LMS Blended Learning: Definition, Benefits, and Examples

Since the rise of eLearning, both learners and instructors recognize the value of flexible teaching methods. Blended learning, also known as “hybrid learning,” is an approach that combines instructor-led classroom experiences with online content that learners review outside the traditional classroom. Live instruction can occur face-to-face or online.

Blended Learning Overview

Blended Learning is a unique training delivery method that combines traditional instructor-led training (ILT) in the classroom with supplemental online learning. Training programs that use a blended learning approach can implement it in various ways to achieve their desired learning objectives. Blended learning combines the flexibility, scalability, and personalization of online learning with the engagement, collaboration, and support of in-person learning.

Increased Interest in Blended Learning Programs

Blended learning has increased in popularity because it combines the efficiency of online learning with the effectiveness of in-person training. A study by Hewett, Becker, and Bish (2019) found that learners produced more positive outcomes during the instruction period, including more behavioral engagement, higher displays of cognitive activity, and improved confidence in the training.

Another study by the Center for Teaching and Learning at Columbia University found that successful training programs are always learner-centered, with a large focus on course design and layout, integration and application learning material, learner assessment and optimization, and instructor-provided guidance. According to the study, 78% of learners noted that the addition of instructors and trainers facilitating the course helped make comprehension more enjoyable and engaging, and learning objectives were completed at target.

How Blended Learning is Implemented

Developing a blended learning strategy requires balancing online learning components with traditional in-person training. The amount of in-person versus online learning will be up to the training manager or chief learning officer to decide how to best execute.

ILT Methods and Online Learning Methods

Incorporating a mix of instructor-led training and online training components is key to making a blended learning program a success. For instance, a global company initiating a software training rollout could have users attend a training event in-person in the classroom (ILT) or provide the choice of attending a live webinar with the same instructor (vILT). This gives learners the option to choose the learning method most convenient for them. Those in the local area can join in person, while others can join virtually.

Instructor-Led Training Methods

In-person training: Traditional, face-to-face, instructor-led training (ILT) is used when trainers, instructors, and subject matter experts facilitate learning sessions in a physical classroom or training site.
On-the-job training: Learning in this manner is usually a result of having a role that’s more hands-on in a particular environment that requires the learner to work with the instructor, allowing employees and trainees to practice the material being taught while being given constructive feedback and assessment in real time.
Live online webinar: The same as in-person training, however, learning takes place online using web conferencing tools such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Live online webinars are the more informal name for virtual instructor-led training (vILT), where a qualified trainer leads and guides the session in real time; however, there is still the same collaboration and interaction between learners as one would find in person.

Online Learning Methods

Video Lessons: Learning content that’s easily consumed as soon as the learner clicks play, video lessons serve as one of the most beneficial learning methods. As a part of a microlearning program, video lessons help provide learners with relevant information in short clips (4-7 minutes long) without detracting interest or attention span.
Gamification: Online on a desktop app or even used in conjunction with a phone or other mobile device, the gamification of e-learning allows learners to add a flare of entertainment to their learning material. Gamification can make a dull process like onboarding training more fun, competitive, and engaging and can incentivize learners to grasp the learning material better.
eLearning Modules: Everything from short quizzes and surveys to complete-and-submit assignments due at the end of the week. Online learning modules are akin to in-class or homework assignments. In the corporate training space, eLearning assignments are primarily served to learners using a Learning Management System (LMS). By using various eLearning assignments, you can test your learners’ comprehension after instruction.

Benefits of Blended Learning

Educators reap a number of benefits from using an innovative approach like blended learning, including increased efficiency, individualized content, easier access for learners, and decreased expenses. The key benefit of blended learning in the corporate training space is the adaptability it provides companies in making their learning programs more scalable and efficient. Blended learning is super versatile, making it ideal for a wide range of training requirements.

For L&D teams, the benefits of implementing a blended learning program include the following:

