tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post3740783306503105111..comments2024-03-16T02:39:39.781-07:00Comments on eLearning Technology: Social Learning MeasurementTony Karrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408035995182843336noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post-56718788558017751522009-05-29T13:23:51.948-07:002009-05-29T13:23:51.948-07:00I think the question that is raised here is a ques...I think the question that is raised here is a question that needs to be asked prior to asking about measurement. I don't believe that social media is a 'strategy'. Social media allows us new ways of listening, engaging, connecting and learning about what our customers and potential customers are saying about our brand/product/service.Amanda Crowehttp://www.asiarooms.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post-8831345389247194222009-04-16T11:15:00.000-07:002009-04-16T11:15:00.000-07:00In my blog, I was focused on metrics that would he...In my blog, I was focused on metrics that would help us to understand, manage, and improve the networked (or social) learning eco-system. Clearly we also need to look at results and outputs that come about as a result of social learning. I will update my blog to include some thoughts about measuring the impact of social learning.Eric Davidovehttp://daretoshare.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post-14614776214949922632009-04-15T17:00:00.000-07:002009-04-15T17:00:00.000-07:00A few thoughts in response to the comments and the...A few thoughts in response to the comments and the post:<br /><br />We need to worry about measuring outcomes to start - reduction in turnover, reduction in support calls, increased sales, reduction in time-to-competency. I don't understand why these things are so difficult to measure. You measure the starting state, you implement some initiatives, and then you measure the deltas. I'm not trying to be flip. I just don't see the challenge here.<br /><br />Pretty soon, we'll also see the advent of reputation management, auto-generated ONA maps, and new reports on stuff like sentiment analysis, key influencers, and "hot" topics. These will provide some of the analytic meat to relate outcomes to network dynamics, but until then, I don't think we need to get too crazy. Ace showed a 500% ROI in under six months just by connecting dealers through discussions boards so they could share expertise. I'm pretty sure the exec team didn't need any more "proof" of value than that one sentence.<br /><br />Will, as you might expect, I disagree about opportunity costs. Opportunity costs implies that you should be doing something else instead of sharing / collaborating / creating. Maybe for process-driven, relatively formal orgs this is true, but for virtually every knowledge-based role or organization, the sharing, collaborating, creating *is* the work. And therefore can't be an "opprotunity" cost. The true opportunity cost is the time you spend searching for docs that should be in a wiki, having closed discussions via email instead of a discussion forum, and endless phone calls trying to find expertise in the org that should be readily searchable via social profiles.<br /><br />Unless you really screw up your social learning models, those work activities will become significantly more efficient and innovative through the application of social media concepts and technologies.<br /><br />There are numerous existing examples of companies hitting the ball out of the park on this stuff. I have some at my blog (including the Ace story). Another great source is the work Rob Cross and Sal Parise are doing relative to Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) and the related business benefits of strengthening informal networks or better aligning them to meet business objectives.<br /><br />Anyway, that's my two cents for now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post-57879116883470838292009-04-15T13:55:00.000-07:002009-04-15T13:55:00.000-07:00Thanks Tony, but I couldn't stop at one post. Am u...Thanks Tony, but I couldn't stop at one post. Am up this late as this issue is still on my head and I had to get it out. So here's another one on my thoughts on <A HREF="http://road-to-learning.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-make-collaborative-learning-work.html" REL="nofollow">how to make collaborative learning work in organization.</A> I hope you enjoy this one as well.<br /><br />SreyaSreya Duttahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01192430690556080322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post-48480452701033097472009-04-15T13:04:00.000-07:002009-04-15T13:04:00.000-07:00Will - great points. Sidenote: Blogger does accep...Will - great points. Sidenote: Blogger does accept anchor tags. Makes it easier for people to click through to your whitepaper. But it doesn't seem to allow me to edit existing comments.<br /><br />Your article is a good one to go back to - although I have some disagreements with things in the article and we both I think are challenged with figuring out exactly what we can and should do around measurement of this stuff.<br /><br />What's interesting to me is that with eLearning 2.0 or social learning or more specifically with using social tools to do things like have interesting conversations - what I want to measure is really not at all what is learned. I want to measure whether the results produced are better. I am not sure I know what they should have learned at all.<br /><br />In your article, I fear that we are looking at eLearning 2.0 with a traditional learning measurement mindset. Even calling them "learners" is a bit of a challenge. <br /><br />I look forward to discussing this further.<br /><br />Sreya - (sidenote: good use of anchor tag in comment) - I enjoyed reading your post. Most of the concerns you sited (access, quality, timeliness) are common issues for any kind of content access.<br /><br />I agree with you about measuring the outcome as being the most important.<br /><br />---<br /><br />Out of both of these comments - I'm coming to realize that we have to shift our mindset about measurement.Tony Karrerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15408035995182843336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post-687876005725158552009-04-15T12:39:00.000-07:002009-04-15T12:39:00.000-07:00Hi Tony, just the point I was thinking of after so...Hi Tony, just the point I was thinking of after some discussion about implementing such a model in my organization. I've blogged <A HREF="http://road-to-learning.blogspot.com/2009/04/suggestions-to-improve-social-learning.html" REL="nofollow">my thoughts</A> on this. Please let me know what you think. We do need to have a solution to come with some tangible outcome.<br /><br />SreyaSreya Duttahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01192430690556080322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post-30153545103150253712009-04-15T08:37:00.000-07:002009-04-15T08:37:00.000-07:00Measuring Social Learning is going to be VERY diff...Measuring Social Learning is going to be VERY difficult. We ought to measure everything of course until we really understand what's going on. One thing to remember--there are basically three reasons to measure learning:<br /><br />1. To prove benefits<br />2. To improve the intervention<br />3. To improve learning.<br /><br />And of course it's more complicated (I made a list of 18 or so of these a while back), but you get my point. <br /><br />All the "Activity Measures" (e.g., number of posts, how often people read them, quality ratings) are going to be especially useful for helping us improve our social-media designs (and support), but NOT so helpful to prove/show cost-benefit, AND certainly very little to actually improve learning.<br /><br />ALSO, I see very little being discussed about opportunity costs. Social media has costs in terms of time, distraction, resources, attention span, etc., so we need to look at the dark side too.<br /><br />My earlier article that catalogs some of these concerns I think is still valuable, though it too misses much. http://www.work-learning.com/Catalog/Documents/EvaluatingLearning20_FinalVersion.pdfWill Thalheimerhttp://www.willatworklearning.comnoreply@blogger.com