How to take your learning network to the next level

During Learning at Work Week 2018, Saffronites were thinking about what this year’s theme, ‘Networked for Learning’, meant to us all, both as individuals and at a company-wide level. We ...

The post How to take your learning network to the next level appeared first on Saffron Interactive.

How to take your learning network to the next level original post at The Spicy Learning Blog – Saffron Interactive

Why You Need a True Knowledge Sharing Culture (And What it Takes to Establish One)

Technology can be one of your greatest assets in nurturing a knowledge sharing culture.

The concept might seem simple enough, but there’s much more to establishing a knowledge sharing culture than meet the eye. You create e-learning materials with targeted learning objectives, provide your learners the resources they need to meet those objectives successfully, and let them get to work. But, effectively establishing a culture that embraces knowledge sharing requires careful organization, learners that actively participate and a strong online e-learning community.

Fostering a culture that embraces knowledge sharing is one that helps your organization fill information gaps, scale output and productivity, and stimulate the leaders within your ranks.

Using technology can be one of your greatest tools to nurturing your knowledge sharing culture, as it can help you remove communication barriers in the workplace and boosts the ease and efficiency of knowledge transfer. Making the best use of the knowledge that exists within your organization is among the many essential ingredients for business prosperity, but still, too few companies are leveraging its power by establishing a defined corporate knowledge sharing strategy.

Modern organizations understand that learning occurs through a mix of formal, informal and experiential learning (the 70:20:10 methodology). Using technology, such as an e-learning platform, that supports a blended learning approach can be critically important to bringing an effective knowledge sharing culture to life. But many organizations continue to miss the mark. In fact, many organizations have failed to provide employees with a forum or community in which they can ask questions and share their expertise. For example, a Brandon Hall Group study found that 30% of all organizations don’t have forums or communities established where their learners can contribute and absorb knowledge from their peers. Only 20% believed knowledge sharing was either effective or very effective.

Supporting knowledge sharing within the flow of work has proven to be incredibly effective. Coupling your knowledge management strategy with learning technology produces a number of measurable and actionable benefits. A learning management system can help you deliver more engaging training materials, facilitate blended learning and boost your visibility into your learners’ activities, which can help to identify skills gaps and establish strategies to close them.

The Benefits of a Knowledge Sharing Culture in an Organization

Make the most of your human assets to boost productivity and efficiency:  Because all learners should participate in your knowledge sharing experience, everyone has the chance to give and receive valuable information and insight to improve productivity and efficiency, making the best use of your human assets. Additionally, organizations can reduce their training costs because there’s less dependency on formal e-learning tactics and materials, depending instead on valuable online discussions that happen organically and other e-learning initiatives build around collaborating and learning in the flow of work.

Motivates learners to play an active role in e-learning conversations: Give learners a way to contribute to conversations, share ideas, ask questions and address the concerns of their peers. Doing so motivates learners to participate and actively engage with the e-learning materials they interact with (and improves knowledge retention!) It also provides learning administrators with a way to gather and analyze the results of existing learning activities and customize new programs based on new goals and objectives that match the future needs of an organization’s learners.  

Optimizes your e-learning feedback loop: As knowledge sharing is such a collaborative process, establishing a knowledge sharing culture gives learners direct access to peer-to-peer feedback, which also gives their managers more insight into existing knowledge or skills gaps that might exist within their teams. Management or leadership can also pass this information along to the organization’s learning and development departments to improve their e-learning courses and activities to better satisfy learner needs.

Encourages learners to put their heads together: A knowledge sharing culture enables learners to openly communicate with each other (brainstorming without limitations), giving them free reign over the sharing of opinions and experiences to inflate an organization’s collective knowledge base.

How to Achieve Learner Buy-In to Encourage a Knowledge Sharing Culture

Illustrate How Knowledge Sharing Benefits All Stakeholders Personally: The pace at which today’s organizations must operate is a symptom of the technologies that enable knowledge to be continually refreshed. This isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s a valuable resource when making the case for building out a knowledge sharing culture because it ensure that any information a learner might want to access is not only up-to-date, but also valuable to whatever their circumstances may be at any time. This means establishing the mechanisms necessary to show people how their knowledge is shared and absorbed, and what value it brings to the organization and their peers. For example, doing so can be as simple as verbalizing or writing down an idea or challenge and asking for feedback. The odds are pretty high that the idea or solution will only improve with added input from other stakeholders.

Re-think Rewards and Recognition Systems: In a knowledge sharing culture, rewards and recognition systems don’t reward individual effort and knowledge, but instead celebrate the creation of knowledge, and the sharing and re-use of that knowledge among the collective organization. Doing so effectively requires a connection between business objectives and strategies, the people involved and the factors that motivate them.

Show Your Learners What Knowledge Sharing Looks Like: Identify the people that live to learn new concepts and share their learnings with their peers. Give them roles that provide value to their efforts, and then elevate their status within your learning platform to make them “go-to” individuals when insights are needed on specific topics. Doing so creates a pattern where others will model their own behaviours after those who are elevated as subject matter experts.

