Social media learning, which is a significant component of the
e-learning industry, is gradually being adopted in the Indian academia
and corporate in a big way. 2012 will only see more inclusion of social
media in e-learning systems across India. As Mint reports, about
a quarter of business proposals approved by one of the largest
organized angel networks in India, have been e-learning projects.
Here are the 5 big trends of social learning or e-learning in India in 2012.
Cost cutting in the education and training market
Cost cutting is always in vogue and 2012 is going to be no different. Gone are the days when Indian SMEs
and corporate will invest in hiring expensive trainers and experts for
conducting repeated training sessions for the company. By adding the
element of social learning in its training packages, corporate are going
to reap the benefits of cost cutting through e-learning. As Business Review India
reports, the advantage of doing this is that social learning training
modules can be paced according to the needs of the trainee according to
his / her speed and capability and the form and method of e-learning
content can be selected according to the degree of interactivity and
multimedia that the trainee wants.
Social Learning for Innovation
Indian companies and academia will exploit and leverage the power of
social learning for incubating think tanks and innovation in 2012. In
addition to investing the millions that innovations usually require,
social learning will enable a more inexpensive way of coming up with the
Big Idea. Social learning in India in 2012 will create benefits of
utilizing people’s undocumented knowledge, the ability to work across
time and space, making informed real time decisions and solving complex
IT issues through collaborative strategies. If you have been a student
of Knowledge Management, then you will understand that social learning
will enable the archiving of knowledge in educational institutes and
corporates which can be reused later on.
State sponsored Social Learning
2011 saw the Rajasthan State Government investing in a social
learning platform similar to Facebook, in order to provide access of
education to all possible corners of the state. As ET reported, this education social network
would include all the standard features of a social networking platform
with its central focus on educational collaboration and real time
learning.
How much of a success such state sponsored efforts would be is a
different story, but 2012 will only see more of government social
learning initiatives being out into practice. It’s time we realized that
social media learning is only going to save the state’s resources in
education. In an ideal situation, arm students with internet and
computer literacy and you need no large building infrastructures or
teachers.
More Gaming / Interactive Applications
On one hand, while India struggles to bring all its learning and
training initiatives on the electronic medium, on the other hand, social
learning trends in India in 2012 will be veering towards making
learning and training fun. While social learning through gaming add fun
to the whole academic process, it can also be used to add rewards,
points and bonuses to the regular learning system. The value addition
the social media will bring to e-learning gamification will be real
time, collaborative and competitive learning.
Strategic Implementation
Although there are many players of e-learning in the Indian market
such as Tata Interactive Services, Thomson Digital, Cognizant, Zensar
Technologies, Patni Computer Systems, Reality Information Systems and
many more who are at the top of their game, chalking out strategic
implementation of social learning in the current e-learning
infrastructure in India will be a challenge. Social learning is not a
copy paste module which can be seen reaping benefits in India as it did
in the West. The learning modes, adaption capabilities and behaviors of
Indian content consumers are different. As aptly put by Ambarish Datta,
previously Head – Technology Aided Learning at Reliance Retail,
"India is not America. Our learners are different.
We’re behind on technology, and incorporating live virtual classrooms
are not a reality for sectors such as retail. The Japanese have a ‘guru
concept’ where they must have an instructor to be able to learn – India
is similar in learning philosophies. Trends such as Web 2.0 applications
for learning… we’re actually light years away from that! Providers have
to understand and innovatively cater to buyers’ needs in India. It
isn’t the electronic platform/medium that’s important, but the overall
blended learning that enriches learners’ experiences."
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