Time Efficiency: Instructors can save time through blended learning in several ways, such as automating tasks like drip content, quizzes, grading, and feedback. Plus, educators can share content before an in-person class so learners can focus on discussion and questions during class meetings.
Cost-Efficiency: There are many costs associated with in-person, traditional classroom instruction, such as travel, transportation, lodging, and meals. By opting for a blended program, organizations can cut the cost of training by reducing spend on travel, accommodation, lodging, and other expenses that are normally found in pure ILT-based programs.
Individualized Content: All students learn in different ways. Blended learning can also provide the learner with a variety of media - pictures, videos, podcasts, and games - that appeal to all senses.
Flexibility and Adaptability: Blended learning means increased flexibility and adaptability on multiple fronts. Not all learners can readily attend in-person classes and training. Also, some learners prefer printed materials, while others prefer digital formats. Blended learning allows you to offer both.
Increased Learner Engagement: Any educator should be concerned with engagement and retention. Blended learning also provides a wider variety of tools and resources to enhance the learning experience. While the concept of “learning styles” has widely been debunked, a blended learning program utilizes the best of all worlds, combining a variety of methods to keep learners interested and engaged in their training.
Improved Learning Material Comprehension: Online resources are used in tandem with face-to-face training to help embed knowledge. For instance, learners can access pre-reading materials ahead of a workshop and then supplement them with on-demand, follow-up resources to keep content fresh in their minds.
Faster learning: Instead of waiting for the next scheduled workshop, learners can get a head start on their training by accessing resources online - or can attend an online session rather than waiting for a suitable workshop in their area.
Gather Training Data: Apart from the classroom, L&D teams can assess which areas of the learning program need improvement and which should be removed entirely. By using multiple learning modalities, training teams will understand how to improve the learning experience for blended learning programs moving forward.
Scalability: By implementing some form of blended learning and bringing elements online, you’re immediately giving yourself an easy way to scale as your learning program goes.

All of these ultimately result in a more effective learning program and improved performance for your learners, whether you want them to improve their sales, boost compliance, increase customer scores, or something else entirely.

How to Plan a Blended Learning Program

Planning out your decision to use blended learning in advance ensures that you can build the right program for your learners that fits their schedules along with your training team’s resources. The first step is discussing with your training admin team what portions of the course will be delivered online and which should be delivered via in-person instruction.

Read also: A Guide to Blended Learning

Before scheduling a blended learning program, back-office admin teams should ask the following key questions including:

How much was previously spent on instructors and learning resources?
What was the attendance rate for in-person instruction?
Are there any critical assignments that can be done at home as opposed to in-person?
Does the client or company have an adequate LMS to supplement students with e-learning resources?

Asking these questions will help you better sift through in dividing what components of your learning program can be made exclusively online or in-person and what can have a flexible option. Setting the parameters for your training program first will give you and your training team a better idea of how to schedule in-person and online components and what resources to invest in when it’s time to make final preparations for your clients and learners.

How Blended Learning Can Improve Your Training Process

Blended learning is ideal for a wide range of training requirements such as:

Onboarding: Combine face-to-face onboarding (to meet new colleagues and complete site orientation) with virtual onboarding, such as reviewing company policy or HR processes.
Compliance training: Combine in-person training with online review of simple policies. Certification and assessment can also be completed and tracked online.
Product training: Learners can interact with your new product in person and then finish up the remaining coursework online.
Progress and performance meetings: Managers and employees can meet face-to-face for important conversations, but more routine progress meetings or coaching sessions can take place online.
Reduced resource gaps: Save time and resources by freeing up instructors and venues for more targeted in-person training while moving suitable training online to boost efficiency for everyone.

Best Practices for Blended Learning

To make blended learning as effective as possible, keep these key strategies in mind:

Set clear goals: Define your objectives, understand your learners individually, and ensure the content of the training session meets their training needs.
Balance the learning experience: Use a unique and effective blend of online resources and learning materials coupled with instructor-led training and hands-on activities to keep learners engaged and focused.
Make interaction and engagement a key aspect: For in-person training portions, be sure to use group discussions and interactive demonstrations. For the online-based portion of training, be sure lessons keep learners’ attention and focus. Use instructional videos, group discussions, and online exercises to keep learners actively involved.
Focus on optimizing the instructor-led training portion: Understand that face-to-face learning will be the most effective part of the learning experience, as it will allow learners to engage with facilitators and apply the covered material in a practical setting.
Remember that learning technology is meant to aid the learning experience, not to replace it: Use online learning only to cover the basic portion, but ensure that the most important parts of your training sessions are led by qualified trainers who can provide constructive feedback in real-time.

By implementing these best practices, you can develop a comprehensive and effective blended learning experience!

Read also: Definition of Blended Learning

How a Training Management System (TMS) Can Help Manage Blended Learning

A Training Management System (TMS) is a must-have for any organization taking a blended approach to learning. Training management software streamlines the planning and scheduling process for your blended learning offering across both ILT and vILT, meaning your instructors and admins can easily keep track of when they’re delivering face-to-face and virtual training sessions. But the right TMS gives you so much more than just course scheduling.

Training Orchestra is also known as a Training Management System (TMS) as it goes beyond the typical capabilities of a typical course scheduling software by also managing a learning program’s resources, including instructors, venues, training budgets, and all the equipment and materials that go into your training.

