Chief Learning Officer - January 2009 - (Page 43) IN PRACTICE EXECUTING BLENDED LEARNING AT COMCAST UNIVERSITY n order to ensure all their customers receive a first-rate customer experience, Comcast elected to introduce a new customer-service process to employees. The internal training program utilized pre- and post-Web-based training sessions, instructor-led training, coaching exercises and role-playing, mixed with video segments. Comcast University separated the courseware into two distinct courses: Supervisor/Manager and Frontline Employee. This enabled the curricula to focus on core elements unique to each role. I on-the-job training remains one of the most effective means of transferring both knowledge and skills. The trick is balancing the cognitive and the skills portions into right-sized chunks. Strive for designs that allow the learner to interact and apply his or her learning by interacting with a program, person, piece of equipment or process. Pilot Your Program for Optimal Success As the saying goes, this is “where the rubber meets the road.” The true test of your program comes once you put it into gear and roll it out for your audience. Crafting a well-knit delivery that seamlessly brings together multiple segments or pieces of a program is not always easy. Careful, up-front planning and working through a pilot session is the optimal approach. When piloting, you can test the transitions, validate the learner’s actual learning and validate the timing or compatibility of the various learning modes. Careful review of the pilot data can provide important modifications or tweaks to the program that can dramatically impact the delivery success. Relevant, Up-to-Date Content The only remaining piece is to ensure your content remains up-to-date by modifying the content to address changes. So revision control and change management are critical elements to a successful blended learning program. Up-front planning enables you to use optimal modalities for content that is extremely dynamic. Make sure your design includes careful thought surrounding the stable nature of the content, and allow that to factor into your decision making, too. Take a More Prominent Role in Corporate Competitiveness There is an art, as well as science, to crafting effective blended learning solutions. But that doesn’t mean it has to be difficult. The two key aspects are performing proper, up-front planning and having a strong understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the different training modalities available. After that, everything else falls easily into place. In a corporate landscape that places so much emphasis on the transfer and strengthening of intellectual capital, training is playing an increasingly crucial role in competitiveness. Having full and proper command of every tool in your arsenal can go a long way in making your organization — and your department — as successful as it can be. CLO Eric Rodgers is senior vice president at General Physics Corp. He can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. Chief Learning Officer • January 2009 • www.clomedia.com Teaming Up for Custom Blended Learning The curriculum launched with a 20-minute e-learning module that provided overarching customer-service program information. The organizations coordinated on the design elements, and General Physics provided story-boarded and scripted designs for review and approval. To drive rapid development, files and drafts were shared, enabling immediate feedback and real-time revisions. After the pilot was complete, the course was finalized and loaded onto Comcast University’s portal, along with the source code. Simultaneously, the teams collaborated to design and develop the instructor-led modules. They wanted to ensure supervisory/managerial and frontline employee personnel were given opportunities to practice live interactions that mimicked real-world scenarios. Therefore, the project integrated instructor-led sessions heavily designed with interaction and scenario-based exercises. These courses were piloted alongside the e-learning module; then, minor revisions were incorporated and the content and all original files were delivered. Ensuring Effectiveness With a Multiphased Approach Thirty days after a manager completed training, a five-minute “infomercial” — based on key leadership video segments, key speaker narration and some creative and visually appealing graphic splashes — was delivered. The purpose was to refresh knowledge of the customerservice key points and renew excitement about the program. To validate that the audience retained the proper skills and knowledge, the teams coordinated to design and develop online confirmations of learning (COLs). The COLs were designed to evaluate both the e-learning and instructor-led training. The COLs contained scenarios participants were required to address with appropriate actions, and questions covered the important change management aspects of the new program. The final phase of this multifaceted training was targeted toward supervisors and managers through five-minute “communication capsules” on each element of the customer-service training. These short e-learning modules were released once a week, focusing on key aspects of implementing transformational change with their teams. Each capsule included resources such as talking points, suggested activities for team meetings and a job aid to distribute to their teams. This final component to the training not only refreshed the content, but also helped provide supervisors and managers with the needed tools to empower their teams to implement the customer-service program. According to Comcast Chief Learning Officer Martha Soehren, “This program is receiving very positive feedback from our operational leaders, and we are realizing improvement in customer-impacting processes and metrics.” CLO – Eric Rodgers 43 http://www.clomedia.com
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