The flexibility of Web 2.0 tools provides many opportunities to
invent new instructional strategies and to observe the informal
learning we always knew was happening but didn't know how to
track.
Even if your organization uses an LMS to deliver training, it's
likely that your learners probably don't spend a lot of time in
that environment. Most online training is short-duration, and most
of the features that encourage interaction between learners are
notoriously underused.
Not to worry. A growing number of organizations have begun to
invest in a suite of tools that provide a more familiar feeling
launching pad. Web conferencing has become commonplace for meeting
remotely, and investment in collaboration, knowledge management and
social networking software is on the rise. For training departments
willing to explore all the possibilities, it's easier than ever to
involve learners in a blended learning program.
Blog all about it
If your organization espouses a set of core competencies, then your
training department should be coordinating an effort to blog about
them - in addition to creating training on how the organization
expects them to be enacted. The content might include examples of
how the competencies affect the everyday working environment,
information you weren't able to squeeze into the program, or
stories about why those competencies were adopted.
That said, the HR and training functions may not be the best group
to author the blog, regardless of their writing skills. The purpose
of establishing core competencies in the first place is to
establish them as a norm across the organization. Invite guest
bloggers to write on the topic in their own words, and you'll
demonstrate that the competencies are important across the
organization. Until someone else is talking about them, the
competencies will be seen as an HR-only initiative. Also because
audiences expect blogs to be updated frequently, bringing in guest
bloggers can also keep the blog from becoming too big a burden on a
small group of people.
To be sure, the primary goal of the blog is to keep the
competencies fresh in everyone's mind. The side benefits are that
it will help build consensus around the competencies as more
constituents are tapped to provide entries, and it will remind
employees what they learned after they've left the classroom.
One question that sometimes comes up in discussions about blogging
is whether or not to allow readers to comment on the blog entries.
Reader comments can be a useful way to find out whether your
message is getting through. On the other hand, negative or profane
comments are a possibility and have the potential to derail your
message.
The right answer for your organization will depend on how
comfortable the organization is with risk. If you choose to allow
comments, you can mitigate the risk by setting the software to
display the name of the commenter, or by making user comments
subject to approval before they are posted.
Social networking communities
Software programmers have used the most common element of online
communities - threaded discussions - for years to help one another
learn to code, work through problems, or code more efficiently.
Establishing a virtual cohort can help learners tease out the
nuances of complex or ambiguous subjects in a way that a two-day
training session or a 45-minute web-based training program can't.
But getting the virtual community to work as a group may take more
than just the ability to share questions and answers, especially if
they've never met one another in person.
If you're looking to establish a virtual community, icebreakers can
be even more useful in a virtual setting than they are in real
life. Games can help establish a sense of presence for users who
aren't quite comfortable with meeting virtually and asynchronously.
Need help getting started? Create a thread where you share three
facts about yourself, two true, and one false. Then ask others in
the group to guess which item is false, and ask if they'll provide
three facts about themselves.
In many tools, users have the ability to add a profile that
includes pictures (or an avatar) of themselves, some biographical
information, and tags they can use to describe themselves. If your
tool includes this feature, ask everyone in the group to fill out
their profile, and suggest a format that encourages them to do more
than transcribe their resume. Sharing personal (but not private)
information, such as hobbies, makes it easier for the online group
to relate to one another, and increases the chance that they'll be
interested in getting one other's opinions.
The work of getting the conversation started isn't finished after
the group members have gotten to know one another. Just as a
face-to-face meeting may require a facilitator or someone to create
an agenda, asynchronous groups often need someone to seed the
conversation. If your group is part of a blended learning
experience, you can ask them to start a discussion thread as a
requirement of the class. Otherwise, consider posting questions
related to the topic, and ask a few of the group members if they
will as well.
In some cases, the tool enables users to embed video or audio clips
in an entry. Maybe last night's episode of The Office is a
great way to start a discussion. Many stations host video clips of
their popular shows on their web sites.
Alternatively, if the group is meant to provide a reflective
learning opportunity, you may want the users to generate and post
their own video or audio material. A group for new managers, for
example, might ask members to keep an audio or video diary where
they post the challenges they face in their new role. The wide
availability of webcams and microphones on computers makes it easy
and cheap for group members to capture and share their stories with
one another. When the experience is finished, the learners will
have a portfolio showing how their abilities and attitudes have
changed over time.
Wiki-wide discussion
Many wikis follow the example of Wikipedia, using a wiki as a way
to catalog what a group knows about a subject. You might, for
example, ask a class to compile or update wiki entries based on
what they've learned in a live or virtual classroom. Working
together on a wiki lets later cohorts benefit from and expand on
the learning of earlier ones, even if they never have the chance to
discuss the material all together.
It's also possible to use a wiki as an asynchronous breakout group,
where each group is assigned to answer a particular question from a
reflective assignment. An even less conventional use would be to
allow groups of learners to represent different sides of a more
ambiguous issue on different wikis.
Because the end result of a wiki is a document created by the
entire community, without attribution to individual sections and
comments, it's possible to discuss even contentious issues without
personality conflicts between supporters of different sides playing
a role in the comparison between the issues themselves. When the
documents are finalized, the larger group can vote on which wiki
presented the most compelling case.
Bottom line
Even if you see the reasons for using Web 2.0 tools outside of the
LMS, you may be wondering how to measure learning that isn't all in
one place. It's an interesting bias that the same training
community that finds Kirkpatrick level one to be an acceptable
measure of classroom learning often insists on level two to measure
online learning.
In reality, having one user tag another as a "pivot table guru"
after getting help with a spreadsheet problem is probably just as
good a measure of their abilities in Excel as a quiz at the end of
a module on creating pivot tables. You might argue it comes closer
to a level three or four, since the tagged employee is clearly
using the knowledge in his or her everyday work, and is helping
others with it.
The work of determining whether learning is happening within a
group can be determined by the group itself. Poll the group
periodically to find out what has been interesting, compelling and
helpful for them. Some groups will struggle to get comfortable
using tags, stars, or comments to designate useful content. A more
playful group may go so far as to create their own virtual awards
ceremonies to show their appreciation for useful content or helpful
group members.
The flexibility of Web 2.0 tools provides many opportunities to
invent new instructional strategies and to observe the informal
learning we always knew was happening but didn't know how to track.
Collaboration tools have gotten us one step closer.
Mary Arnold is senior instructional designer for
the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia;
mary.arnold@phil.frb.org.