Blended Learning: Wissen durch Abwechslung verankern
When designing training courses, for example as part of IT implementation projects, companies often face a fundamental question with the support of their training service providers:
"Are we doing everything in person or everything digitally?"
Both approaches have clear strengths. Trainer-led training sessions create intensity, immediate feedback, and exchange. This is particularly unbeatable when it comes to practicing processes in a practical way. At the same time, they are time-consuming and resource-intensive—and without repetition, what has been learned quickly fades away (keyword: Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve).
Jens Hirschfeld,
Digital Learning Specialist
E-learning, on the other hand, enables flexible, individual learning. It is ideal for interactively mapping processes, navigation, and functions, and for making knowledge available for repetition at any time. For clearly defined topics—such as an introduction to a single function or minor process changes—e-learning can even be sufficient as a standalone format. For more complex changes, they unfold their full potential especially in combination with trainer-led live or online sessions.
This is precisely what gives rise to “blended learning”: the combination that brings together the best of both worlds. Formats that are interlinked and complement each other.
Digital modules convey basic knowledge that can be reviewed at any time. Small, self-contained learning units (“micro-learning”) lower the inhibition threshold and support the transfer of knowledge into everyday life.
Trainer-led training courses or live online sessions provide space for discussion, questions, and joint work on specific use cases. Here, it is no longer just about “knowledge,” but about “skills”—and a shared understanding of processes.
An example from a customer project:
A life sciences company needed to train over 200 employees on a new CRM system in a short period of time.
In interactive micro-e-learning sessions, employees went through the most important processes step by step: from navigation and customer data entry to documenting conversations. Exercises, simulations, and short knowledge checks (in the form of quizzes) made it possible to try out and consolidate the basic functions independently.
In the subsequent live workshops, small groups continued to work with realistic scenarios: practical exercises, more complex process chains, special cases, and the exchange of everyday experiences. Here, questions could be clarified and best practices discussed.
The result for the company: 30% less training time, 25% better test results – and, above all, employees who were able to use the system confidently and practically right from the start.
Fazit
E-learning courses provide practical coverage of processes, navigation, and basic functions, enabling individual, repeatable learning at your own pace. Trainer-led sessions or live workshops complement this foundation by creating space for questions, discussion, and transfer to complex everyday situations.
IT implementations in particular show that it is the targeted combination of formats that makes learning efficient, sustainable, and accepted. Blended learning ensures that employees not only know how software works, but also understand why they perform processes in a certain way—and that they can apply this knowledge with confidence in their everyday work.
Blended learning makes the difference between being trained and being truly ready for work.
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