Social Learning: Fad or Future?

Using Social Media in e-Learning is a hot topic in the industry right now. There is a lot of scepticism as to the effectiveness and benefits of incorporating such tools into your elearning programs. Below is a questionnaire we posted to find out what your experience with Social Learning and what it had taught you.

The results have been tallied and are available in the Thinking Cap Blog.

Fields marked with * are required
1.  First name*
2.  Last name*
3.  Email address*
4.  What type of organization are you?
Government Agency  
Corporation 
Educational Institute  
Non-profit Organization 
Other 
5.  What type of learning are you currently providing?
Formal face to face courses 
Formal online courses 
Mixed face to face and online 
Other 
6.  How formal is the structure of your learning?
Formal learning 
Non-formal learning 
Informal learning  
Other 
7.  How many learners are you currently supporting?
500 learners or less 
Up to 10,000 learners 
Up to 25,000 learners 
Up to 100,00 learners 
More than 100,000 learners 
8.  What is the age range of the learners?
K to 12 
Post Secondary 
Adult 
9.  Are you currently using or have you used an LMS?
We are currently using an LMS and it supports Social Learning 
We are currently using an LMS but it doesn't support Social Learning 
We are planning to use an LMS that will support Social Learning 
We are planning to use an LMS that doesn't support Social Learning 
We don't plan to use an LMS 
10.  Which of the following blogging tools are you currently using or have you used?
Blogger 
LiveJournal 
Typepad 
Movable Type 
WordPress 
ExpressionEngine 
TextPattern 
Other 
11.  Which of the following micro-blogging tools are you currently using or have you used?
Twitter 
Pownce 
Tumblr 
Jaiku 
MySay 
Other 
12.  Which of the following web conferencing/screen sharing tools are you currently using or have you used?
Adobe Connect 
Dimdim 
Elluminate 
eLecture 
Gotomeeting 
Other 
13.  Which of the following social bookmarking/news tools are you currently using or have you used?
Delicious 
Digg 
Reddit 
Newsvine 
StumbleUpon 
Other 
14.  Which of the following media/file sharing tools are you currently using or have you used?
Flickr  
Youtube 
Picasa 
Scribd 
Slideshare 
Other 
15.  Which of the following file social networking sites are you currently using or have you used?
Facebook  
LinkedIn 
Orkut 
Ning 
Italki.com 
Other 
16.  What other types of social learning tools are you using, i.e. wikis?
17.  What methods of social learning have worked the best for your learners?
Blogs 
Microblogs 
Web conferencing/screen sharing 
Social bookmarking/news 
File sharing 
Social networking 
Wikis 
18.  How are you linking to your social learning and online courses?
Through a blog 
Through our main website 
Through a website for this program/course 
Through our LMS 
Other 
19.  How much time do you spend managing and updating your formal learning courses?
20.  How much time do you spend managing and engaging in social learning activities?
21.  What benefits have you encountered in implementing your social learning strategies?
22.  What were the pitfalls of implementing your social learning strategies?
23.  What advice would you give others who are planning their social learning strategies?
24.  How do you track the success of your social learning strategies?
25. 
Please send me a copy of the results of this survey.  

Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire. The results have been tallied and are available in the Thinking Cap Blog.