Virtually There Session Recap

Many teams now include dispersed members. Whether your team includes employees in different buildings within the same region, or you lead a virtual team where everyone works from home, if you contribute to a global organization with groups on different continents, learning experiences can often prove to be tricky with limited face-to-face interaction.

Experienced designers and facilitators recognize the power of social learning to overcome the challenges commonplace for today’s workforce. Daila Boufford, Manager of Learning Design for Ansrsource, knows first-hand how thoughtful design which includes social learning can combat learner disengagement and improve overall team cohesion.

What steps can you take to ensure social learning success? Daila recommends three approaches.

Think about the last time you needed to learn something new. Were you sitting at your desk in your office? Standing in your kitchen trying to make dinner? Driving down the road when a new warning light popped up on your dashboard?

Like many people, when this happens to me, I ask a trusted source for their wisdom. Sometimes that’s my mom, other times it’s a colleague who seems to know the ins-and-outs of every nuanced process for my company.

This daily life process proves that humans learn socially. If we can incorporate that into our training, we not only appeal to Adult Learning Principles, but we also support learner success.

In the late 1800s, Skagen, a town at the very northern part of Denmark, was home to a group of what was then considered intellectual radicals. The group is mostly famous for painters such as P.S. Krøyer and Anna and Michael Anker and more, but other forward thinkers were involved as well. During the day these highly knowledgeable people would work on their projects, and in the evening they would gather at a hotel to eat, drink, and share ideas together. Creativity flourished and the group members became icons in Danish cultural heritage.

Social learning facilitates creativity.

As more and more training functions move to a more modern blended design, we’re integrating more models into a single program. Social learning, the process of learning from peers, is a particularly valuable option. By encouraging learners to collaborate and connect, we honor the way people have always learned: from one another. 

Despite the value of social learning, there’s a stigma. How do you measure results of this format, and other informal learning treatments? How do we make sure learners share accurate information?

To help you get buy-in from stakeholders, learners, and your L&D peers alike, Jennifer Hofmann answered some of the most common social learning questions.

When we introduce a new topic, we often start with a webinar. The ubiquitous technology and common virtual classroom delivery format seems to be an easy way to engage, and teach, a large audience in a short time.

We know the webinar format has its challenges. Generally, potential learners enroll with the best intentions of attending, but understand that a recording will be available if there is a scheduling conflict. Many of us have an email folder containing link after link after link of webinar recordings that we hope to watch one day, when we have the time.

And when learners do attend a live session, they automatically put themselves into a “listen only” mindset; intending to multitask their way through the session with the hope that they will pick up the important points. They don’t have an expectation that they need to participate to absorb the content.

I learn best when I learn with others. When I have someone there (physically or virtually) with me sharing the experience, I know it makes a difference. I want (I would go as far as saying “need”) to have conversations threaded into my learning to make it stick. 

Yes, I am a very social person, and I thrive on conversation and collaboration. I also understand that not everyone is like me, and social learning is not meant for every learner in every situation. So, when does social collaboration make sense?

Let’s go back to those 5 moments of learner need, and explore where social collaborative learning would benefit our learners during each individual moment.

We have explored some new language of learning definitions this week, so let’s continue our exploration by defining a few different instructional strategies that we use on a regular basis to design, develop, deliver, produce, and facilitate our modern learning campaigns. 

Instructional strategies are the approaches that we use in the design, development, and delivery of learning to engage our students in learning experiences. We choose these strategies based on what, how, where, and when we want our learners to learn. 

On Fridays, this blog series will explore YOU as a modern learner. This doesn't just happen: becoming a successful modern learner means taking an active role in creating, curating, and maintaining your Personal Learning Network (PLN). 

Last week, I discussed how to design your personal learning path, using foundational instructional design techniques. Part of that approach is to identify the experts, websites, social media channels, and other resources that will comprise your Personal Learning Network, or PLN. 

When we talk about the modern learning experience it’s important to remember that we are all modern
learners. It’s easy to lose sight of that fact when we spend our days designing learning experiences for others. You have a choice in how you learn, just like the learners you're developing and designing training content for. 

Social learning has been happening forever. People learn first, and best, from one another. Think about it: apprenticeship models have taught people trades for centuries, and oral history has imparted age-old wisdom within societies since the early days of humanity. Even though social learning is not a new concept, technology influences how the process occurs in workplace training programs.

Social Learning in Training

While it’s possible, and important, to support the possibility of social collaboration in our training programs, it’s not something you make people do. Rather, the process of social learning happens naturally and spontaneously.