Technology-mediated learning paradigm and the blended learning ecosystem: what works for working professionals?

While the need to continually reskill and upskill is universally acknowledged by working professionals and organizations, the constraints of location, time and antiquated learning formats prove to be significant hurdles in any learning endeavor. In such a scenario, blended learning has emerged as a viable and increasingly popular option among working professionals. This research paper analyses the conceptual and contextual relevance of blended learning for working professionals and makes three notable contributions. Firstly, it develops a learning paradigm relevant to working professionals, whose learning needs are context-centric, skills-focused, situation-specific, peer-dependent and action-oriented. Secondly, the paper operationalizes this learning paradigm through an integrative framework, the blended learning ecosystem. And fmally, the paper summarizes institutional, faculty-related, student-specific and pedagogical variables considered as key success factors for effective blended learning experience. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.