A complete online learning experience

Why online learning

We never stop learning. We learn for fun, we learn to get ahead in the workplace, we learn because we have to and for the pure enjoyment of understanding something new. Learning is a wonderous adventure of the mind.

More organizations, in business and education, are moving to online learning. The benefits of online learning are clear:

• Members learn more than they do in traditional face to face courses – they set their own pace and learn at the rate that suits them
• Retention rates are higher – highly engaging multimedia content, self-scheduled learning time, and a reduction in distractions all contribute to this rise.
• Overall a lot of time is saved – e-learning options allow members to dedicate their time to learning at a place and time that suits them. There is no commute; all they need is a device and learning can happen anywhere.
• Better for the environment – with less movement of people, less energy consumption, and less printing of paper, e-learning is a definite plus for the environment.

The mighty trio of Open Social tools – Courses, Quizzes, and Badges

These three powerful Open Social extensions help turn your community into a complete online learning hub.

Courses

The core feature used to deliver content in a meaningful way in Open Social is the Course Module. Courses are an easy and effective way of presenting content to users in a guided, structured, and sometimes pre-defined way.

Courses allow you to break up complex content into smaller segments.

Segmenting information into ‘bite-sized’ segments allows users to engage in learning without overloading their cognitive system. The course module consists of courses that are segmented according to sections, and each section is broken into parts. The sections in the courses help to structure the content in meaningful bite-sized bits better. The material is presented to users one at a time, allowing them to ingest the information at their speed. Moreover, individualized progress trackers show users where they left off from the last time.

You can turn any information you want to share with your organization into a course!  See more about the extension here.

Quizzes

Within a course, you can complete quizzes to improve your learning.

Reading information as a way of learning, and it works for some people; however, reading information and then taking a quiz takes learning to the next level. Your brain performs an automatic data retrieval process, where the information is stored in your memory for the longer term.

Quizzes help to:

• Embed information in our brains; this provides a firm foundation for the next stage of learning.
• Identify gaps in knowledge. If you don’t know the answer, that’s ok. We learn from mistakes.
• Present information in a different perspective to improve understanding

You don’t have to get every question on a quiz correct on the first try. That isn’t the point of a quiz. Making mistakes helps you identify what you don’t know, but also what parts of the course you may need to review to have a greater understanding.

Read more about the extension and make quizzing part of your learning process! 

Badges

After members have completed a course or a quiz, they can earn a badge.

A badge encourages learning by:

• Providing immediate feedback to community members that they have done what it takes to pass to the next level.
• Acknowledging the accomplishments, individual hard work, and incentivizes future achievements.
• Giving members a visual goal they want to attain.
• They are allowing members to display their accomplishments within the community and encourage the desire to accomplish more by helping others to achieve their goals.
• It shows site managers a quick overview of how timely the group is completing the course material, and let managers know of their success!

What is also interesting to note is that members are more likely to see an online course to completion, and pages that have badges are often the most viewed in a community!

Open Social as an eLearning community

Open Social’s community software is excellent as an eLearning platform. The Drupal modular background allows our software to be flexible enough to adapt to specific requirements of different fields, use-cases, and target groups. We provide accessibility without vendor lock-in due to our open-source nature. And lastly, we have a great foundation to build a thriving community around relevant content and knowledge.

Social Learning

What sets Open Social apart from other online learning platforms is the social element. Online courses are rarely if ever, supported by a community.

The community ensures that those participating in collaborative learning are accountable to their peers. You can celebrate those who are completing the courses or encourage others to keep going or enhance learning with a discussion. Site Managers or community managers can also guide expectations for the community, monitor online discussions to track progress, and provide feedback. Instead of completing a course on your own, your community is there to increase and give you a more profound learning experience.

Get started with a community today.

Open Social supports learning and knowledge distribution in many ways. Our out of the box solutions can help you transform your organization. Enhance Engagement with Social Learning, increase member retention, and track the activity to see how your organization is improving! See out E-learning solution in action.