Picture this: You’ve just driven two hours through heavy traffic to attend a mandatory training session. The room is stuffy, and the presenter is clicking through endless PowerPoint slides about theoretical concepts you’ve already read about. While you’re itching to share your real-world experiences and discuss practical applications with colleagues, the instructor keeps lecturing at a snail’s pace. Your mind drifts to all the actual work piling up at your desk.
Sound familiar? This scenario plays out in countless training rooms and classrooms worldwide. The traditional “sage on the stage” approach often fails to meet learners where they are, wasting precious time and resources while delivering suboptimal results.
But what if there was a better way?
Traditional Learning: A Critical Analysis
Today, learning primarily takes place in face-to-face settings – whether in a classroom or a webinar. People deliberately set aside time and space for learning, immerse themselves in the subject matter for a few hours, and then return to their daily routines. While this form of learning has proven itself over decades and is widely considered “real learning,” this traditional approach has one significant drawback: it’s not sustainable.
The Three Major Disadvantages of Traditional Learning
- Knowledge Transfer Loss: After intensive learning sessions, participants return to their daily routines where they often can’t immediately apply what they’ve learned. Without immediate practical application, much of the knowledge is lost.
- Lack of Individualization: In face-to-face sessions, all participants must learn at the same pace, regardless of their individual needs and prior knowledge.
- High Resource Requirements: Face-to-face sessions require significant organizational and time investments from both learners and instructors.
Blended Learning as a Forward-Looking Alternative
Blended Learning offers an innovative approach that effectively addresses these disadvantages. By combining online and in-person phases, learning becomes more flexible, individualized, and sustainable. Participants can work through theory at their own pace and use face-to-face time for practical applications and deeper understanding.
What Makes Blended Learning Special?
Blended Learning combines the best of both worlds: self-directed online learning and intensive in-person sessions. This method enables:
- Working through theoretical content at your own pace
- Flexibly switching between different learning methods
- Using in-person time effectively for practical exercises
- Integrating continuous learning into daily life
Blended Learning in the Corporate World
A real example from a Leadership Development Program:
- Online Phase: Future leaders work through three interactive modules on “Feedback Culture,” “Handling Difficult Conversations,” and “Situational Leadership” on our learning platform. They spend about 2 hours per module solving practical case studies.
- In-Person Phase: In a two-day workshop, 12 participants practice real conversation scenarios with professional actors. They receive direct feedback from colleagues and develop individual action strategies.
- Transfer Phase: Over 8 weeks, participants implement a weekly development focus in their leadership routine. They reflect on their experiences in three 45-minute online coaching sessions in small groups.
This approach has proven highly effective. The 8-week transfer phase enables sustainable learning development with regular focus areas, while practical case studies and realistic simulations with professional actors create authentic learning experiences. Particularly valuable is the effective combination of self-directed online learning and intensive personal exchange in the workshop format. The program is rounded off by continuous reflection and feedback in small-group coaching sessions, which further supports learning transfer.
Blended Learning in Schools
A concrete example from a chemistry class. Theory is learned independently, allowing valuable class time to be used for exciting experiments and direct interaction.
- Self-Learning Phase: Students watch a 10-minute video about pH levels, read an interactive article about indicators, and complete an online quiz about distinguishing acids and bases.
- Classroom Time: The class conducts practical experiments, tests various everyday substances using red cabbage juice as a natural indicator, and discusses results in small groups.
- Follow-up: Students document their experiments in a digital lab journal, compare their results in an online forum, and work on advanced tasks about neutralization.
Get More Brain as a Tool for Blended Learning
Get More Brain offers ideal conditions for implementing blended learning concepts:
- Academy / Library: Provides structured access to all learning materials – from basic texts to in-depth resources.
- Workspace: Learners have a personal workspace for self-directed learning, where they can take notes, organize content, and work at their own pace.
- Messenger: The integrated chat enables direct communication and collaboration between in-person phases, allowing for continuous support of the learning process.
- Learning / Event Path: Learners are guided step by step through the various learning phases and provided with all important materials and information.
- bitmark Content: The structured content bits in Get More Brain offer information, multimedia, and interactivity. Interactive tables, video and podcast sequences, quizzes, checklists, and much more.
- Multilingual Support: With support for over 100 languages, the system is ideal for international learning groups.
Get More Brain combines the flexibility of self-directed online learning with the benefits of personal exchange. The platform supports both individual knowledge acquisition and collaborative deepening during in-person phases.
