In the last article, we discussed what social learning is and how it can benefit training programs. This time, let us discuss how beneficial this is in your virtual classroom.
Surely you have heard the statement: no man is an island. Humanity cannot survive on their own. We need others to be around us because we are social beings. We love to watch other people and they do the same with us. We thrive beside one another because that is how it was meant to be from the very beginning.
Given that natural characteristic, you should understand how social learning can prove to be an effective method when one is learning online. A virtual classroom may be convenient but you have to understand that it is also quite lonely. But that does not have to be the case when you implement a bit of social learning into it.
In psychology, there is a concept called the Social Learning Theory that was developed by Albert Bandura in the 1960s. This theory believed that people can learn while they are observing others around them. We can easily adapt into an idea as long as we see it frequently being done by people we are in close proximity with.
But how can it be done in a virtual classroom? How is this possible online?
Surely you have observed the success of social media. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and various social media sites have succeeded in bring people together. The great thing about this is, you do not have to see someone to be able to connect with them. You get to know what they are doing, how their life turned out by simply looking at what they post online.
You know what is amazing about this attitude? Nobody is asking you to do it. We are naturally curious and concerned about these people – that is why are keeping in touch through social media.
These are two important concepts that you can implement in your virtual classroom. First of all, you need to encourage your learners to share what they know. Let them feed off each other’s knowledge and stand back as they increase it just by observing.
The next concept that your virtual classroom can benefit from is the initiative to pay attention. You do not have to work too hard to keep them interested. You simply have to know what interest them so you can present your topics in a way that is appealing to your learners. When you are successful, you can just watch them explore and learn on their own. This will help develop a habit of self exploration. The learners coming from your virtual classroom will come out of it with a habit of learning things on their own.
The great thing about using social learning is you do not have to develop an entirely new habit. This is something that is already deep rooted in all of us. You do not have to do much to bring this out in every learner that you will encounter in your virtual classroom. You just have to tap it and it will come out on its own. In fact, most of your learners are probably using this already – they just did not know it. So might as well use it for something more productive than merely browsing someone else’s Facebook page.
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