Make Knowledge Sharing a Requirement of Everyone’s Job: It’s easy for people to say they don’t have time to do things. It’s a natural response to the fact that people are overworked and may struggle to match the pace at which their organization needs them to perform. Reality is, to effectively integrate knowledge sharing into your corporate culture, it must be worked into everyone’s everyday work processes and job requirements. Knowledge sharing should never be seen as an additional chore, but instead a valuable activity the benefits all within the organization. Only when including knowledge sharing in all employees’ job requirements (and even making it a part of their job description) can your organization truly create a real knowledge culture.

How to Facilitate Knowledge Sharing in E-learning

Build a One-Stop Shop Resource Library: While collective collaboration among learners is essential to the process of building a knowledge sharing culture, there will be times during their learning journey when they need quick access to information. Building an online resource library give learners the ability to enhance their knowledge and improve skills asynchronously – at their own pace. Resources will likely include online videos, simulations, infographics or online presentations. Make it easy for your learners to access their e-learning materials by deploying a learner-centric learning management system (LMS) that guides your learners along their learning path. It’s also a good idea to sort any learning materials based on different categories (or job requirements/skills) to ensure learners are always consuming content that’s directly related to expanding their roles and improving their skills.  

Identify Knowledge Sources From Within: There’s a pretty high likelihood that there’s a wealth of information to tap within your organization. The only way to do that is to provide those subject matter experts a place to share their expertise and encourage them to do so. Audience research is a great way to identify areas in which there’s significant expertise within your ranks. Use surveys, e-learning assessments and interviews to identify where your learners’ expertise lies. Most learners will have something to contribute to the development of their peers, but it’s up to L&D to determine what that expertise looks like. Once identified, encourage subject matter experts to create their own e-learning materials and share those lessons among their peers. Invite feedback and questions. Encourage discussion and opportunities to rank the quality of that feedback.

Stress The Importance And Benefits of Knowledge Sharing: You’ll likely encounter some resistance from some employees over the concept of knowledge sharing, especially those who are competitive and see their knowledge as a way to boost their own reputation within the organizational ranks. For this reason, it’s important to illustrate the benefits of contributing knowledge and idea sharing to create dialogues within the organization and promote learning.

Give Them The Motivational Nudge They Might Need

Establishing a truly effective knowledge sharing culture can’t be done overnight. Doing so takes time and buy-in from all necessary stakeholders within your organization, including subject matter experts and those with a desire to boost their chops. Knowledge sharing requires significant online learner involvement to be successful. Your learners must be ready and have the tools they need to actively engage in the process and share their experiences and expertise with their peers. Making sure these mechanisms in place is key to promoting a culture in which people are acknowledged for sharing their knowledge, and encouraging others within to start doing so as well.

The Docebo learning platform has the tools you need to establish a knowledge sharing culture to help you identify knowledge and skills gaps and unleash the expertise that lives within your organization.

START A FREE TRIAL!

The post Why You Need a True Knowledge Sharing Culture (And What it Takes to Establish One) appeared first on Docebo.

Why You Need a True Knowledge Sharing Culture (And What it Takes to Establish One) original post at Docebo

Saffron Interactive and Maternal Mental Health Alliance making sure perinatal mental health is Everyone’s Business

Saffron Interactive, award-winning digital learning technology company, has redeveloped the Maternal Mental Health Alliance website, helping to improve the delivery of vital resources to women with perinatal mental health issues. ...

The post Saffron Interactive and Maternal Mental Health Alliance making sure perinatal mental health is Everyone’s Business appeared first on Saffron Interactive.

Saffron Interactive and Maternal Mental Health Alliance making sure perinatal mental health is Everyone’s Business original post at The Spicy Learning Blog – Saffron Interactive

5 behavioural change stages to reach perfect GDPR compliance

With 25 May 2018 fast approaching, the pressure to get your GDPR compliance training in place is mounting. But, for once, Google isn’t much help. A simple search for ‘GDPR ...

The post 5 behavioural change stages to reach perfect GDPR compliance appeared first on Saffron Interactive.

5 behavioural change stages to reach perfect GDPR compliance original post at The Spicy Learning Blog – Saffron Interactive

Upskilling: The Modern Organization’s Secret Weapon

Understanding The Connection Between Upskilling, Engagement And Employee Retention

Skills are a commodity. They’re the inherent abilities that make each and every employee unique to each and every organization. And from a modern organizational perspective, those that give their employees ways to build upon an existing skill set are those that are most likely to succeed, especially given the speed at which the digitization of the enterprise has forced organizations to move.

Today’s employees enjoy a mobility like no other generation has before them, giving them the ability to come and go throughout their careers, tackling different challenges that touch on different facets of their skill sets – and at different companies. They want opportunities to develop, both personally and professionally, and are more likely to stick around companies that offer those benefits.

Problem is, that mobility can have a significant impact to a company’s bottom line, and there’s no voice louder than dollars and cents to encourage today’s organizations to move to minimize disruptions related to employee retention issues. After all, encouraging your employees to seek out new skills that satisfy the needs of your organization’s growth are not only an effective way to bump your bottom line, but also gives the employee a shot at a promotion, more money, increase workplace productivity and to become a valuable mentor of the business’s next generation.

