How to Optimise your LMS for Social Learning
We are all social in nature, even the most introverted individuals still require human interaction. Considering our social nature it only makes sense that we have a propensity towards learning better in a social setting. This can become a little difficult in a digital setting, as any online training inherently removes most social interactions, however there are many ways to bring these interactions back, which in turn will lead to better learning.
Create the Right Social Learning Incentives
Gamification is the most crucial tool to enhancing your learning management system for social learning. When setting up your gamification consider your overall learning objectives carefully, as creating the right incentives is key to maximising your social learning tools. Keep in mind every task can be weighted in value and tied to achievements. Make sure your learners have a means of displaying their achievements to further enhance the social aspects of acquiring them.
Make it Competitive
Speaking of displaying achievements, set up leader boards highlighting student progress and achievements. Make sure these are displayed in common spaces within the system like student dashboards and make them visible to all participants. For some personalities competition is not the best motivation, that is why we recommend considering displaying your organisations collective efforts.
Involve your whole Organisation
One of our favourite techniques for motivating affiliation type personalities is to display the organisation’s overall progress towards company-wide learning objectives. This should displayed in the common place within system as you would with your leader boards. Not everyone is motivated in the same manner, it is important to consider this when creating your social learning features.
Open channels for LMS communication
An essential part of social learning is feedback, without it we go backwards. Feedback can be created in many forms, that is why gamification is so essential as it provides automated feedback. There are, are methods which also enhance and promote student feedback. One of our recommended methods is adding Discussion Forums enhanced with gamification. This provides users with additional incentives to participate in the discussion threads without the need for trainers.
Social Learning is essential for a learning management system’s longevity, without proper feedback and a clear means of measuring performance, students will inevitably lose interest. The opposite is also true, online systems have the ability to grow organically, provided they have the correct infrastructure. An infrastructure that is rooted in online learning and social learning principles, which will result in increased student motivation and ultimately better productivity.
Want to know more about social learning? Get in touch with our team today!
We are a full-service Web development and Content Production Agency in Gauteng specialising in Video Production, Animation, eLearning Content Development, Learning Management Systems, and Content Production. Contact us for a quote. | Info@soundidea.co.za | www.soundidea.co.za | +27 82 491 5824 |