Social courses instantly elevate your e-learning content by inviting contributions from your learners and encouraging discussion between them. You can create new learning experiences that are specifically designed for this format or you can repurpose old content and give it a second life with discussion starters (click here to read more about discussion starters) and learner challenges. Here are some things to consider when running your first social course:
You’re going to have some high achievers.
They’ll race through your course, providing long, well thought out comments, and then they’ll demand more content. Talk about engaged learners! Don’t panic though, it’s not necessarily because you’ve made the course too easy or simplistic - it’s just that the confident voices are the loudest. Wait and see what the other learners make of it and reply to their comments too - they’re the ones you need to focus on, not the noisy self-motivated ones.
Learners who have only ever taken traditional e-learning courses see everything as compulsory.
They need to achieve ‘completion’. They aren’t used to optional content so, unless they’re told otherwise,
they’ll go ahead and engage with everything. That might sound great, but in my recent social course I noticed a lot of learners offering one word answers to discussion prompts like “Was any of this information new to you?” which didn’t improve their learning or add anything useful to the discussion. You need to set the context for your learning - explain the platform and the format to your learners.
You will get criticised.
As well as being a universal truth, this is especially applicable to social courses. Suddenly learners have a method of providing instant feedback and, as there’s a screen between you and them, they won’t pull any punches. The main piece of advice here is obvious: be an adult and don’t take things personally. It’s easier said than done, it’s a strange experience to go from one stakeholder critiquing your work to hundreds of commenters simultaneously dissecting it. My main tips are:
- Never immediately reply to a critical comment, wait at least 15 mins so you know you won’t say anything you’ll regret.
- Ask your colleagues to look over your responses before you send them.
- Properly consider the commenter’s point - they may well be right. This could be an opportunity to improve your course and learn something.
You are the authority on learning.
Moderating learner comments is different to replying to a stakeholder’s comments on your work. The stakeholder is ultimately the one who is signing-off on your course so there comes a point when, even if you think they’re wrong, you have to back down. On a social course, you can stand your ground. Be courteous and logically explain your points, but enjoy the freedom to assert some good learning design!
Most of all, enjoy it. Learning and learning design can often feel quite disconnected, so take this as an opportunity to meaningfully engage with your learners. After all, you can’t build a learning culture if you’re not connecting with each other.