These are the results of the survey conducted in the benelux in june 2010 on the topic: social media and e-learning

1. SOCIAL MEDIA AND
E-LEARNING
SURVEY
JUNE 2010
Is social media being used by training
individuals in and for e-learning
environments?
Mic Adam
Vanguard Leadership
Vanguard Leadership © June 2010 Page 1

2. Introduction
In the past, learning was done through traditional methods aka classroom
trainings. With the advent of technology, the training method moved onto
electronic means aka e-learning. This method of training offered a large number
of advantages to companies and individuals. These include cutting travel and
infrastructure cost and learning on request (what you want when you want it).
The biggest drawback of the method was the human interaction.
Over the past years, there has been a lot of talk about continuous learning and this
has evolved into what is now accepted as informal learning (vs the formal
learning mentioned above).
Looking at how informal learning is achieved, we can see that social media is
playing a major role. Moreover, social media will address the human interaction
factor. In the rest of this document, we will take a look at how training
professionals are getting familiar and using the social media as it relates to e-
learning.
1. Shaping the future
Today, social media is only at the entrance gate. The adoption rate is very small
but increasing. This is largely thanks to 3 trends fueled by LinkedIn,
Twitter/Facebook YouTube.
The first trend is that some social media is getting a professional label stuck on it
and provides the platform to distribute content (LinkedIn). The second trend is
driven by the buzz generated for social media by platforms such as Twitter or
Facebook fuelling fabulous growth to create a connected world. The third trend is
the acceptance of low(er) grade video materials. Thanks to platforms such as
YouTube democratizing video creation by the end user, people are now not
expecting top notch videos in a learning environment. I would even go further
and say that the content is becoming more important than the quality of the video
image.
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3. 2. Social media and e-learning
When we look at social media and e-learning, we can see 3 different angles
appear:
 Use e-learning to understand and use social media
 Use social media to create content for e-learning materials
 Use social media to distribute and offer e-learning materials
In today’s society training professionals are beginning to experiment with social
media. However, it is more for their own personal use and informal learning
process. They are using multiple platforms such as video sites (e.g. YouTube),
content sites (e.g. Slideshare), discussion fora and blogs. They are creating
unaware their social media digital footprint to collect information. They are also
slowly beginning to use social networking (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook etc.) to
connect to other people. Thus creating a collaborative environment.
3. The survey
Social media is entering every aspect of our personal and business life. There is
an abundance of social media platforms available and it is still growing. One of
the challenges is how to get training for these different platforms to employees or
consumers. Another opportunity is that social media can be used to get
information on e-learning (both content and methodology).
Companies are reluctant to invest in social media training today. However,
training departments are confronted with this worldwide phenomenon. Training
professional not only require training, they are not being perceived as social
media experts and sometimes have difficulty grasping the needs for this type of
training. So, what is the role of social media in respect to e-learning. Is there a
magical solution?
Through this survey, we will try and map the use and knowledge of training
professionals as it relates to social media and e-learning.
Additionally, some interviews were conducted with training professional to get
some sense on issues, challenges and opportunities.
4.1. What is social media?
Our first focus was to define how individuals define social media. We can
summarize that social media is considered to be understood as:
Primary definition elements: It is a digital platform that is used to
connect with people (aka network) to share experiences.
As secondary terms used that would complete the definition we can
add that it is use both socially and professionally to communicate
and collaborate (aka engage) with other people.
See appendix 1 for more details and the chart on the next page
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4. This chart summarizes how training individuals view social media.
Social Media definition
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Network/connect
Professionally
Engagement/Coll
Socially
Communication
Digital platform
experiences
Share
aboration
tool
From another study conducted in the Holland among art students (source:
Open University, Netherlands) that was done in 2009, the following
reason were given to use social sites which are inline with above numbers.
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5. 4.2 Usage of social media by professionals
The next set of questions looked into the usage of social media by training
professionals. From the survey we can conclude that close to all were
using social media in one way or another. Over 90% are using social
media personally and/or professionally.
Are you using social media?
No
Yes
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
It seems that people as taking more to the personal use of social media.
Professional use of social media is on the rise and catching up. In terms of
the distribution of usage, over 75% are using it for personal use and 69%
for business use.
Type of usage of social media
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
Professionally Personally
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6. Drilling down even further, we can see interesting facts. Here are some
conclusions:
 The usage of most social media is fairly limited and most
people do not access it at all.
 On a daily business, only business (e.g. LinkedIn) and
social networking (e.g. Facebook) are accessed. However it
is only a minority (38% for business and 25% personally).
 When it comes to other platforms, they are only accessed
on a weekly basis.
Frequency of use
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
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Daily
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Weekly
Bo
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Never
As a benchmark, I would like to refer to the other study again giving the
following results:
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7. Finally, how much time are these people spending online in social media
is summarized in the following chart. The average time spent in social
media is around 2h30 a week with a peak in the 1 to 2h range.
