Who not to ask about blended learning

Try this trick at any training expo: (1) approach any booth that advertises expertise in blended learning, (2) tear off the sticker that contains the words 'blended learning', and (3) find the word 'e-learning' underneath. Yes, blended learning is, more often than not, simply a re-branding exercise for e-learning vendors still smarting from criticism that e-learning fails to deliver on all its promises. These vendors have even hi-jacked the term 'blended learning' and tried to convince us that it means e-learning (the essential component) combined with other media, typically some form of traditional classroom experience.

This dubious mis-selling of blended learning has had a number of negative effects:

• It implies that blended learning is something new, rather than a long-standing approach with a history from which we can all learn.
• It has convinced many l&d professionals that blended learning is a euphemism for e-learning and that, as a result, it inherits all its baggage.
• It constrains designers by implying that all good blends need an e-learning component.
• It implies that all of the elements in a blend should be formal in nature, when great blends can act as a bridge to informal learning.

As a result of all this I would strongly advise anyone who has a training requirement and who needs advice on how best to meet this, avoids going to an e-learning vendor or an internal e-learning department for advice. Why? Because, the essence of good design for learning is to first develop a strategy that will produce an effective outcome and only then consider the media through which this strategy can be delivered efficiently. If you approach an e-learning specialist, nine times out of ten (and I'm being kind here), you will be advised to adopt an e-learning solution or a blend in which e-learning plays a significant part. The choice of media will almost certainly come first, and the strategy second.

This is a major difficulty for those organisations who have committed to the concept of blended learning, but who delegate the key decisions on learning design to internal or external e-learning specialists (or classroom specialists for that matter). They need to rethink, because the only people who can make objective decisions on media selection are those with no vested interest in a particular medium. They would do best to consult those who have no axe to grind, who are free to decide whether:

• a particular problem can or cannot be resolved through any form of learning;
• any learning that is required is best achieved formally, informally or in some combination;
• this learning is most efficiently accomplished using a single medium or a blended solution.