Upskilling is more than just a buzzword. It’s a crucial tool that more of today’s organizations must consider as a way to bridge gaps related to employee engagement and retention. In fact, the labour turnover rate in the US was 20.3% in 2016, and just 40% of companies undertook specific initiatives designed to improve retention. The issue is compacted further by the fact that 33% of US employees considered themselves engaged with their positions, compared to 70% among the world’s top performing organization.

Skills are a valuable commodity to any organization. Developing those that exist from within represent an incredible opportunity for your organization to engage and retain employees, and boost your bottom line. This idea shouldn’t come as a surprise, as it’s well-known that all valuable employees want to be able to adapt to any situation or challenges their job places upon them.

Why Your Organization Needs to Upskill Its Employees

The mismatch between skills and organizational needs continues to grow, with the digitization of business to blame. On the other hand, businesses need to get better about building and developing existing employees, while making reducing their reliance on the external labour market and associated recruitment costs.

One way to do so is by tailing development to meet the organization’s skills requirements of the future and anticipating how those needs will change and continue to evolve over time. For example, developing a strategy that focuses on upskilling hard-to-fill positions might be effective in reducing turnover and retention issues, and the time it might take to fill that position should an existing employee leave.

Benefits of upskilling include:

Improved productivity: for example, if your employees don’t understand your organization’s technology well enough, they may become less productive. Upskilling with new technology is therefore crucial to the continued success of your organization.

Retention: Employees who recognize that their employers are invested in their personal growth are more likely to stick around for the long haul. If they’re given opportunities to grow, they’re more likely to be happier and more motivated to work and exceed expectations.

Customer Satisfaction: Satisfied employees have a direct impact on customer happiness.

How to Effectively Upskill and Boost Employee Retention

Establish personalized learning and development plans: aim to understand each employee’s role instead of viewing employees as a group. In an e-learning capacity, it’s vital to emphasize the value of the learning materials and why it’s important to each employees’ development. Seek out opportunities to deploy a blended learning approach, in which employees upskill with content that’s delivered in formal, social and experiential learning formats.

Doing so helps the organization identify those who may become valuable stakeholders throughout the entire process, and could eventually act as mentors or coaches for others along their learning journey. This approach also encourages learning in the flow of work by solving actual, day-to-day business challenges and then sharing the knowledge produced from solving particular issues.

Include real-life scenarios: Deploying an e-learning centric strategy to bring your upskilling goals to life requires you to offer learning opportunities that put the concepts and experience your employees will encounter into practice. Also provide opportunities to analyze and provide feedback on existing use cases within the organizations, and ask them to offer insights on opportunities for improvements. For example, if you’re looking to enhance your inbound marketing techniques, have existing employees listen to calls, get their feedback and see how their thinking could improve the process.

Don’t forget branching scenarios and gamification that center on skills: Effectively building skills in the modern age requires adding interactive online training content. Encourage upskillers to put their new skills sets into practice with branching scenarios, simulations and serious games. Try to make e-learning activities as close to real-life as possible by integrating real-world images, characters and scenarios. Employees will feel more empowered if they’re able to access their learning content when they so choose, instead of having content pushed upon them, as is the case in more formal corporate learning scenarios.

Take it one skill at a time: Don’t overwhelm learners. Do your best to understand how you can fill your skills gaps by assessing your employees’ existing abilities and compare them to the desired result. Only then should you develop your e-learning activities and content to cater to individual employee needs instead of deploying generalized exercises that might not be directly related to their upskilling exercises.

Improve retention by integrating previously acquired skills into proceeding modules – let them apply what they’ve learned!

Give them opportunities to access supplemental learning resources: This is a great way for learners to consume content that’s related not only to their upskilling activities, but also those that satisfy their personal interests. There’s always going to be the few people who want to upskill on their own time and take their abilities to the next level. Learning assets, such as blog, slide presentation, podcasts, webinars and videos are also invaluable for those struggling with their upskilling because it gives them access to additional learning content.

Aiming to Retain and Upskill Top Performers Boosts Your Bottom Line

The costs of replacing employees is significant. In fact, each time a business replaces a salaried employee, the cost of replacing him/her can be equal to 9 months salary. So, if a manager earning $40,000 leaves your organization, it might cost up to $30,000 in recruitment and training costs to replace that person.

Upskilling as a tool to encourage employee engagement and retention presents a clear benefit to not only your organization’s bottom line, but also to the well-being of your workforce, especially as it relates to performance.

They need the tools to go above and beyond, especially when it comes to skills. Doing so requires the ability to facilitate upskilling effectively via e-learning programs that centre on upskilling from the get-go.

Docebo is the only e-learning platform that combines formal, social and experiential learning with skills management to maximize learner performance. With an emphasis on blended-learning, Docebo allows you to hone your upskilling activities, identify skills gaps that need filling and establish defined learner journeys to ensure your e-learning strategy meets the needs of not only your organization, but also drives the performance and happiness of your employees.

Kickstart your upskilling activities today!

