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Case Study

Published August 2008

The Blended Learning Approach

  Roy Strauss

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With the rollout of its 24-hour help line to its local chapters, the Alzheimer’s Association needed a quick and efficient method of training chapter staff and volunteers. As a result, the nonprofit implemented a blended learning solution that brings new customer service representatives up to speed quickly and consistently.

It is 1 a.m., and you are manning the Alzheimer’s Association Contact Center’s 24-hour help line. You press the button to pick up the next call. It is a young woman who is sitting in her car in her nightclothes calling from a cell phone. She is very upset and crying. She had gone to the convenience store, and when she got home, her elderly father didn’t recognize her. He thought she was an intruder, grabbed her and put her in a headlock.

After a struggle, she managed to escape, went to her car, locked the doors and called the hotline. Her father is still inside the house, peering out the window at her. What do you say to this woman How can you help her in this crisis situation

Take a deep breath. This is a training simulation based on a real incident from the Alzheimer’s Association Contact Center’s blended learning program, which brings new customer service representatives from across the country up to speed quickly and consistently.

The Business Need
In 2001, the Alzheimer’s Association’s national office, which is located in Chicago, created the contact center, a 24-hour help line to address Alzheimer’s-related concerns, issues, support and research. By early 2003, the association was ready to provide this capability on a local level, to be delivered by the nonprofit’s 77 local chapters nationwide.

As the contact center was rolled out to those local chapters, it became apparent that sending trainers from the national headquarters to train the local chapters was an expensive and unsatisfactory method for both the initial rollout and ongoing training. A faster and less expensive method was needed. The association selected Cedar Interactive to assess its needs, design the learning solution and develop the training.

The resulting program was a key component in the rollout of the contact center to the local chapters, and it permitted ongoing individual and small-group training of volunteers and staff personnel as needed at the local chapters and the headquarters.

“The training system helped us roll out the contact center to the chapters,” said Beth Kallmyer, director of client service at the Alzheimer’s Association. “It allowed us to take a great deal of training information and deliver it in an efficient and reliable way to staff throughout our 77 chapter networks. It continues to provide timely and consistent training, especially for new staff in the chapters.”

At the project start, the Alzheimer’s Association used the ADDIE development process: analyze, design, develop, implement and evaluate.

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