For example, a national medical group using highly specialized medical equipment needs to train its healthcare workers on how to use it. With a TMS, the training administrators can create a blended learning program to make mandatory training more flexible for their large number of employees dispersed across the country. In this case, the L&D team would find the most suitable instructors in each region that can cater to either ILT or vILT-based courses on top of monitoring the entire program’s budget and equipment usage.

On the learner side, the healthcare workers would have access to on-demand e-learning, instructional videos, and manuals online via the medical group’s Learning Management System (LMS) for ease of access.

Features to look for when using a TMS for blended learning management

When you’re looking for a TMS to support your blended learning program, these are the features and functionality you need to look for to maximize the impact of your training:

Course management tool: choose a TMS that enables you to manage in-person and online training sessions in the same portal for easier, more efficient training scheduling
Drag-and-drop scheduling: make life easier for you

Blended Learning Models

Choosing the right blended learning model requires careful planning. Combining face-to-face instruction with digital instruction methods, each type of blended learning model features unique ways to deliver flexible, effective learning.

Rotation Model: Learners cycle through a variety of learning formats. Learners may start the week by completing online modules, move to in-person group projects in the middle of the week, and finish the week with one-on-one virtual coaching sessions to offer additional support and feedback.
Flex Model: Also referred to as the self-directed model, the flex model is a learner-centered approach, giving the learner complete control over how and when they access content.
Enriched Virtual Model: Similar to the flex model, with one exception. In the workplace, an enriched virtual model is perfect for remote teams that can primarily operate online but occasionally want or need to meet in person.
Face-to-Face Driver Model: Essentially the enriched virtual model reversed, face-to-face driver models prioritize in-person instruction, with online materials serving as a supplement to learning.
Flipped Learning Model: Learners first engage with online content before attending in-person sessions. Ideal for self-motivated learners, the flipped model emphasizes critical thinking and active learning, relying on interactive, engaging virtual content to guide initial learning.

Blended Learning in Action: Examples

Blended learning can apply to a wide range of educational settings, including both the workplace and higher education. Corporate training uses for blended learning are only limited by an L&D department’s budget and their learner’s availability.

Corporate Training Examples:

Customer service training: Using the rotation model, new call center agents are first assigned training modules that focus on providing an excellent customer experience, handling difficult customer conversations, and soliciting feedback from customers. They then move to in-person collaborative training discussing what they learned, gaining different perspectives as they go.
Compliance training: Using the flex model, employees are informed of a new spot-the-phishing-scam microlearning course.
Soft skills training: Using the flipped model, an organization’s L&D department assigns employees a growth mindset course, complete with a sorting quiz and digital flashcards.

Higher Education Example:

Like in corporate training, the blended learning model in higher education can take many different forms. Most modern university experiences follow the face-to-face driver model, with classes being primarily in person and digital learning as a supplement. Still, others may follow a rotation model like science courses that have lab rotations mixed in with group learning and individual mentoring.

Tools for Blended Learning

To get the most out of a blended learning model, you’ll need the right tools. A learning management system (LMS) is key for both managing and distributing course material as well as tracking learner progress. Course authoring tools offer instructional designers an intuitive way to create engaging course material, whether it’s meant for in-person or online learning.

Learning Management System (LMS)

A blended learning LMS is a learning management system with the features your organization needs to offer blended learning for your team. The Learning Cloud from WorkRamp is a great example of a blended learning LMS. The platform simplifies instructor-led training with easy-to-use virtual event features, attendance tracking, conferencing, and event recordings. At the same time, creating online learning courses is intuitive, and learners find it easy to access and complete training at the time that works best for them. Your team can use prebuilt content and multiple media types while organizing content in the LMS for easy access.

Benefits of Blended Learning in Your LMS

There are a variety of benefits to using your LMS for blended learning. You can use the same foundation for all your learning programs, including sales enablement, customer training, and partner education, and you also gain the following benefits.

