Social Learning vs. Community Based Learning: What’s the Difference?

Everyone comes to learning with their own way of processing information. Understanding how learning styles impact course participation, information retention and progress towards closing skills gaps is the kind of subject matter that excites learning and development (L&D) pros.

Successful L&D environments are built around supporting various behavioral and educational needs, so it's important to understand how your learning strategies align with people’s learning needs.

Group, or collaborative, learning is one way to meet employees’ desire for learning, growth and belonging, especially for those who may feel isolated due to remote work.

Two terms that are frequently used interchangeably to describe this type of learning are “social learning” and “community learning.”

While there is overlap between these ideas, they are still distinct concepts. This blog post will clear up the confusion and explain how a blending of social and community learning can deliver the ideal learning environment for your organization.

Social Learning

Social learning is woven into the fabric of our human experience. It’s how infants learn to walk, how teens learn to navigate social interactions, and, in professional L&D, how employees learn the processes and culture of a new workplace. To put it in more exact terms, social learning is how we learn from others through observation, assessment and imitation.

In practice, social learning can refer to interactions that occur on digital learning platforms, during in-person group activities and while learning on the job.

Benefits of Social Learning

Social learning happens whether you plan for it or not. It is a constant in our lives. Some of the benefits of this ongoing learning are:

• New skills are adapted at a faster rate and mistakes are avoided through observing the right — and wrong — ways to accomplish a task.
  
  
• New employees adapt to work environments faster by observing company culture in action.
  
  
• Social learning fosters mentorship and helps strengthen teams.

Challenges to Consider

There are, however, a few points to consider when deciding where to emphasize social learning in your L&D strategy.

This mode of learning is unstructured and therefore difficult to measure. The simple observation of behaviors and procedures is not a guarantee of future success by the learner.

Still, social learning is one of the most intuitive and natural methods of learning, and L&D professionals should certainly make room for social learning as a component of their courses.

Community Learning

While social learning is how individuals learn through social interactions, community learning is a collaborative, intentional and structured way for a group of individuals to learn together.

There are no rules defining exactly what constitutes community learning. Interactions can be in-person, online or a combination of both.

Learners can study on their own and meet for discussion, move through course materials together or have a designated space to discuss skill development opportunities with one another.

What really makes community learning a “community” endeavor is the presence of a social aspect within the framework of skill-building.

People Crave Community

Humans are social creatures who seek community. For many workers, the pandemic’s sudden shift to remote work changed the way they accessed community within their organizations. What was once a passive aspect of work-life is now something that requires tools, planning and effort.

Fortunately, L&D pros were ready to pivot and used the shift to remote work to usher in a merger of skill development and social collaboration through community learning.

Community tools were present within learning platforms prior to the pandemic, but the need for remote workers to remain connected spurred the development of even better collaboration tools.With a large number of workplaces opting to remain in a remote or hybrid work environment, ongoing community learning is becoming the norm.

And community learning has proven results. Employees who feel a sense of belonging are 5.2 times more likely to be engaged.

Enhance the Community Learning Experience With Social Learning Opportunities

The majority of L&D training takes place on LMSs (learning management systems) and LXPs (learning experience platforms) that come pre-packaged with tools for community learning. These include community features like chat spaces, user reviews and manager recommendations.

These community learning tools provide plenty of opportunities for organic social learning to take place, as well: Users who see that a course has received a high rating are more likely to participate in that course as well. Chat spaces open up opportunities for mentorship. Even employees who simply read the message boards are still learning through observing discussions between more vocal participants.

L&D Is Leading the Way in Employee Well-being

In a recent report on employee well-being, Glint found that the top two drivers of a great workplace culture are opportunities to learn and grow followed by a sense of belonging.

This is precisely why L&D is now part of the conversation in the C-Suite. Organizations have recognized the power of learning for employee well-being, retention and talent acquisition.