Brochure cohesive blended learning

•

Introduction and demonstration to

Cohesive Blended Learning and the

accompanying learning portal

By:

HRD Group | Nataschja Budel FCB Consult | Peter Diekman

Cohesive Blended Learning

Professional development for

Accountants, Internal Auditors, and Bankers

Professional Development for Accountants, Internal Auditors, and Bankers 2


Table of contents

Introduction 3

What is Cohesive Blended Learning? 4

Advantages of Cohesive Blended Learning 5

How does Cohesive Blended Learning work? 6

Demonstration of the learning portal 7

Experience the demo 15

About us 16

Conclusion 17

3 Professional development for Accountants, Internal Auditors, and Bankers


Introduction

Welcome to the introduction and demonstration of ‘Cohesive Blended Learning’ (CBL), a new

learning concept developed by FCB Consult and HRD Group. Before demonstrating how our

learning portal works, we will give insight into the what, why, how, and whom of Cohesive Blended

Learning which is central to the learning portal.

We will conclude with a brief presentation about FCB Consult and HRD Group.



What is Cohesive Blended Learning?

CBL is a way to enable the development of professionals. CBL programmes consist of several

learning methods and elements, both online and offline, that work together in a cohesive manner.

Through these programmes participants (trainees) are able to learn at any place and any time, and

will develop themselves thoroughly on relevant subjects. The programme enables international

collaboration and interaction in small virtual class rooms. All parts of a CBL programme are

designed to complement and amplify each other to form one cohesive whole.

CBL programmes are tailored for individual trainees or groups of differing sizes throughout the

world, or within a (local) region. (International) interaction between trainees with their coaches, or

amongst trainees, is encouraged by the programme, to allow the exchange of views and visions,

without trainees being required to travel long distances.

Central to a CBL programme is an online learning portal with personal pages for each trainee. This

learning tool gives access to one-on-one online coaching and feedback, virtual electronic class

rooms, online videos and seminars, articles and documentation, tests and assignments. Regular

class room training can also be an integrated part of a CBL programme.



Advantages of Cohesive Blended Learning

• The main advantage of CBL is that the trainee can learn at his/her chosen time and location. It is

entirely flexible as it is an electronic format of learning;

• Secondly, CBL offers the possibility of personal online coaching and feedback by a tutor, through

the learning platform or through services such as Skype or Google Hangouts. This enables the

training course to become more personal and geared towards individual needs of trainees;

• Thirdly, CBL caters for small groups, from one country or from different countries, to work

together in a training programme. This enables a group of trainees to interact, discuss and learn

from each other while pursuing a professional development goal. As this is all done in an

electronic environment it is a tailor-made response to the needs of the participating

organisation;

• CBL is relatively inexpensive, due to savings on travel and the lack of necessity to make

reservations for class room and lunch accommodation;

• Trainees are able to pursue the training course either individually or in an (international) group

with colleagues from all over the world;

• Trainees save time on travelling and waiting for other trainees to arrive, and can therefore focus

all their time on the CBL programme;



How does Cohesive Blended Learning work?

CBL programme trainees will gain access to an online learning environment which leads them to

their personal page from which the programme will be attended. Once logged on to the system, the

trainee is able to follow a training programme comprised of several modules. To ensure the quality

of CBL any CBL programme has a minimum study requirement of eight hours and is thus eligible for

a minimum of 8 CPE credit points. A study requirement of 16 hours

is common for most CBL programmes.

A CBL programme offers various training methods, such as:

• Articles and documents relevant for the training topics;

• Multiple choice and open questions;

• Case studies;

• Writing a small paper on the topic (individually or as a group);

• Personal or group coaching by the tutor.

The CBL programme is offered to an individual or a (small) group.

When a group of trainees is defined, it is possible for trainees to

interact, discuss, and collectively produce a small paper. It is also

possible that they provide mutual feedback, supervised by the tutor.

The learning portal monitors the progress of the group or trainee throughout the CBL programme.

Once the CBL programme is completed, a certificate will be issued based on which the trainee(s) can

claim the credit points.

(International) audit institutions in various countries decide upon the number of CPE credit points

assigned to each CBL programme. However, based on experience, we believe that a minimum of

eight CPE credit points is appropriate. The number of credit points to be awarded for each training

programme is subject to discussion and decision making by professional institutes.



Demonstration of the learning portal

Follow Danny Tan, a fictitious trainee in pursuit of the AML/CFT (Anti Money Laundering and

Countering Financing of Terrorism) Cohesive Blended Learning programme. This is intended as an

example of the several possibilities that a CBL programme offers.

