One way
A classroom course
Every subject delivered back-to-back inside a single scheduled event.
A practical guide
How to organise and control the activities that apply learning
L&D's biggest challenge is how to organise and control all the activities that people need to do beyond courses and content to apply learning and achieve performance improvement.
This is a practical guide on how you can extend formal training to ensure it is applied. We will see digital experiences that enable practice, exploration and the development of capability in the workplace:
- On-the-job tasks and real-world assignments
- Evidence-based assessment of performance
- Involvement from line managers who can support and confirm performance achievement
- Review and feedback sessions with peers, coaches and mentors
- Collaborative team projects with peer review
Together they give you clear mechanisms to track application and measure results.
AI Coaching built-in
Real on-the-job task
What this means for you
Learning that gets applied
Every course flows into real workplace tasks, coaching and practice, in the flow of work, not forgotten after the event.
Stay connected to your people
L&D keeps guiding and supporting learners long after the classroom closes, with the right activity at the right moment.
Impact you can prove
Evidence, peer review and manager sign-off replace attendance records, so you can show measurable performance change.
Start from the ground up
What a learning workflow is actually made of
A learning workflow in this approach can be viewed as three levels: activities grouped under subjects, subjects linked into a workflow. Let’s start with the activities and see how they build up to a learning workflow.
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01
The activity
The building block
The smallest building block is a single activity: an interactive experience.
Each activity engages the learner straight from the screen, eg booking a coaching session, uploading evidence of a real workplace task, joining a virtual classroom, or recording a role-play straight to camera.
Each activity has visual and written descriptors to clearly show the learner what and why they are doing it.
Meet your Coach 
On-The-Job Assignment 
Role-Play to Camera Just three of many activity types: classroom, e-learning, video, assignment, coaching, feedback, collaboration, reflection and more.
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02
The subject
Activities, grouped
Activities can be grouped under the same subject: formal training and the performance-based activities that apply it, together in one place.
Every activity for that subject sits on a single screen, so all these activity types are in one place.
The learner sees how each activity relates to the subject and how the learning and its application combine to drive performance improvement.Row 1Formal learning
The taught content: a classroom workshop, an e-learning module, a video and a live poll.
Row 2Performance-based activities
Applying it at work: coaching, an on-the-job assignment, a peer feedback session and a reflective journal.
The full subject screen One subject, one view: every related activity grouped together, from learning through to application.
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03
The workflow
Subjects, linked
Finally, connect this subject with the others in sequence and you have a learning workflow: a single guided path that carries the learner from the first subject to the last, with every activity organised and controlled in one place.
In this guide we have used the example of a Sales negotiation programme. The approach can be applied to any intervention: Leadership, onboarding, technical, even compliance.
Subject 2 · Planning and Preparation
Subject 3 · Communicating and Influencing
Subject 4 · Analysing Negotiation Outcomes
Subject 5 · Continuous Improvement
Four more subjects, each built the same way, linked into one workflow.
A familiar starting point
How a skills development requirement is typically addressed
Take a common skills development request: build Negotiation Skills capability across the workforce. The instructional design might map several subjects to be covered:
- 1Introduction to Negotiation
- 2Planning and Preparation for Negotiation
- 3Communicating and Influencing Negotiation
- 4Analysing Negotiation Outcomes
- 5Continuous Improvement in Negotiation
Most organisations cover all five subjects in one of two ways.
Or the other
Self-paced e-learning
One module per subject that learners work through on their own. An approach reflected in most Learning Management Systems (LMS).
The problem with both approaches
In both cases, learners go back to the workplace once the subjects have been covered. There's no guided pathway to organise and support the activities that follow, and no opportunity to apply the learning where it actually matters.
A better way
A guided workflow to apply the learning
There's a better way. Instead of ending when the course is completed, L&D stays in contact with learners, not with more courses, but by guiding them to the activities that apply learning in the flow of work.
On-the-job assignments
Evidence-based assessment
Peer and coach review
Personal reflection
We call these performance-based activities. The vLearning Platform organises them alongside formal training into one continuous sequence: a learning workflow.
Negotiations Skills Workflow Example
Subject 1 of 5 · Introduction to Negotiation
8
different types of activities relating to the first subject are aligned on a single screen - so the full blend reads at a glance.
Start here: learners click on a subject in the carousel to view all the formal training and performance-based activities for that subject in one screen.
Start here
Learners click on a subject in the carousel to view all the formal training and performance-based activities for that subject in one screen.
The first subject as the learner sees it, with every activity on one page.
Subject 1
Introduction to Negotiation
Let's start with the first subject.
