How to Build a Digital Learning Community

As businesses and technology change and a new generation of employees enters the workforce, companies need continuous learning and corporate knowledge sharing more than ever. That’s why HR managers, corporate trainers, and learning professionals are constantly looking for new and effective ways to create a culture of learning — and learning communities are a great way of doing this.

However, building a learning community can be a challenge, especially when it comes to choosing the right tools and strategies. In this article, we will give you clear guidelines for building your own corporate learning community, including which stakeholders and roles to consider, what to look for in a software, and how to keep employees active and engaged in the long term.

A digital learning community is an online space where people can come together to share knowledge, collaborate, and learn using digital platforms and tools. While it incorporates elements of e-learning, the focus is on collaborative learning more than individual study. Learning communities allow members to exchange ideas, ask questions, and participate in discussions, and they are often centered around specific topics, industries, or learning goals.

Some familiar examples of learning communities that you may already have encountered are: 

• Online platforms such as Reddit
• Facebook groups dedicated to a specific topic
• Educational platforms like Udemy or Coursera that allow users to collaborate

Corporate learning communities might use some of the elements seen in the communities above. Still, there is a key difference: they are private, internal communities for the employees of a company. A corporate learning community is ultimately a form of knowledge management that includes many collaborative and interactive elements. They can also include traditional e-learning courses and modules, but the focus is more on interactive learning.

A corporate learning community might include: 

• A company’s corporate academy
• Curated third-party content
• User-generated content
• Chat rooms or forums where employees can ask and answer questions
• Interactive onboarding for new employees
   

Corporate learning communities offer a host of benefits for companies. They can help employees exchange ideas, collaborate, and learn from one another. In particular, they support cross-departmental learning and help to improve knowledge retention. They can also improve productivity by helping employees access the information they need quickly and easily. Much like a knowledge management program, they can make it easier to onboard new employees, upskill existing employees, and ensure that everyone has access to the information they need to do their jobs as well as possible.

Corporate learning communities can also help improve employee retention. A TNS Infratest study found that corporate training offerings are key to retaining employees, and learning communities are a great way to provide that. They can also — as the name implies — help to build a sense of community among employees, which additionally boosts morale and retention.

Because learning communities offer so many different ways of getting information, they make it easier for employees to learn in whatever way is best for them. If you have ever created learning personas for your employees, you’ll know how different their learning needs might be! 

How to plan your learning community to reach your goals
It might be tempting to dive right in and start designing your learning community from the ground up. But before you do that, you should stop to identify your goals for it. Having a clear goal in mind will help you choose between different options — and measure success.

Here are some points to consider in your planning process:

• What will your budget be for the learning community?
• What gaps or weak spots in your corporate training and knowledge management do you hope to fill?
• Which employees will be part of the learning community? If your company has both back-office and retail employees, for example, will both groups participate?
• How will you measure the success of your community? By engagement? By measuring innovation? With user surveys?
• How will you roll out the community and introduce it to employees?
• Who will be responsible for managing and maintaining it?

Once you have answered these questions, you’ll be ready to create a clear action plan. There will also be more questions to answer as you move forward with the process. For example, you’ll need to define roles and responsibilities in more detail.

Here are some of the roles you should consider to make your learning community a success:
 

You might also want to integrate extra tools and features that your LMS or LXP doesn’t already include. For example, you could add situation-based learning with a tool such as Knowledgeworker Coach, or add microlearning with digital flashcards such as Knowledgeworker Cards. Or, if your LMS doesn’t offer the discussion tools you need, you could integrate it with an external solution such as Slack or Microsoft Teams. These types of apps can extend the functionality of whatever LMS you choose.

It takes thoughtful planning and consistent moderation to foster engagement and growth in a learning community. When you first roll out the community, you’ll need to make a concerted effort to generate interest in the community and get employees in the habit of using it. Moderation is key in this early stage, as it will set the tone for how people participate and communicate. If users post something inappropriate (like funny GIFs or unrelated memes), a quick reminder will keep others from going off-topic.

Moderators can also play a key role in boosting engagement: they can tag users to help answer questions, open up and encourage discussions, and design events to keep users active and engaged. They can also gather feedback from users to help managers adapt content, refine communication, and meet learners' needs more effectively.

Gamification and reward systems can be used to encourage participation. For example, users might get badges for answering a certain number of questions, or you could use a leaderboard to encourage friendly competition. You could also use events and challenges — like a challenge to get all unanswered questions answered by the end of the week — to encourage employees to work together to earn a reward. These strategies help create an active community that keeps employees engaged and learning.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) for corporate learning communities should include metrics like engagement rates, user satisfaction, and course completion rates. There are a number of different engagement metrics that you could track, including log-in frequency, number of discussions, number of questions answered, and more. You should also consider monitoring feedback and satisfaction scores to see how employees feel about the new community and how it can better meet their needs. By regularly analyzing these KPIs, managers can identify areas that could use some improvement, adjust learning content, introduce new engagement strategies, and ensure the community continues to meet your company’s goals.