Danny Tan is a 27 year old internal auditor from Singapore. He recently started at his new job as

internal auditor at ICBC Bank. For his professional development, he participates in the AML/CFT CBL

programme.

Step 1: Getting started

After signing up for the course, he receives an email with his personal password and a link to the

course website. After signing in, he is presented with the introduction page, where he reads about

the general outline and

structure of the course.



At the Discussion Centre menu, he accesses the personal introductions discussion item to write a

short introduction about himself, in order to inform his fellow course participants about his

professional background. He sees that another participant, Rachel Johnson, an internal auditor from

São Paulo, has already uploaded a short introduction about herself.



After writing and uploading his personal introduction Danny accesses the Course Objectives menu

where he learns about the course outcomes.



Step 2: The course modules

After reading the introduction and course objective sections and writing his personal introduction,

he now starts with the actual course modules. Under the Modules menu he finds a complete

overview of the course materials, exercises and tests, including his progress on the different content

items. Under the Optional Course Materials menu Danny is able to look up additional course

materials to gain more in-depth insights in topics of his interest.



Danny is able to complete the module at his own pace. He can simply save the answers to exercises,

and finish them later on. Because of his busy schedule at his new job as internal auditor at ICBC

Bank in Singapore, Danny benefits greatly from the flexible approach that this online course offers

him.

The first part of the module is concluded with a ‘test your knowledge’ quiz. The results of this test

are available as soon as all questions are answered. An explanation to each answer is included.



Step 3: Various assignments

Danny receives a notification that a new event has been added to the course Agenda. Here he is

informed about the deadline for handing in the final assignment.



When continuing with the third module of the course, Danny experiences that he does not have a

full understanding about certain aspects of one of the movies which is part of the Cohesive Blended

Learning programme.



To strengthen his knowledge about this particular subject, Danny starts a topic in the Discussion

Centre, so that he and his fellow course participants can exchange ideas. He soon finds out that

others have different understandings of the subject matter, and he decides to send his questions to

the tutor.

The tutors information is available

under the Trainers menu item.

Within a couple of days Danny receives a reply from Peter Diekman. He posts the reply on the

Discussion Centre so that his fellow course participants can read it as well. Peter joins the discussion

in order to further include his expertise in this matter.

After some time, Danny has studied all course materials and is ready to complete his final

assignment. He has some difficulty with a couple of exam questions, but he manages to answer

most questions correctly, and passes the course.



Experience a CBL programme

To experience the “look and feel” and the possibilities of a CBL programme, this brochure offers an

incomplete experience. If you would like to experience the possibilities of a CBL programme first

hand, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our contact details are listed on the last page of this

brochure.



About us

FCB Consult

Forensic Consultancy Bussum BV (FCB) was founded in 1998 and has been active in the professional

training & education business since 2000. Our company started by providing professional education

courses for Dutch registered accountants through the Royal Netherlands Institute of Registered

Accountants’ department of continuing professional education (VERA). In later years, we became

increasingly involved in so-called in-house training courses for various companies. We provide

training courses for the Institute of Internal Auditors in the Netherlands as well as in other countries

in the World. Currently, we work closely together with HRD Group in the area of professional

behavioural training with a focus on accountants, auditors and bankers.

Our company is also engaged in consulting small audit firms and internal audit departments

regarding the application of professional standards. We are specialised in the area of professional

standards, fraud, corruption and money laundering and terrorist financing.

HRD Group

Our motto ‘people develop organisations’ is at the core of our beliefs and ambitions. We allow

organisations to achieve their goals and ambitions, by developing the people who are part of those

organisations. In order to accomplish this, we work with, and develop, a wide range of tools that are

proven to be effective. In order to supplement our own expertise, we often include highly regarded

experts from outside of our organization, such as Peter Diekman from FCB.

We operate from an organisation wide perspective.

A perspective that gives insight into your growth potential

and guides you into achieving it. Your ambitions decide our

learning interventions. Our experience, knowledge and

expertise are set to work for you. That is how we achieve a

certified customer satisfaction percentage of 98%.



Conclusion

For questions and consultation please do not hesitate to contact Peter Diekman (+31 651 52 7383

[email protected]) or Nataschja Budel ( +31 618 83 3356, [email protected]).

Yours sincerely,

HRD Group | Nataschja Budel

FCB Consult | Peter Diekman

Huis ter Heide, The Netherlands

March 31, 2014

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

Brochure cohesive blended learning