BEST Practices for the Virtual Classroom and Blended Learning

The learner of today has instantaneous access to information virtually anywhere and anytime. Emerging new learning technologies are enabling the rapid growth of Blended Learning systems which expand on the traditional classroom-based delivery to include a richer more varied set of learning experiences. These include virtual classrooms, webinars, social media, wikis, eLearning, simulations, games and others to deliver learning experiences more affordably and with higher retention rates. This book is focused on Best Practices aimed at supporting the type of Learning Environment just described. These best practices are based on our research of Blended Learning and Virtual Classroom best practices, over 20 years of experience researching virtual and remote team effectiveness and practical experience designing and leading hundreds of virtual meetings, webinars, workshops as well as Virtual Classroom and Blended Learning experiences across the globe. The book describes 179 Best Practices in the design and delivery of Blended Learning programs with special attention paid to the use of Virtual Classroom technologies and social learning to provide learning designed to address the needs of today's learner who wants the right learning delivered to them through mobile devices just when they need it. The book is targeted at those training and development professionals and manager who are challenged with transitioning from the traditional training approaches to the new Blended Learning environments. It is a pragmatic book of tools which provide very directed advice at the many different critical success factors involved is successful design and delivery.