Blended Learning Models in Workplace Learning

eLearning has its advantages and disadvantages. Various questions have been raised on the effectiveness of instruction delivered online. Blended learning has been suggested, as a solution to address all the pitfalls that eLearning may possess. Blended learning has been in practice for many years now. The basic philosophy of the approach is to derive the best out many learning channels available today. However, with advancement of technology and proliferation of the Internet, learning professionals are posed with a problem of how to mix the various delivery channels that are available. This paper is an attempt to answer some of the key questions that arise while designing a blended learning approach. TATA consultancy Services (TCS) is Asia’s largest IT consulting services company that has operations spread across the globe. The learning and development team of the organization caters to the professional development needs of more than 100, 000 employees. The employees consist of diverse cultures and are from varied educational background. The paper discusses two approaches to blended learning by Josh Bersin, namely the core and spoke approach and the program flow approach. The paper goes on to describe learning situations where the appropriate approach has been applied to derive expected learning outcomes. To ensure that the learning experience is optimal for the leaner, one has to carefully select the learning channels and arrive at proper learning solutions. The learning channels are selected based on the work done by Don Morrison. The paper outlines various case studies of learning programs conducted successfully with in TCS. The paper also discusses various learning channels employed in TCS to effectively provide learning solutions to its employees.