START A FREE 14-DAY TRIAL!

The post Upskilling: The Modern Organization’s Secret Weapon appeared first on Docebo.

Upskilling: The Modern Organization’s Secret Weapon original post at Docebo

Enhance Data Privacy Compliance with Multi-Version Privacy Policies in Docebo

New functionality makes it easy to meet regional data privacy compliance requirements.

As the deadline for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) fast approaches, Docebo has introduced a completely updated way for administrators to manage their privacy policies within the learning platform, which makes it easy to manage multi-version, multi-language privacy policies to meet regional data privacy compliance requirements.

As of April 28, 2018, administrators using Docebo’s learning management system (LMS) can create customized privacy policies for users to accept when they register or log into the platform, establishing and assigning multi-version policies to specific users.

This new functionality is incredibly useful, especially as it relates to GDPR and helping administrators manage their regulatory compliance within the Docebo learning platform.

How to Activate the Privacy Policy Globally For All Domains

To manage a privacy policy, you must log into your main domain as a Superadmin.

You can access the Admin menu by clicking the gear icon in the top right corner of the Docebo interface, then  clicking the Advanced Setting item and accessing the Users tab. In the Options section, you must flag the “Privacy Policy MUST be accepted” option, and press “Save Changes.”

You have now activated the privacy for all of your subdomains. Depending on the requirements of different users across different domains, you can turn that specific privacy policy on or off. Local setting will take priority over the global configuration of your privacy policy, so any settings you’ve configured for that subdomain will override any global privacy policy settings that you’ve configured.

To manage the settings of an individual subdomain, access the Admin Menu and press the Manage sub-item in the “Multidomain” section. On the main Multidomain page, locate the subdomain in the list, then press the “gear” icon to access its settings. Reach the Privacy Policy tab, then flag the option in the first section to “Enable custom settings for this client.”

You will then see that the Privacy Policy section is no longer greyed out. Depending on how you’ve set the global settings for all domains, you can flag the option to not require a policy signature for users in this subdomain (i.e.; users won’t have to accept a privacy policy before accessing their platforms), or you can flag the “Assign a policy option.”

If you flag the second option, use the “Select a Policy” dropdown menu to assign a privacy policy for the specific multidomain. On the other hand, you can assign a privacy policy to this subdomain from the “Privacy Policy” management area of your platform. The assigned policy will be reflected in the interface of the “Privacy Policy” tab in the subdomain’s settings. Furthermore, if you assign a policy to the client in the settings area for the subdomain, it will be reflected in the interface of the “Privacy Policy.”

Once you’ve assigned a privacy policy to a subdomain, all users within that subdomain must accept that specific privacy policy to access the Docebo platform and start or continue their e-learning journey.

How to Manage Privacy Policy Versions

To access your privacy policies as a Docebo administrator, you need to access your “Admin” menu and press the “Privacy Policy” item in the “Settings” section. Your interface will display all the policies you’ve created and allow you to manage them as you need.

Policies will be organized by row, displaying the policy name, ID code, to which client the policy is assigned, when the last update to the policy was made, and the version of that policy. When you need to edit an existing privacy policy, a new version is created when you edit any field or content outside of the policy’s title. If you update only the policy’s title, a new version will not be created, as that field is only visible to administrators (Superadmins). Assigned users will have to accept any new versions of any privacy policy before they can access their platform again.

One thing to note is that if any existing privacy policy is deleted, its tracking history is also deleted. Administrators will not be able to access any history regarding the privacy policy from their privacy policy reports. The users of those subdomains will be asked to accept the default privacy policy upon their next login. You can also re-assign these clients to a new privacy policy that you’ve created and stored.

Multi-Version Privacy Policies in Multiple Languages

When you create or edit a policy in your platform’s default language, the language fields are mandatory. But, when adding content in a language that is not your platform’s default, the fields are not mandatory, so if you don’t populate a field in one of the additional languages, it will appear to users in the default language instead of appearing blank.

For example: if your platform’s default language is English, you will need to fill out every field of the privacy policy in English. If you then decide to create content of the same policy in French, but don’t fill out the acceptance message, your learners’ platforms set in French will see the privacy policy acceptance message in English.

Managing Sub-Policies

If a sub-policy or additional acceptance messages to a privacy policy are required, administrators can press the “Add Sub-Policy” button in the “Sub-Policy” section when creating or editing their privacy policy. This option is especially useful if you needs your learners to accept additional options when accepting the privacy policy, such as allowing user data to be viewed by a third party system or subscribing to newsletters.

You will then need to insert a sub-policy acceptance message into the available text field and flag if it’s mandatory or not. If a sub-policy is set to mandatory, users won’t be able to access their platform until they’ve accepted the sub-policy.

Assigning and Unassigning Policies to Subdomains

Docebo users are able to assign privacy policies to specific sub-domains. This means that one domain may have a different privacy policy than a different domain, which is useful if your sub-domains are populated by branches divided by users in different offices, countries or regions, and need to agree to different terms and conditions to use the platform. Specifically, this function is Specifically, this function is particularly useful to ensure your data collection activities within your learning platform are compliant to regional data privacy requirements, such as GDPR.