These numbers are in line with other studies done over the last year.
Time online
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
None < 1h 1-2h 3-5h > 5h >10h
Here the study from the Open University goes further by different type of
social media. I would like to refer to the presentation for more details
which is available on request. What comes out of this study is the fact that
a lot of names in the different social media areas are not known and thus
not used.
As is the case, there is a lot of evangelizing to be done in this area.
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8. 4.3 Social media and e-learning
The next part of the survey looked into how social media and e-learning
go together.
In terms of using e-learning to teach social media, the jury is really
undecided. While less than half the respondents (38%) can see using
social media as a tool for teaching in a e-learning format, they do see some
use to get content for e-learning through social media.
Social media and e-learning
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
YES NO
Teaching via e-learning
Get content for e-learning
Most respondents to the survey do not know how social media will
influence e-learning, the 3 other elements that are mentioned are: Just-In-
Time Learning, Collaborative Learning and Connecting with
peers/teachers/students. The chart below provides a little more insight.
Social media and e-learning
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
None JIT Learning Collaborative Connecting
learning with peers
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9. When it comes to finding materials to create e-learning course, the
distribution does not favor social media at this point. Google, peers and
specific website still dominate the fact findings
Content Sources for e-learning
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
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Sp
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th
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.
4.5 Description of the audience
The target audience consisted of training professionals, training and HR
managers as well as some professional in the marketing sphere.
The survey targeted the audience via channels such as e-mail, social media
(LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook).
The audience reach was Benelux with a few Europeans sneaking in. The
total population polled was 37 individuals.
There were also some interviews done to dig a little deeper into the
content.
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10. 4. Some issues
Like with any emerging technology and fired by generally accepted points, social
media in e-learning is not off to a flying start. There is some negative connotation
to social media and this is not limited to training departments:
i. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and others are considered toys by
“the business”.
ii. Social media is seen as a “timewaster”
iii. The lack of understanding and experience creates a lot of aversion
to the technology
iv. The general attitude within social media (=give and get back
attitude for FREE) is not understood
v. The influence of negative news and stories create a bad atmosphere
around the topic
5. Challenges
The challenges that are awaiting e-learning and social media are:
 How to learn socially?
 How to effectively use the different platforms?
 Finding success stories?
 Defining social media return on investment for e-learning?
 Management buy-in?
 Whether to create a private social network vs public social networks?
6. Recommendations/opportunities
The training and e-learning environment will get more integrated with social
media. To quote Forrester, there will be a blended learning where both face-to-
face, e-learning and social media will come together. It is clear that training
managers and developers are seeing this trend emerge.
Training professionals will have to make some choices on what different social
media they will engage in but it will probably consist of the following platforms
 Video (e.g. YouTube)
 Photo (e.g. Flickr)
 Content creation and collaboration (e.g. Wikipedia, Twitter, Wordpress,
Slideshare)
 Networking (e.g. LinkedIn and Facebook)
 Electronic bookmarking (e.g. Delicious)
 Geo-location (e.g. foursquare)
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11. Appendix 1
Here is a more detailed statement of some (summarized since they were too close to each
other) of the answers given:
Question 1: How would you define social media?
Answers included:
 Use of internet platform to network, share of questions, solutions and experiences
 A platform to connect with like minded people across the globe, socially of
professionally
 Digital platform, allowing users to stay in touch with relations and depending on
the type of medium to share experiences and/or knowledge
 Interaction tools to communicate freely about anything
 Communication channel for profiling/branding and exchange of information
between peers
 A way to communicate and stay in touch in business: a way to create new
opportunities, new strategies
 Digital content that is created by members, categorized under topics, shared with
groups of interested people and subject to individual judgments or bias
 Online platform where users can connect with others to share information and
experiences
 A fast connection to the world
 We are able to learn from other all across the world about any and everything
 Thinking you are social but in reality without meeting the people you are not –
false expectations
 Electronic information available for private and professional use on opportunities,
trainings and seminars
 Online tools that offer a variety of possibilities for networking, knowledge
sharing, communication and collaboration
 Electronic means to interact with people
 Enables and maintains social contacts
 Connect with friends/colleagues
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12. Appendix 2
Question: What role do you see for social media in e-learning?
Answers (some are summarized in one bullet point since they mean the same):
 None/Not clear
 Byte size learning, interactive virtual sessions, prompters of key points, learning
by blogs
 Social media does not relate to e-learning
 Free communication for participants who work together on case studies
 Only a channel to exchange view, low impact on e-learning
 Announcements, create attention and interest
 Share information and best practices
 Finding contact info only for ideas
 Will enhance e-learning in the future
 Connect with students, teachers, and other knowledge field
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