In the book, Designing for Modern Learning, Lisa M.D Owens and I identify three “learning touchpoints” that outline key places, times, and ways that learning occurs. One of these touchpoints, Social Learning, looks beyond formal, planned approaches and provides learners with a level of interaction with other people. In most face-to-face learning experiences, whether we design for it or not, social learning happens inherently.
Once the face-to-face experience ends, most learning professionals check off the proverbial “social learning” box, but modern learning doesn’t stop at the end of an event. In fact, social learning should be occurring before, during, and after a formalized social training event, and more specifically, in the modern learners’ moment of need, which are often unplanned and unintentional. While many of today’s social learning experiences are occurring informally outside of the classroom, in order to ensure truly transformative learning, modern Learning & Development professionals should grow the capability to intentionally build social learning-centered experiences.
As a part of our Publications, in our whitepaper, Building an Internal Community for Social Learning, we explore:
- What is a social learning community
- Why develop a social learning community
- How to start and maintain your social learning community
We’d love to hear from you — what questions do you have about building and maintaining social learning communities? Join the conversation on LinkedIn.
