Many benefits to blended learning
While hybrid working creates new challenges for business leaders, the concept is helping to elevate executive education by leveraging online eLearning platforms to blend remote and in-person tuition.
“Busy executives generally find it challenging to allocate the time needed to attend courses,” says Jodie Martin, Head of Executive Education at the UCT Graduate School of Business.
“Providing interactive eLearning and user-friendly learning management systems and content supports their ongoing development and keeps them interested.”
“The flexibility, accessibility and range of resources offered through eLearning platforms continues to revolutionise executive education by giving busy executives the ability to access courses from anywhere at any time to fit learning into their hectic schedules,” says Dr Shahiem Patel, Dean of Regent Business School.
Furthermore, eLearning solutions unlock new capabilities by offering access to innovation technologies such as data analytics, automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), offering self-paced, personalised and fully customised asynchronous learning.
“Intelligent adaptive learning systems that leverage AI and ML have, for the first time, made it possible to deliver personalisation at scale,” says Dr Patel.
“By analysing performance, preferences and learning pace these intelligent systems can adjust content and difficulty in real time, ensuring a more efficient and individualised learning journey.”
New trends have emerged from this always-on access to relevant and personalised content, with self-directed and micro-learning becoming increasingly popular approaches among timestrapped executives.
“These on-demand modules offer quick, digestible bursts of information that are accessible on the go and align perfectly with a just-in-time learning approach,” explains Morné van den Bergh, Manager of Executive Education at the NWU Business School.
By offering bite-sized, actionable content, microlearning is directly applicable to real-world challenges, says Van den Bergh. “With short, focused modules, corporate leaders can quickly acquire new skills and knowledge relevant to their roles.”
Rayner Canning, Business Development Director at the UCT Graduate School of Business, says relying solely on eLearning platforms cannot efficiently provide training interventions that target higherorder capabilities, such as purpose and leadership impact or fostering creativity and innovation.
“Achieving these outcomes requires significant alignment between the individual and organisation and the adoption of or adaptation to new skills and ways of leading, which necessitates a human-centred approach to learning and development. As such, executive education providers must deliver training with impact, which means selecting the most appropriate modality and cadence, among other factors.”