You can create individual privacy policies for users in different countries, but doing so requires users to create an organizational chart that separates users into branches per country and assigning those branches to specific multi-domain client. Then, administrators can create a privacy policy for each client and assign individuals policies to their corresponding client.

Can You Update Your Privacy Policies?

Absolutely. Once an administrator has created a privacy policy, any of the fields can be updated later. Doing so will, however, create a new version of the policy. All versions of each of your privacy policies can be tracked and viewed when managing them. Each time a new version is created and published, all users must re-accept the privacy policy the next time they log into their learning platform.

Tracking Users Who Have Accepted Your Privacy Policy

Docebo administrators are able to view a dedicated report in their learning platform related to privacy policies (the Privacy Policy dashboard). The dashboard allows you to view the acceptance status of every user, the timing in which they’ve answered the privacy policy, and other details related to their interaction with corresponding privacy policies. This dashboard is extremely helpful when determining and managing regulatory compliance, especially if you’ve deployed multi-version privacy policies across multiple geographies and multiple regulatory compliance requirements.

GDPR Compliance and Your Learning Platform Privacy Policy

The GDPR significantly alters the ways organizations must handle personal data, and this is no different within your LMS.

Among the many new rights for data subjects in GDPR, the following will apply to your LMS:

• The right of access: Data subjects have the right to access any personal data and to be aware of and verify the lawfulness of that data’s processing.
• The right to rectification: Gives that learner access to their collected data if they notice something is inaccurate or incomplete.
• The right to be forgotten: data subjects can have their information removed or deleted if it’s proven that there is no compelling reason for a business to continue processing any of that information.
• The right to data portability: Data subjects can obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services to move, copy or transfer personal data from one IT environment to another safely and securely, without hindering usability.
• The right to object: GDPR gives LMS users the right to object to having any personal data used for direct marketing, profiling or processing for research or statistics. That means you must give LMS users a mechanism to opt-out of marketing communications any time you request their personal data. You will need to include explicit mentions of any other reasons for collecting personal data on your LMS.
• The right not to be subject to automated individual decision-making resulting in decisions having legal or significant effects: Any processing activity that is wholly automated and leads to decisions that impact individuals in a significant way is prohibited unless such processing can be justified on one of three bases set out as exceptions under Article 22(2), namely: performance of a contract, authorised under law, or explicit consent.

The most common way to provide this information is in a privacy notice. Under GDPR, Docebo customers are known as data controllers. Our new privacy policy feature allows data controllers to:

1. Include all information required by GDPR in their privacy notices and to apply relevant best practices. Users are able to easily define and maintain security policies that detail your organization’s personal data-handling best practices concisely and transparently. Your policy is also easily accessible, should be written in clear and plain language and can be translated in the user’s own language.
2. Provide an effective way to define and maintain data privacy policies and procedures for obtaining consent in accordance  with the GDPR.

Why This is so Important?

The GDPR significantly alters requirements related to the collection and treatment of personal data. Among the many requirements, transparency and providing access to individual information are among the most important. That means being transparent and providing accessible information to individuals about how you will be using their personal data, which is a key element of both the Data Protection Act (US) and the GDPR. Docebo’s multi-version, multi-checklist privacy policy functionality is a key tool for Docebo users to ensure data privacy regulatory compliance.

Docebo has the mechanisms you need to ensure your learning platform’s GDPR compliance. Ready to give it a try?

START A FREE TRIAL!

The post Enhance Data Privacy Compliance with Multi-Version Privacy Policies in Docebo appeared first on Docebo.

Enhance Data Privacy Compliance with Multi-Version Privacy Policies in Docebo original post at Docebo

What is Social Learning (And How to Adopt it)

Social learning can help today’s organizations keep up with the pace at which their business moves

More and more, organizations are turning to social learning to deliver exciting e-learning experiences to their employees, customers and partners. The concept is more than just a buzzword, and is now increasingly used by forward-thinking organizations to foster collaborative learning and its application in the flow of work to drive organizational performance and the effectiveness of L&D activities.

While, there remains a need for formal training environments to meet specific learning outcomes, but the necessity for organizations to leverage platforms that enable social and informal learning, where learners network, share, collaborate and exchange ideas to solve problems, is paramount.

Man is by nature a social animal, which is why social interactions are crucial to our development at every stage of our lives. Learning is all about the interactions we have across all facets of our lives: we talk to people, we listen to what they’re saying, and then aim to apply or consider the insights that person is bestowing upon us (and vice-versa).

For organizations, the ability to formalize the informal knowledge that exists within their ranks, and rewarding their best contributors for doing so, boosts engagement and encourages more knowledge sharing. At the end of the day, those contributions deliver more insights and knowledge into a repository designed to develop an already skilled workforce and improve the performance of the business.

Today, delivering truly effective and engaging learning experiences that amplify the success an organization’s learning strategy are crucial to a business’ bottom line. Deploying social learning concepts and technologies as part of the learning mix is no longer an option, it’s a necessity.

Need proof?

