If you’re a fan of Adobe Captivate Prime, you may be aware of the new social learning features that were just released. My favorite new feature has to be the discussion boards, which allow groups of learners to share web based and user generated content easily. You can find out more in the below video. (Videos on the other new features can be found here.)
Social learning is an important developing aspect of the learning technology industry. So much of what we learn comes from informal interactions with the people we know, whether we’re interacting in person or through social media.
Sometimes we as learning professionals don’t need to have “the answer” for the learner. Sometimes we instead help learners connect with people who can support their learning experience. Here are some ways we can do that:
- Create communities of practice that either meet in person or virtually
- Create a mentorship program and provide a framework for mentors and mentees to collaborate effectively
- Ensure self-paced and e-learning courses have at least one collaborative component where learners interact through a discussion board, virtual session, or classroom session. See this article on blended learning.
- Find ways to actively involve the learner. Allow learners to share their knowledge and problem solve through project based learning. Incorporate elements of constructivism into learning experiences.
Learning technology is making it easier to manage a global classroom and provide the social connection we all crave. What are some ways you’ve used technology to connect learners? Please share in the comments section.
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Wished I had that LMS when I used project-based learning in university college. I had to use so many different channels to achieve what I wanted. I even used an Excel template for the student’s logbook: they had to track their learning activities in a quick, easy way and add short reflections including if their sources were found individually, if they learned from a peer student etc… Anyway to realize that i Prime?
Looks like I have to explore Prime more! I used that Excel sheet (had a lot of dropdowns) not only for tracking the activities but even more for the student reflections. They did complain a lot about that extra work, had an individual chat with each student individually for explanation Now you would call it ‘gamification’, but I used the usual school pressure tool of ‘scoring’ to have them o this extra task. Not everyone benefitted, nor appreciated, but at least some did really learn about their ‘learning efficiency’.
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