equal partner in the journey, harvesting the knowledge in the room and sticking with the belief that within the room, the collective knowledge already exists - it just needs to be drawn upon.

5. Build in variety. It works when you get people engaged in the topic. Every 20 minutes, they MUST ‘do something’. Listening to the ‘trainer’s’ font of knowledge (no matter how fascinating) without interacting or participating is an absolute learning killer.
   

6. Be pragmatic, not ‘clever’. It works when you speak their language. Cut out the ‘theory’ – stay in practical, applicable and understandable terms which they already use in their day-to-day roles.

7. Learning in the ‘moment of need’ helps get traction. It works when your audience is learning at the "right time" for them. They should have an immediate "problem" to which learning offers a solution, and they should leave with a set of tools and new skills that they need to use NOW. This immediacy means that the learning and behaviour change is reinforced right away. If they don’t use it - they'll lose it.

8. It is much more than the classroom experience. It works when the learning is reinforced back in the workplace – line managers, self-learning, coaching and more. The message is clear: reinforce, reinforce, reinforce.

9. Connect, engage, have fun. It works when you take the ‘serious’ out of learning and engage with the learners not as knowledge sponges, but as humans.

10. Create a nurturing environment. It works when you make it safe to learn, Allow and encourage your learners to be OK with being uncomfortable, because ‘nothing grows in the comfort zone’.

Adults are not children. They instinctively learn in a different way, and you need to embrace that to increase your chances of success. By building these success criteria into your blended learning approach, you will be more successful and you will see change happen more readily.

If you would like to find out more about how we use a blended learning approach to facilitate sustainable learning & development, contact us for more inspiration and information about what we do.