• Social learning approaches have a 75:1 ROI ratio compared to formal web-based training
• 82% of businesses that use social learning tools want to increase their use them in the future
• Course completion increased to 85% on HBX, a Harvard Business School online education initiative when it introduced social learning
• Semiconductor manufacturer, AMD, says their shift to social learning saves more than US$250,000 per year in web-based training production costs.

What is Social Learning?

Social learning is based on a theory developed by psychologist Albert Bandura that proposes learning is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context and occurs purely through observation or direct instruction, even in the absence of motor reproduction or direct reinforcement.

Consider the social aspects of our everyday lives. Today, we learn by watching, listening and doing; by blending visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles to understand new concepts, retain that knowledge and apply them to everyday challenges, at work and at home.

This is social learning. The approach abandons traditional learning models, favoring a more common sense, real-life approach to learning. Compared to traditional formal learning techniques, social learning focuses on how we interact with our peers for just-in-time learning and skill acquisition – a maxim of the 70:20:10 learning framework. The methodology suggests that about 70% of someone’s learning happens via on-the-job experiences, 20% through interactions with their peers, and just 10% in traditional, instructor-led classroom environments.

There are a number of modern social learning tools powered by technology, including social networks and the software we use everyday to communicate and interact with people across our personal and professional lives. For example, Docebo’s “Coach & Share” module creates an integrated environment for organizations where their people can meet and communicate seamlessly, but also ask questions, give answers and then rate the value of their experience.  

Leveraging social learning with e-learning content is the new norm: forward-thinking organizations that want to drive engagement with their L&D activities, leading to positive growth in job and organizational performance. Moreover, social learning manifests in-demand informal learning settings where learners collaborate, share and exchanges ideas to solve problems.

Why Does Social Learning Matter?

In traditional learning environments, most people recall only 10% of the information taught within 72 hours. Consider the impact that lack of knowledge retention could have on your organization. For example, a salesperson may have trouble recalling the lessons they learned from an annual sales kickoff event by the next week. That could cost the sale and have a negative impact on your bottom line. Not good, right?

Social learning helps organizations reverse these kinds of potential outcomes. After all, one of the concept’s main goals is to drive knowledge retention. Instead of relying on traditional models with low recollection rates, social learning encourages learning in working environments and allows learners to pull knowledge from experts within the organizations instead of having knowledge pushed on them (like a formal learning system would).

Simply speaking, people learn by example and by direct experiences. That’s why it’s easy to understand why 73% of companies surveyed by the Brandon Hall Group expect to increase their focus on social learning. The same research concludes that social learning approaches delivers a 75:1 ROI ratio compared to web-based formal training to unlock and spread knowledge across an organization.

Enterprises and Social Learning

We know now that social learning takes place through interaction between peers, naturally in the workplace, but it’s also encouraged by social learning tools, such as Learning Management Systems (LMS).

We must also consider how social learning can impact talent retention. Since we all are social beings, we also need to feel part of a group. When we share our knowledge, by teaching something to someone else, we naturally feel like we’re part of something bigger. By coincidence, this is how organizations can improve employee satisfaction, engagement and their attachment to the company itself.  

For enterprises, there are several reasons to adopt social learning in the workplace, including:

• Shorter orientation times for new hires: It can take up to 2 years before an employee is “fully productive.” For some employees, they may require as long as 6 months to simply feel fully comfortable in their new position. Social learning accelerates this process by acclimating new hires to their peers and internal subject matter experts quickly, encouraging them to feel comfortable asking questions and creating connections across the entire organization more effectively.
• It promotes constructivism: Constructivism is a standard that promotes learning as an active and constructive process in which learners become teachers. It assists in creating a workforce full of stakeholders that are engaged with their training as a result of informally training their peers.
• It improves communication in the workplace: Communication should be clear in every workplace, at every level of the organization. It can be easy to lose meaning over email and other electronic communications, increasing the need for face-to-face interactions. Social learning facilitates collaboration organically, especially in an e-learning environment, in which insights are shared and valued across the entire organization.

Bandura and Walters’ Description of Social Theory

People learn by observing the behaviour of others, their attitudes and the outcomes of their behaviours. Albert Bandura hypothesized that social learning spans the gap between behaviourism and cognitivism. To break that down simply would be to suggest that social learning theory explains how we learn when we are in social contexts – that people learn from their environment via observation, imitation and modeling.

Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences. Bandura‘s intention was to explain how children learn in social environments by observing and imitating the behaviour of others. He believed learning could not be fully explained via simple reinforcement, but instead that the presence of other people in learning experiences was also incredibly influential on learning outcomes.

Need an example of this concept in a modern sense? Consider the explosive popularity of websites such as YouTube. Users upload their own content, on whatever topic they choose, and their credibility is determined by the popularity and rating of that video from those within the YouTube community.

“Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.” – Albert Bandura

Bandura’s 4 Principles Of Social Learning

Bandura formulated four principles of social learning.

1. Attention: We can’t learn if we aren’t focused on the task at hand. If we believe something as being novel or different, it’s more likely that that concept becomes the focus of our attention. Social contexts reinforce these perceptions.

