Social learning essentially means learning from your colleagues. How do you get there when working from home has become the norm, and a lot of observation (conscious or subconscious) on the work floor disappears?
Fortunately, social learning can be easily implemented into a virtual environment. We’ll give you a few small tips with a big impact.
Leverage the benefits of digital tools
Thanks to current technology, employees who work from home can still speak, hear and see each other easily. However, looking over a colleague’s shoulder and learn from the work they are doing is more difficult… Physically at least. So why not engage in virtual social learning?
With most video call tools you can effortlessly share your screen and follow each other’s actions online, with additional verbal explanations of your colleague. You can even record the exchange for later review if necessary.
Use your LMS for social learning
Does your Learning & Development department have a solid learning platform at its disposal? Then you can create a forum for a specific target group in no time.
Thanks to such a forum, you provide your employees with a central place to ask questions about e-learning courses, learning activities, technical skills or other areas of expertise. Colleagues belonging to the same target group, an Learning & Development employee or a trainer, give answers or point employees in the right direction. It is also possible to collaborate remotely in a group.
That way you use one of the standard functionalities of your LMS for social learning. It’s an ideal solution for employees who partially or entirely work from home.
Plan informal learning moments
Due to increased homeworking, many short, informal meetings with colleagues have disappeared. So how do you make sure that casual learning moments remain part of professional life?
One of the ways to do this is to schedule regular, rather informal meetings (weekly or biweekly) where all teleworkers dial in. Each participant goes over what tasks he or she is working on, and where he or she could use some help. In that way, team members not only remain mindful of colleagues’ work, they can also offer their help if necessary. That’s the most direct form of social learning!
Social learning in your organisation
Curious about the best way for your Learning & Development department to integrate social learning into your learning strategy? Implementing social learning in an existing or new Totara LMS? Neo Learning is happy to help you with that! Contact us for an introductory meeting.
Want to know more? We love to help you out! Get in touch for a call or demo.