A variety of learning mediums: Learner engagement and information retention go up when you have a variety of media in the learning process, such as articles, videos, games, quizzes, and other interactive elements. The right learning platform makes this easy by supporting various file types in eLearning and instructor-led training.
Personalized learning paths: Using your LMS for blended learning allows learners to choose training courses based on their interests, skill needs, and career aspirations. Perhaps team members choose specific blended learning programs based on their needs, or each includes different eLearning options that give learners a slightly different focus. Either way, learners can control the direction of their growth.
Seamless course management: When you manage blended learning within your LMS, you don’t have to worry about instructor-led training being siloed from eLearning. Instead, everything is integrated, with course evaluations, training analytics, and post-training results tracking all occurring on the same platform.
Higher engagement: Because blended learning gives learners the best of both worlds-on-demand learning and the opportunity to engage, ask questions, and get feedback-engagement is much higher. That means you’ll get better results, better post-training reviews, and overall have a bigger impact on company results.
Greater flexibility and customization: Because blended learning includes in-person and online components, there’s more flexibility when it comes to balancing training with work. That makes it easier for employees to take part in training programs and benefit from skill development and career advancement. Plus, learners can participate in training courses when they’re most motivated to grow and learn.

How to Create a Blended Learning Program with Your LMS

How can you capture the many benefits of blended learning in your organization? The following steps will help you create a successful program using your LMS as the foundation.

Define learning objectives: As with any training program, knowing what you want to achieve is important. The L&D team may set separate learning objectives for each blended learning program since each one will have its own focus, skill work, and balance between eLearning and instructor-led training.
Prioritize engagement: Blended learning aims to maximize learner engagement, so ensure your L&D team designs courses with that in mind. Multiple media types, gamification, and other interactive elements will keep learners focused and engaged.
Customize learning paths: Every employee in your organization has their own training needs, whether it’s specific skills that need improvement, interests they want to pursue, or career goals they’d like to achieve. By customizing learning paths within blended learning programs, your L&D team can support everyone’s goals, making training meaningful for every team member.
Include learning assessments: How well are the training programs doing to improve employee performance, move careers forward, and fill skill gaps in the organization? You’ll never know if you don’t measure results. Assessments let you know how well a learner retained the information, and you can then track their performance metrics over time to see how they improve.
Add social learning opportunities: Social learning makes training more fun and effective. Learners can share their takeaways and how they’re applying the new information with colleagues and get the trainer's feedback. Employees benefit from seeing how others use information and can imitate them to improve their performance. Being able to talk about what each person is gaining from the course helps create a learning culture that fosters growth and continuous improvement.
Use the best LMS for blended learning: For blended learning to be effective, you can’t silo in-person training from eLearning on different platforms. Instead, you need an LMS with both, plus measurement tools, social learning features, assessments, and support for various file types. The Learning Cloud has everything you need in one place, making it easy to seamlessly integrate both parts of blended learning.

Keys to a Successful Blended Learning Program

Begin by defining clear and measurable goals for your learners and align them to organizational goals. Consider using the SMART goal method to ensure goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
Know your audience’s existing skills, learning preferences, and environmental constraints. This will determine which blended learning model to use, depending on where your learners are located, any accessibility issues they might have, and their schedule.
Use your goals to help you choose the right blended learning model to use. Just because you have a state-of-the-art, fully immersive VR training kit doesn’t mean it’s the best option for your learners.
Mix in live discussions, group activities, virtual quizzes, bite-sized microlearning courses, short videos, recorded webinars, scenario-based learning, and more.
Consider how each session moves naturally into the next. Does the virtual work done last night inform the in-person discussion schedule for this morning? Does the virtual discussion board blend naturally into the in-person group activity?
A robust LMS allows for frictionless content distribution and provides detailed learner analytics.

Common Blended Learning Models for Consultants and Trainers

The flipped classroom: Learners review core content online before coming together for discussion or application.
The rotation model: Learners move between different learning 'stations' or phases, some online and some in person.
The flex model: Most of the instruction happens online, with trainers stepping in as needed for live coaching, mentoring, or Q&A sessions.
The enriched virtual model: Learners complete most of the content independently online. Occasional in-person sessions are used for assessment, feedback, or group reflection.
The project-based model: Learners work on real-world projects while using online tools for support and feedback.

Implementing a Blended Learning Program: Steps

Designing blended learning is creating a journey that moves learners between digital and human touchpoints.

Start by clarifying your learning objectives. What do you want participants to know or do by the end of the program? The clearer your outcomes, the easier it becomes to choose which activities fit best online or in person.
Next, map out your learning path. For instance: Begin with a self-paced introduction online. Follow with a live workshop for practice. Wrap up with an online assessment or discussion forum to reinforce learning. Think of it as a story: Every element-videos, exercises, live sessions-plays a role in moving the learner from curiosity to competence.
Before launching at scale, pilot your program with a small group. Ask for honest feedback. Did the timing work? Was the online content clear? Did learners feel prepared for the live session? Adjust where needed before rolling it out widely.
Finally, measure your results. Track completion rates, quiz scores, and participant feedback. Share these insights with your clients to show the tangible impact of your training.

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