2. Retention: Humans learn by internalizing information. We recall learned information when we need to respond to a situation similar to the situation in which we first learned that information.

3. Reproduction: We reproduce previously learned information (behaviour, skills, knowledge) when required. Practice through mental and physical rehearsal generally improves responses.
4. Motivation: We need motivation to do anything. More often than not, humans are motivated by someone else being rewarded or punished for something they have said or done. This generally motivates us to do, or avoid doing, the same thing.

Social Learning Theory

Social learning theorists Bandura and Walters describe social learning theory as follows:

• Learning is not purely behavioural, but instead a cognitive process that takes place in a social context. It is why learners prefer to learn in groups, in which an interchange of knowledge and perspective create new knowledge personal to individual learners.
• Learning occurs by observing a behaviour and then observing the consequences of putting those behaviours into action
• Learning involves observation, extraction of information from those observations, and making decisions based on the expected output or performance of that behaviour. Therefore, it would suggest that learning can occur without any observable changes in behaviour.
• Reinforcement plays a significant role in learning, but is not entirely responsible for it
• Learners are not passive recipients of information, but instead, cognition, environment and behaviour all influence each other (reciprocal determinism).

Benefits of Social Learning in The Workplace

While social learning has its roots in the beginnings of human history, it’s only now becoming so popular (especially among corporations) because technology has caught up to the point that its benefits are measurable and able to address common concerns related to its efficacy in the workplace.

Social learning technologies now have a huge impact on a number of core enterprise processes, including recruiting, onboarding, training and developing talent. The best thing for organizations is that the results are quickly measurable, as social technologies have a direct and obvious effect on performance.  

As more learning opportunities present themselves in the workplace, a collaborative social learning environment establishes opportunities for troubleshooting, problem solving, design implementation, research and development, and innovation to find answers, even in the absence of a coach or mentor.
In an ideal world, a result of this would be an improvement in workplace productivity, while those within the organization constantly develop.

How to Adopt Social Learning in The Workplace

Here’s a few ways social learning can be introduced to the workplace. It’s important to remember that social learning is not necessarily about learning in groups, but rather learning through the example of others.

FAQs and Forums: Create a simple place (or forum) where employees can ask questions and get answers from within the organization to promote a social culture of collaborative learning.

Organization Wikis: An interorganizational wikipedia is a great source of knowledge, especially for new employees or those who aren’t familiar with every facet of the organization. Allow subject matter experts to edit Wiki content as it is critical to keep information relevant and up-to-date, and encourage users to pull that information whenever they need it.

Leverage Expert Knowledge: There is undoubtedly people within your organization that have questions and people with the experts answers to those question. Create communication channels where experts can use their knowledge to help others, and encourage users and other experts to rate answers, making sure that only the best ones are used (and shared).

Gamification and rewards: You can’t force people to learn, but you can give them the right tools and incentives to make sure they don’t waste opportunities. Gamification and rewards can help create these incentives. Gamification gives learning administrators a way to provide a way to track learner progress and performance. Well-performing users and experts who regularly offer their knowledge can be rewarded to incentivize participation.

How to Make Social Learning Effective in The Workplace

 Today, organizations that learn together, grow together.

 Social learning is arguably the most widely used learning strategy among adult learners. By sharing performance experiences, lessons learned, solutions to business challenges and the creative ideas needed to solve them, learners are able to gain a wider spectrum of knowledge within a social learning environment.

 Make onboarding faster (and easier): new employees can get answers to questions from their peers at any time, starting from day one. Better than that, scheduled training can happen anytime, so your new people don’t have to wait for it to start being productive.

Ask questions and get answers at the point of need: Asking questions and testing solutions on actual problems in real time is among the most effective ways to learn a procedure.

Get them to contribute! (even if someone’s a passive learner): not everyone’s over-the-moon about the idea of having to get in front of their peers to ask a question. With virtual channels, you can give those who are a little more shy a way to contribute to the conversation without making them step out of their comfort zone.

Learn in your own time: not everyone learns at the same pace. If answers to particular questions are available online at any time, they can be reviewed over and over again until the concept is retained effectively.

Create a Community of Coaches (or just take part in whatever capacity you want): everyone in the organization is an expert in a particular area of the organization. Everyone should be encouraged to take part in a discussion, at any level. Encourage employees to engage freely and develop knowledge that makes them experts across various facets of the business.

Show off your talent: if the organization is creating expertise, that knowledge should be shared. Make note of contributions by senior team members, or experts, that can be facilitated and encouraged by an environment that rewards top performances with measurable recognition – doing so can go along way in growing talent within the organization.

Social Learning Features Available in Docebo LMS

 Formal learning accounts for only a fraction of learning. That was one the main drivers behind Docebo’s development of Coach & Share, its social learning module based on the 70:20:10 learning framework. Coach & Share is an extension of our core LMS, Learn, not only giving organizations a new way to deliver their material, but also giving them a way to shift their learning culture and transform it into an opportunity for personal growth with social learning.

