3 Ways to Implement Social Learning in Learning & Development
Introduction
Social Learning has been a term for a long time, and is a recognized learning theory that argues that people learn from each other.
In this blog I want to move past the theoretical, and look at practical examples of social learning in action.
1. Use Social Media/Informal Communication Media
Some time ago, a popular social media website announced its intention to make the platform all about community, and encouraged people to create groups. One of the options for these groups was to host ‘social learning groups’. Hundreds of online business owners and coaches host these kinds of groups in order to educate their audiences and in some cases prime their audiences to buy their products. However, there are definite advantages in having a learning community where learners feel safe to ask questions, challenge and support each other. I have seen this first hand in running my own community online. Members help each other out and truly support each other in their learning journey. This is true even if their learning objectives are different, and even more so when they are at different stages of their journeys.
We’re also seeing a rise in the use of informal communication media – tools like Slack and Voxer have enabled teams and colleagues to keep in contact throughout the pandemic and beyond, allowing them to collaborate in a more intentional way.
2. Gamification in Learning
Rewarding and gamifying learning is often hit-and-miss. Done well, it’s an integral part of a learning experience, but done poorly it is tagged on the end of a learning module like a cheap gimmick. But intentional gamification that rewards your learners for reaching the learning objectives (i.e. a behavior change rather than just clicking through 60 slides) can be a game-changer for social learning, no pun intended!
We’re also seeing a rise in the use of informal communication media – tools like Slack and Voxer have enabled teams and colleagues to keep in contact throughout the pandemic and beyond, allowing them to collaborate in a more intentional way.
3. Using Real Life Mentors
Using real-life mentors, and not just avatars that we created in e-learning scenarios, is a great way of both rewarding those who have adopted behaviour change and developing L&D in a scalable way. Asking those who have been through a specific training to help new learners and guide them has many advantages. It means that we can reward successful learners with responsibility and hopefully duplicate their success with future learners. It allows newer learners the safe-space to take risks and make mistakes with their learning, and ensures that as we train more and more people we will still have the capacity to grow through using real-life mentors to support the L&D of an organisation.
We’re also seeing a rise in the use of informal communication media – tools like Slack and Voxer have enabled teams and colleagues to keep in contact throughout the pandemic and beyond, allowing them to collaborate in a more intentional way.