The Journey Begins:
Traveling Toward Blended Learning in a Corporate Environment
By Charles Osburn

I remember a day, long ago, when I departed my childhood home never to see it again. I was starting a journey that would lead me over a thousand miles to attend a university. Mixed in with the trepidation of leaving a familiar place was the overwhelming feeling of exhilaration. I began that journey energized at the thought of possibilities yet to come. It was with this same feeling of exhilaration that I recently began another journey: one that will lead a small department of a small division of a very large company into a new way of learning.
My problem is to change the processes and behaviors of no less than 5 stakeholder groups in a system that has been in place and perfected for over a decade. The current system is the use of live face-to-face or phone trainers to instruct new clients. Changing this system will mean overcoming inertia from multiple stakeholder groups. However, change must occur since our company’s business environment has changed.
The overall goal of my Action Research is to understand how to transform our company’s training program from all live training to a blend of e-learning and live training.
NEXT: My Work in Context
My problem is to change the processes and behaviors of no less than 5 stakeholder groups in a system that has been in place and perfected for over a decade. The current system is the use of live face-to-face or phone trainers to instruct new clients. Changing this system will mean overcoming inertia from multiple stakeholder groups. However, change must occur since our company’s business environment has changed.
The overall goal of my Action Research is to understand how to transform our company’s training program from all live training to a blend of e-learning and live training.
NEXT: My Work in Context