How to use Social Learning in business?

The Social Learning is a way of learning based on exchange, knowledge sharing and social interaction through collaborative tools. Allowing the learner to break the isolation of the learner while making him more active, Social Learning is much more effective than the methods ofelearning traditional.

Increasingly popular, it is however not new, but the numerous digital tools available to businesses now allow them to more easily exploit the advantages of this networked learning.

So what are the right reflexes and actions to put in place to effectively use Social Learning within your company?

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Step 1: Create a cohesive community of learners

Before embarking on Social Learning, it is first necessary to define the targets of its training courses, which will then become a community of learners. There are three types of communities: communities of interest (sharing specialized information), the learning communities (with joint training and mutual assistance), and the communities of practice (sharing resources and best practices).

All members of the community should come together around the same goal, in order to strengthen their sense of belonging to the group and to promote communication. Once this community is defined, it will then be possible to choose the appropriate tools and the Social Learning strategy to be implemented.

-> What actions should be put in place?

1. Define the type of community you want to create
2. Bringing employees together by groups of common interests

Step 2: animate and mobilize the community

Creating a community will not be enough to start group work. A training manager, facilitator or community manager must mobilize members, encourage participation and be a source of motivation. It will be up to him to initiate the exchange: the group needs a trigger to set in motion.

Its mission will include:

- Introduce yourself and invite participants to do the same. To break the ice, getting to know each other better is essential.

- Start group work : it is the best way to promote exchanges between members while making them work on their training. This creates a team spirit, encourages you to invest and challenge yourself.

- Intervene regularly to take stock, encourage members to participate, support and help each other.

- Start sharing a collaborative documentary base, where everyone can contribute their resources.

-> What actions should be put in place?

1. Initiate the presentation of members
2. Start group work, events and initiatives
3. Make frequent interventions to motivate sharing and mutual assistance

Step 3: use social networks, forums or blogs to facilitate exchanges

Communication is essential to Social Learning. It is now favored by a multitude of digital tools : social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn...), messaging platforms (Whatsapp, Messenger...) and business networks (Slack, Teams, Trello...) which are ideal for promoting dynamic sharing.

That being said, Pay attention to the multiplication of exchange channels, which can lead to the division of the group and the scattering of information. To avoid this, It is possible to create a dedicated blog or a forum, accessible directly via the platform LMS : a good way to centralize exchanges and to define a place dedicated to training.

-> What actions should be put in place?

1. Define exchange channels so as not to disperse information
2. Create a forum via your training platform

Step 4: vary digital learning formats

In order for the training to remain attractive, it is important to vary the contents and their formats. Indeed, if steps 1 and 2 have been successfully completed, the cohesion of the group will be successful and some people will have created special relationships... So If participants are bored, they will tend to talk to each other and abandon their training ! To avoid this, learning formats must be varied by alternating for example:

- microlearning (short training modules of less than 5 minutes),

- webinars (intervention of a specialist then exchange with the participants),

- group activities

- virtual classrooms (videoconference between participants and trainer in conditions similar to face-to-face).

Multiplying the formats makes it possible to maintain the concentration of members and to bring the community together around its subject.

-> What actions should be put in place?

1. Designing participatory training courses
2. Varying learning formats

Step 5: opt for Gamification

There is no need to worry about this neologism: the Gamification simply means the fact ofuse game mechanics to make an action fun. It is in fact a great way to encourage participant engagement and to maintain their interest in training.

In order to create a good understanding between learners, it is better to play in groups and encourage players to collaborate. A factor of emulation and conviviality, gamification makes it possible both to facilitate learning and to develop the team spirit of the community. Good to know: some LMS offer the possibility of creating ranking tables or giving badges as part of a game launched between participants.

-> What actions should be put in place?

1. Integrate gamification into your e-learning training process
2. Make sure you have the right digital tools to integrate the game into your Social Learning program