The world is going through a huge transformation and for large groups of people to adapt to the change, it is important for them to learn about them. Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, there is a huge change in the way society is functioning. After countries around the world banned social gatherings to control the spread of the virus, important institutions that play significant roles in the society had to be shut down or function differently. This has caused a lot of businesses a great amount of loss and forced them to change their processes.
Emergence of eLearning
Even in the education sector, after schools, universities and other training institutions have not been allowed to run in a regular manner. New innovations have come into the spotlight to regulate learning without hindrance. eLearning, which was criticized earlier for its lack of human element has now become the savior of the education sector. Software like Virtual Classroom Systems, Learning Management Systems, Digital Libraries amongst others, are being adopted by various institutions every day and the numbers are increasing.
According to Guide2Research,
“By 2021, the global LMS and eLearning markets will increase to $15.72 billion. In 2020, the mobile learning market will be worth $38 million. In the forecast period 2020 to 2024, the global corporate LMS market size is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23%, with a revenue of $12.48 billion.”
It can be said that the world will fully digitalize in the coming future and it is important for everyone to learn about the new developments. One of the most exciting subjects in learning technologies is Social Learning. A learning management system can be used for social learning experiences. Companies can adopt an LMS system for Social Learning to enhance performance for faster growth in the market.
What is Social Learning?
According to Wikipedia,
“Social Learning is defined as learning through the observation of other people’s behaviors. It is a process of social change in which people learn from each other in ways that can benefit wider social-ecological systems.”
Social learning can help in better performance of employees in organizations. It helps in building stronger communication between the employees to create an environment where ideas and opinions can be conveyed without hesitation for better performances. This will also keep employees motivated to engage in projects with enthusiasm.
What is a Learning Management System?
According to Valamis,
“A learning management system, (LMS) is a software that is designed specifically to create, distribute, and manage the delivery of educational content. The LMS can be hosted as a stand-alone product on the company server, or it can be a cloud-based platform that is hosted by the software firm.”
A Learning Management System is a software application that provides online training along with the required educational content. This system helps in facilitating training and tracking the online progress of the trainees, making the learning process facile. You can chart out the role of an LMS as per the goals of the company. An LMS can also have some integral tools to make the creation of online training mediums easier.
LMS for Social Learning: Here’s how an LMS can be utilized for Social Learning
Gamification
This feature in the Social LMS works like positive reinforcement for the users. To increase the engagement rates of your LMS, it is important to give your users something in return. Your users get points and grades to level up in the leader board where they will be seeing how others are doing in comparison to them. This helps in creating a healthy competitive environment that will encourage your users to participate in learning more effectively. Users can win points and grades by completing tasks as simple as logging in or taking a short assessment. This will give your users the motivation to reap the benefits of LMS and also perform better. Here are some ideas for gamification for better learning.
Content Ratings and Comments Section
Allow your users to connect with the admin to get proper feedback for their content. A comment section would help them appreciate or even give pointers for improvisation on the content of the course. Admins can even reply to the comments, answer queries, and see how impactful their content is. This will help in making the learning and teaching experience easy and more effective. Feedback can help in improvising content to see what is working and what is not.
Live Chat for Private Conversations
Sometimes a lot of users in a learning environment have questions about the course that they want to ask privately. It is a good idea to provide your users with a personal chat forum that will let them contact any specific person they want to send a message to. In a work environment, this will help the learners personalize their learning to make it more effective. They can easily discuss projects or assessments with their fellow learners and take guidance.
Sharing Content for Users
Allow your users to share informative content on the platform. It is always a good idea to let the users take interest in the course subjects and share information in a personalized manner. Let the users share links or their thoughts on a specific topic. Even share any queries if they want to know the opinions of the other users. This will help in making the system more open and interactive.
Discussion Groups
Let your users participate in discussion groups to talk about various topics. The admin can create discussion groups based on interesting topics and the users can share their opinion on the same. This will help in engaging users in informative debates, Ideas, and sharing their knowledge of subjects. Users can also join the groups that specifically interest them. Through this, you can easily create highly productive groups that can put their best skills into important projects.
Mobile Optimization
Creating an app for your LMS will increase user engagement. Since everyone has a smartphone, it will make it easier for your users to access the system from anywhere at any time. The reason why social media apps are very engaging is that it allows accessibility through mobile phones. If your LMS app uses an interface that is as easy as using any popular social media apps, your users will use it more frequently.
Conclusion
A Learning Management System can not only help a business in upskilling their employees in the required field but can also provide social learning experiences. There are many LMS for social learning in the market and it is important to choose the one that will provide your users with an engaging learning experience. Skilled workers always provide the best performance results but it is important to train them in the most efficient manner to make it work.
