New normal of training: the role of the teacher facilitator in blended learning
How does the teacher turn into a facilitator in the new normal of training? Which are the new skills he needs to develop to cope with changes towards blended learning? In this article we will try to answer these questions, to portray the role of the first stakeholder of this new paradigm.
A FOCUS ON INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN
One of the main recent changes in training is related to the growing coexistence of face-to-face and online training, called in fact blended training, sometimes even with the combination of live webinars and self-paced learning, all online. In this context, then, instructional design becomes essential, and in particular the process of organizing instructional contents according to different means and to reach different goals.
Therefore, the teacher is not limited to program the specific class to teach, but becomes a builder of a wider path: materials to study autonomously and moments of face-to-face discussion interact and complete each other to reach the best results. At the same time, resources like time and money are used in the most efficient way, both for students and for the teacher himself.
FROM TEACHER TO FACILITATOR FOR BLENDED LEARNING
In the relationship with the learner, the new teacher gets off his desk and turns into a peer: it is not about sharing knowledge during the lesson anymore, it is about helping the student to build a storage of references to draw from when needed. According to the principles of Andragogy, in fact, adult learners want to train to solve real problems: acquiring knowledge becomes something necessary. and the teacher turns into a facilitator who gives support in choosing materials to study autonomously, according to the blended model.
On the other hand, according to lifelong learning the teacher keeps his role even after the classroom phase, namely at the end of the official moment dedicated to training. Building a set of resources, in fact, will be essential especially when the student needs to revise the acquired knowledge, even a long time after the lesson about that specific topic.
LMS PLATFORM: A POINT OF CONTACT
To stay in contact with students even after the single lesson, it becomes essential to use platforms dedicated to training, especially LMS platforms. Among the new skills required, then, a teacher needs to exploit the functionalities of these tools, both to manage the class – students profiles, content sharing, content organization – and to build a long-term relationship.
The advantages of this approach are clear for students, but it is worth highlighting that also the teacher can benefit from it. In particular, having a history of training on an LMS platform can be useful when it becomes necessary to update treated contents or deepen the topic: even when the learning path is not totally face-to-face, in fact, platforms can help to build a teacher-student relationship on a human level, according to the social learning that seems to lack in online training. In addition to that, talking about resources optimization, blended learning allows teachers to spend less time in class, taking the most of face-to-face moments to tackle those parts of training that would be not effective in self-paced learning. In this way, then, the teacher can manage many classes at the same time, and re-use in an adaptive way all the materials created for self-paced learning, allowing to focus on exercise and discussion.
It is clear that the new normal needs to bring changes also related to training stakeholders, starting with the teacher: it is, as happened many times, an evolution towards the role of a facilitator which does not make it less valuable, but on the contrary seems to make it more powerful thanks to blended training.
Are you interested in finding out the roles of other stakeholders? Read the following articles!
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