Social Learning Features To Look For In A Learning Management System

Training programs and sessions can often get monotonous because of the lack of innovative ways in which you can initiate them.

11:57 17 September 2020

Formal training sessions makes it a challenging task to keep everyone motivated and inspired to be a part of it.

 

You, as a training manager, thus need a tool that will help you integrate informal learning strategy into your sessions. Social learning is often what an employee wants in their environment. Such an environment is mostly inclined towards collaboration rather than competitiveness and increases the performance of employees.

 

As more employees get trained well, more return on investment can be anticipated by your organization. There are many learning management systems in the market in today’s world that offers social learning as an additional element.

 

In this article, learn about all the various social learning features that you should certainly search for when choosing a learning management system.

 

Social learning features to look for in an LMS

 

• Live Chat

The effective communication method is perhaps one of the most significant elements of any online training. Live Chat is one feature of an LMS that learners who are getting trained online mostly prefer. This is because with the help of live chat all the learners are available online at a scheduled time. With this, individuals can resolve their queries, clear their doubts, or have an answer to their questions immediately. They don’t have to wait for the other person to get back.

 

Live Chat allows users to share suggestions, solve challenges, or encourage fellow teammates as and when the need arises. Mindflash LMS features live chat as a social learning characteristic which makes it one of the popular choices for informal training.

 

• Groups

 

When you are hosting a training session for your employees, it often comes into consideration that each department or role has specific needs. The training that works for one may not work for the other department. Keeping this in mind, it is best to look for an LMS that allows you to categorize your training programs into distinctive groups.

 

Each of these groups can be focused on different criteria or as per the roles in an organization. With the help of these groups, your learners will have dedicated space to share or resolve their queries with the right people at the right platform.

 

• Collaborative learning and gamification

 

Often, employees are more motivated to work on the training program when it is collaborative in nature instead of being competitive. Collaboration enables employees to learn about teamwork. When your learners are working as a team, they tend to play an active role and hence, drive higher engagement as well as increase the ROI of your training program.

 

It is best to look for an LMS that allows you to curate a team structure and offers a leaderboard tool to track the team activity. You can also offer rewards, points, or badges to those employees who perform well in your sessions. This keeps them motivated to help their team win.

 

• Social Q&A

 

A question and answer session is always a great way to increase employee engagement. If you choose an LMS that offers various gamification tools, you can take your social Q&A up a notch. With the help of badges and pointers, you can reward your employees with incentives for asking questions or offering answers that are valuable in nature.

 

These question and answer sessions will make your employees stay focused during the training sessions and force them to look at the program from different perspectives. This will increase in the retention of their learnings that they can apply when the need arises in the future.

 

Conclusion

 

Adding a few features of social learning here and there in your training program will help your employees stay motivated and inspired to perform well.