Corporate training output need to be enhanced. Faced by employment restructuring and flexibility pressures due to increasing trends of inter- firm competition and swift advancement of technology, corporations, in response, start implementing blended learning programs to complement and replace their traditional training programs. Today, corporate blended learning strategies become a critical factor for high skill· high performance-based work system.
Blended learning is a mixture of traditional and online training. There are many types of such mixture.1) Corporate new hires are target audience of the prototype to be designed by this study. Corporations here refer to Korean ones, especially those with their own in-house training centers where top business drivers for blended learning (Bersin&Associates, 2002) are relevant: deployment speed, scalability to thousands and more, reduced cost per learner, and consistent, measurable, and certifiable content.
In general, one year of period after employment is critical not only for individual career development, but also for in-service high performance. It is for this reason that this study takes the first one year period of time as duration for corporate blended learning programs to consider critical. The theoretical foundation on which the study is based is an inter-disciplinary approach combining school of blended learning and that
of human resources development.
In Korea, it is said that effective strategies for development and operation of corporate blended learning have not been systematized yet.(Kwon, 2003) There has been a substantial degree of progress in the companies of Samsung, Hyundai, LG, and others, but still rooms for further development exist. An example as such is the case where new hires entering firms need to be provided with blended learning programs linking individual learning capacity to work performance capacity.
The prototype this study will develop, comprises procedural frame and standard one, on the basis of which actual training manual should be designed. Procedural frame will indicate steps to be taken by program developers while standard one will do contents, scope, and level of development. The prototype covers training goals, target audience for training, period, numbers, curricula, methods, feedback, etc. Training delivery methods including labs, simulations, websites, conference calls, and instructor coaching will be applied to. Instructional techniques such as self-study, discussions, stock taking will be introduced as techniques to be combined with the training delivery methods to comprise main contents of the prototype.
In proceeding with development of procedural steps and standards, one thing which the prototype developers will emphasize again and again is that effective programs include a clear understanding of the learners' job needs in detail. (Bersin&Associates, 2002) Thus the prototype will highlight importance of company processes surrounding learners' jobs as well as mission of building contents that fit into this process.
In sum, the study aims to design prototype of corporate blended learning manual. The prototype consists of two poles; one pole combined by instructional design system (blended self study, blended interaction for testing and coaching, and blended follow up), curriculum development, and strategies while the other one comprises program deployment processes.
Success of designing the prototype is dependent on how strongly corporations are motivated and adopt the principles set by the prototype in the process of designing their own blended programs. Each corporation has its own business strategies, organizational capacities, and investment conditions. Efficient interaction between principled development of the prototype and deployment process of corporate blended program fitting into business challenges is the focus area this study will concentrate itself on.
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