Across the top is the formal training: a face-to-face classroom workshop, an e-learning module, a video, and a quick poll. Below it runs a second row of performance-based activities, the tasks that help learners apply the learning back in the workplace: a coaching session, an on-the-job assignment, a peer feedback session, and a reflective journal. Formal training and application activities, organised together in one connected system.
Every activity is interactive, taking the learner directly into a Teams session, playing a video, uploading a file, taking an assessment, whatever that activity calls for.
The text for each activity can be written to maximise the appeal of the activity and sell it to the learner: why it's worth their time.
Let's look at each of those application activities in turn.
Meet Your Coach
Learners select a time to meet with their coach who can answer their questions and help them prepare for the negotiation activities.
On-The-Job Assignment
A structured assignment to identify an upcoming negotiation and prepare for it using the techniques learned. Clear objectives and desired outcomes guide learners, who must submit evidence of their preparation process.
Peer Feedback Session
After submitting their assignments, learners join an online meeting with peers to review the on-the-job assignments and gain insights on different approaches. They share experiences and identify best practices.
Update Learning Journal
Alongside these activities, learners update a learning journal. This is an online learning journal where learners capture reflections and experiences. This can be for self-reference or shared with a coach or in a review session with a line manager.
Subject 2
Planning and Preparation for Negotiation
A virtual classroom, a video and an article provide the formal learning activities. Then we look at the performance-based activities being used in this subject.
Workplace Assignment and Ask an Expert
The performance-based activities that help apply the learning are another workplace assignment supported by an Ask-an-Expert feature where the learners can pick the expert they want to speak with and book a session to ask questions about the assignment and clarify their understanding.
Discussion Board
A specific question is posed to the whole group with a discussion board where peers share experiences and answers to that question.
Self-Reflection Video
A video upload. Learners record themselves directly to their webcam or smartphone capturing their observations. A live record of their thoughts and insights around this topic.
Subject 3
Communicating and Influencing Negotiation
By the third subject, the pattern is familiar: formal training paired with performance-based activities. The formal training is a live online classroom, an e-learning module, a video and a supporting article. The performance-based activity that defines this subject is a practical role-play assessment.
Practical Role-Play Assessment
The assessment presents difficult negotiation scenarios and asks learners to role-play how they would handle them.
They are played each scenario and record their responses via webcam or smartphone, demonstrating their performance for review and feedback. A great way to capture real performance on record.
Subject 4
Analysing Negotiation Outcomes
In this subject, the formal learning is supported by a collaborative team project. The performance-based application here is working together as a team on a specified project based on real-world work that they select for themselves.
Collaborative Project
The assignment requires learners to upload and submit evidence of the completed deliverables for that project. They work in teams to create a presentation and record themselves presenting via their webcam.
Each team is asked to rank all the other teams and vote for their favourite presentation and their favourite project. So, we get a crowdsourced, peer-reviewed rating on the quality of the outputs of the work with feedback.
All four activities combine into a single connected collaboration experience:
1Manager-nominated teams
2Real-world project work
3Recorded team presentations
4Crowdsourced peer ranking
Subject 5
Continuous Improvement in Negotiation
This closing subject brings the whole workflow together: a final workshop and a resources guide close out the formal learning, a discussion invites learners to name where they still want support, and a closing coach review, a short reflective recording and a learning journal entry capture what they take forward.
One activity carries the real weight of proof. Let's look at the Post-Workflow Benchmark Assessment.
Post-Workflow Benchmark Assessment
The final subject involves a Benchmark Assessment that measures overall negotiation capability and improvement. This assessment includes:
- Self-evaluation
- Manager assessment
- Coach feedback
- Optional stakeholder input
- Comparison with pre-programme benchmarks
By comparing these results to a pre-workflow benchmark assessment, we have tangible metrics of performance change and improvement that both individuals and the organisation can use to measure the impact of the learning programme.
What you have seen
A practical approach to learning application in action
Formal training and performance-based activities in one learning workflow:
- Extending the learning journey beyond training events
- Application built into the flow of work
- Accountability through evidence, peer review and manager confirmation
- Performance improvement measured against a benchmark
L&D can demonstrate the value of each intervention with evidence rather than attendance records.
Your LMS handles classrooms and content. It was never built for applying learning.
The vLearning Platform was built for both. Formal training and learning application all in one workflow.
In summary
Learning that is applied, supported and proven
By organising formal training and performance-based activities into a single guided workflow, learning extends beyond the training event and into the flow of work, where capability is actually built. Learners stay supported by coaches, peers and managers, and progress is captured as evidence rather than attendance.
The result is a practical way to apply learning where it matters, and to measure the performance change it delivers.
Make the learning stick.