1. Blended Learning in Action John Cropper, Director Project Services, LINGOs (john@lingos.org)john@lingos.org Karen Chio, Senior Project Officer II, Management Sciences for Health (kchio@msh.org)kchio@msh.org November 28, 2012

2. Why are you here?

3. “Blended learning” methods, the combination of a variety of learning media (face-to-face, online, print, mobile, etc) and learning environments (instructor-led, teamwork, peer-to-peer interaction, self-study and individual work), may enable more opportunities for application and support to learners than traditional approaches. What is blended learning?

4. Example: MSH’s VLDP http://vldp.msh.org/mande10

5. http://pmdpro4you.ning.com/ Example: LINGOs Project Management for Development

6.  Cost-saving  Scalable  Application of learning on-the-job  Works in low connectivity  Flexible  Allows for cross-fertilization  Challenges power dynamics and enables more participation Advantages

7.  Design must be very well-thought-through before execution  Consider the specific target audience  Facilitators have less control than in face-to-face environments  Participants may see the training as “less serious” than face-to-face and be more distracted Challenges

8. Things to keep in mind Start with your learning objectives and target audience in mind Blend delivery methods to mitigate the impact of low connectivity Provide performance support over time

9.  Communicate timeline, expectations, and instructions clearly and often  Clear written communication, keep an encouraging tone  Invest in facilitation Things to keep in mind

10.  Hold participants accountable  In order to scale-up, establish and document successful processes and data collection:  standard facilitation procedures and training  content development and management processes  project management procedures and training  tracking, data collection, and performance improvement processes

11. Comments? Questions?