With “Coach & Share”, Docebo has created an integrated environment where people within any organization can seamlessly meet, communicate and exchange knowledge. They can ask question, gets answers, and rate the value of their experience. Within the Coach & Share ecosystem, content is made available to everyone within the organization, giving them a way to formalize the informal knowledge people across the entire business have, and then reward their best contributors and give them a reason to be engaged and motivated to share and absorb knowledge – thus, improving performance across the entire business.

The best part? Docebo’s social learning capabilities give you a way to established a semi-structured approach to collaborative learning, building virtual communities that encourage your learners to contribute to idea forums and curate new knowledge into an organization-wide knowledge centre that acts as a main ideas repository that can be added to and tapped for years to come.

• Engage your Company Experts
• Transfer knowledge by letting employees contribute
• Make learning fun with gamification

Adopting Social Learning Just Makes Sense

Moving to a social learning framework can be as simple as a click-of-a-button. But technology is only half of the story. To effectively deploy a social learning strategy that works, the organization must recognize and adapt to a shift in culture, in which L&D is transformed from a necessary evil to an opportunity for personal and professional growth. This is particularly true among organizations that suffer from employee engagement and retention issues.

Social learning isn’t a one-size-fits-all fix to your e-learning issues, but it does produce benefits that go beyond the effectiveness of your learning strategy. Today, social learning in the workplace isn’t an option, it’s a necessity.

Want to see how technology can help your develop a social learning strategy and bring it life?

START A FREE TRIAL!

The post What is Social Learning (And How to Adopt it) appeared first on Docebo.

What is Social Learning (And How to Adopt it) original post at Docebo

Benefits of eLearning Compared to Instructor Led Training [ILT]

Technology is evolving at a faster rate today than it did 20 years ago. With this, the traditional skill set for the common worker is facing obsoletion. People are striving to study more to complete for education. They must compete to get better jobs so they can earn more. Today, technology-based jobs are taking over employment. This need has helped facilitate the development of online training courses and options for delivering the training. While some companies have yet to embrace the benefits of eLearning, there is evidence that modern eLearning technologies are taking over the delivery for higher education and employee training. Here are some of the benefits of eLearning.

eLearning Flexibility

Not everyone can afford taking time from their life or their desk at work to attend a regularly scheduled class in a classroom. Furthermore, some situations require learners to take the course and study at their own pace. With eLearning, learners can take training in their own language and at a time that is convenient for them or their employer. These are just some of the aspects of eLearning flexibility. This flexibility enhances the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of professionals around the world. Learning can be conducted anywhere, anytime, and for the busiest of people.

Consistency of eLearning

The human aspect of interacting with other people when learning new concepts cannot be underestimated. However, it is a well-known fact that people make mistakes. Human error is a factor to consider. Even if there isn’t necessarily any mistakes or errors, an instructor will not teach the exact same way, using the exact same words or methods for each different class. With eLearning, each learner is consistently given the exact same online training. Learning Management Systems (LMSs) can help achieve this consistency by delivering the same training material and experiences to every learner, every time. This simply means that the learning objectives of learners can be consistently matched against compliance and completion.

Updated Materials

Some industries, such as technology, medicine, and energy, keep evolving. This is typically due to ongoing research or regulation. Therefore, concepts that had been taught as benchmark truth only a few weeks ago could become outdated in a very short period of time. If the training material is not kept up to date, professionals in the company, country, or even the world would be learning and operating on outdated or possibly obsolete information. eLearning is a technology that can be the link between current information and learners. This ensures that the everyone has the opportunity to have current and relevant information regarding their job, skill, regulation, or technology. Additionally, it creates the opportunity for refresher courses with updated material. This is great if the need for continuous training and communication is required.

eLearning is Cost Efficient

Cost efficiency is relative and in this context, we are comparing it to Instructor Led Training. The cost of having several human instructors standing in a classroom teaching 10 to 30 students at a time to deliver knowledge can also be very time consuming. In addition to the cost for a physical classroom and facilities, the time required to teach students can be enormous. Furthermore, imagine if you had new company policies or production methods and needed to train 10,000 employees. Now only that, but you have to train them by the end of the quarter. This would be extremely difficult to do with Instructor Led Training (ILT). However, eLearning makes it possible to pass on knowledge quickly, efficiently, and to as many people as needed. In some instances, you could train all 10,000 employees in just a single day.

Conclusion – Benefits of eLearning

From these examples, it is clear that there are many Benefits of eLearning compared to Instructor Led Training. eLearning technology is very flexible and can be implemented to suit any company’s training needs. It also helps keep the training consistent for the students or employees taking it. eLearning is easy to update using a Learning Management System (LMS) and extremely cost efficient compared to traditional Instructor Led Classroom Training. It is no surprise that more organizations are implementing eLearning technology.

Do you have any additional Benefits of eLearning that YOU would like to add? Give us your comments below:

The post Benefits of eLearning Compared to Instructor Led Training [ILT] appeared first on E-Learning Consultant - E-Learning Engineer, ISD, and Developer.

Benefits of eLearning Compared to Instructor Led Training [ILT] posted first on https://www.InstructionalEngineer.com