Social learning is defined as learning with and from others. Social learning could be about acquiring knowledge on any topic and in any environment – while conversing casually with friends, colleagues, or through social media like Facebook or Twitter.
This kind of collaboration has had a positive impact and has revolutionized the way people perceive things in their everyday lives. Not surprisingly, some organizations have managed to leverage this strategy to improve employee training.
A social learning lms provides the most practical way to imprint learning the long-term memory of learners. Possible example uses of the feature are;
1. Peer learning; sharing different opinions in an intimate forum.
2. The incorporation of multimedia; recording videos to share different ways of doing things.
3. Cooperating in group tasks.
Social learning has become part of the learning strategies in the corporate world. This is not without reason since 82% of businesses are using social technology and want to utilize them.
A study by Harvard Business School shows online course completion rate rose to 85% after the introduction of social learning.
A Stanford research showed that 45% of physicians used a medical photo-sharing app with fellow doctors for patient care-related information.
Cisco’s adoption of social learning saw nearly 98% employee adoption in the first year, of which 80% of content was socially generated.
AMD, the semiconductor manufacturer, has declared that it has saved nearly 50,000 annually towards the cost of Web-training by adopting social learning strategies for its employees.
It does not need to be used as a stand-alone piece. Instead, it can be used as part of the bigger learning ecosystem by combining formal, informal learning, and social learning. This can be made more robust by having performance support elements.
A learning ecosystem should help learners:
A social learning portal should be a platform that helps organizations foster a collaborative work environment, encourage team interaction, and provide a medium to offer/receive on-the-job assistance.
Here are some essential features of a social learning portal:
However, social learning is often misconstrued as a fad. Here are some of the common misconceptions about this strategy:
Social learning can be beneficial to the entire organization if the right strategy is applied. One can use several interaction formats and implement best practices. However, the key to learner engagement and interaction is the implementation of a learning strategy.