Social Learning: Why is it so important for your online courses?

Initially, distance learning platforms emerged as a way of transposing the environment of face-to-face courses to the online modality, focusing on their content structure, i.e. offering functionalities that would enable the student to have contact with the subjects covered.

Nowadays, a more complete structure is offered by e-learning platforms: functionalities that enable greater student participation.

And in this way, we talk about Social Learning!

What is Social Learning?

In practice, and in a nutshell, we can say that Social Learning is learning from others.

Thus, it is learning that takes place between people, sharing knowledge and experiences.

Social Learning is based on the social exchange (formal or informal) of knowledge, combining diverse development paths, promoting more comprehensive and lasting learning.

In online courses and distance learning projects, it is necessary to encourage informal or social learning in which students can interact, share, collaborate and debate ideas about solving problems.

This is precisely where you'll find the main reason to adopt social learning in your online courses.

In this article, we'll show you:

• The main reasons for adopting social learning in your online courses and training;
• The main practices;
• And how to use them effectively.

Why adopt social learning in your online / distance learning courses?

Before we delve deeper, let's look at two theories that support and show how social learning really works.

Social learning theory

Social learning is not a new concept.

On the contrary! He integrated behavioral and cognitive theories of learning to provide a comprehensive model that could explain the wide range of learning experiences that occur in the real world.

Initially outlined by Bandura and Walters in 1963 and detailed in 1977, the fundamental principles of social learning theory are as follows:

1. Learning is not purely behavioral; on the contrary, it is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context.
2. Learning can occur by observing a behavior and observing the consequences of the behavior ( vicarious reinforcement ).
3. Learning involves observation, extracting information from these observations and making decisions about the performance of the behavior (observational learning or modeling ). Thus, learning can occur without an observable change in behavior.
4. Reinforcement plays a role in learning, but is not entirely responsible for learning.
5. The student is not a passive recipient of information. Cognition, environment and behavior influence each other ( reciprocal determinism ).

Active learning

Active Learning is an instructional model that focuses the responsibility for learning on the students.

It was popularized in the 1990s by its appearance in the report by the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) (Bonwell & Eison, 1991).

This report discusses a variety of methodologies to promote "active learning", where, in order to learn, students must do more than just listen: they must read, write, discuss or be engaged in problem-solving.

Active learning involves students in two aspects - doing things and thinking about the things they are doing (Bonwell and Eison, 1991).

Source: Wikipedia

What is the student's point of view?

To understand the student's vision, we have to understand the learning process.

How does learning take place?

According to the 70/20/10 Learning and Development Model:

• 70% of our knowledge is derived directly from observing other people and experiences from different scenarios.
• 20% achieved through interactions with other people.
• 10% from formal learning methods.

Using social learning clearly facilitates learning through interaction with other people.

From a business point of view

Companies and educational institutions will see value in social learning in the following ways:

• It connects and engages students.
• Create a network of relationships.
• It helps students to organize themselves.
• Facilitates collaboration.
• Sharing knowledge, not just retaining it.
• Focus on the group as a whole.

How can you use Social Learning in your online course or training?

Now that you know a little about the theory and the advantages of encouraging social learning in your training and online courses, let's look at some practical ways of applying it.

Choose initiatives that:

• Have a common goal.
• Facilitate and encourage student participation.

Use techniques such as:

• Discussions.
• Information sharing.
• Content curation.

Social networks

The use of social networks in everyday life is increasing and unquestionable.

That's why using social media resources such as Fanpages and Groups related to your course can be extremely stimulating for students.

However, when the e-learning platform already provides this resource, this practice becomes more organized.

Discussion Forums

The discussion forum is also one of the tools used to promote social learning within a distance learning platform, but it takes place in a more targeted and formal way.

In addition, the forum is aimed at debating ideas with the course teacher/tutor as a mediator.

Create topics that encourage your students to participate more freely. Act as a moderator, directing the discussion.

Social Learning within Hotscool

Hotscool, we have brought the concepts of social networks into a distance learning platform.

Each online course can have its own social network with its own timeline.

You can enable or disable this feature in each of your courses according to your objectives. And it will only be accessible to participants in your courses. It is not an open social network!

Through this timeline, students and tutors will be able to interact, share ideas, images, videos and files and experiences about the content of their course.

Hotscool also uses the timeline to promote student engagement with its course/training.

Every time a student completes a certain module of their course, Hotscool publishes the event on their timeline, making other students feel encouraged to advance in the course, thus increasing engagement and the experience as a whole.

In addition, from the course timeline, students and tutors have access to HotMessenger: an integrated chat module for exchanging messages in real time, thus promoting integration between students and building their network.

As with the discussion forums, managers and tutors will also be able to moderate the posts made on their course timeline.

You can also use this Social Learning resource in your corporate training or online courses!

How about a 7-day trial? Just activate your registration at Hotscool and evaluate this important feature which is a trend in distance education

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