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Using user-generated content in your company’s e-learning program

 
 

If you’re involved in developing your company’s e-learning program, you might be wondering about adding user-generated content (UGC) to your courses.  UGC can be used to fill gaps in your existing learning materials, add updated information to evergreen courses, and tailor courses to your company’s specific needs — all while reducing content creation costs and boosting engagement. However, there are several important issues to consider before getting started.  In this article, we’ll explain what user-generated content is, how it can help your business, and how to avoid some of the most common pitfalls.

 

 

So what exactly is user-generated content?

User-generated content is content created by private individuals rather than professional content creators. The concept originated with social media, as platform users began uploading their own videos, writing, and pictures for others to see. Of course, your company’s user-generated content will be more purpose-driven than cat pictures and memes!  But the principle is still the same. 

In a corporate e-learning context, user-generated content refers to learning material that is produced by employees (the content creators) and shared within the organization. It could encompass anything from videos to blog posts, infographics, or even podcasts.

 

 

The advantages of user-generated content for corporate e-learning

User-generated content comes with a host of benefits for the content creators, their peers, and the company as a whole. Content creators often find it empowering and motivating to share their knowledge with their coworkers, and learners benefit from having learning materials that are specific to the company and their working environment.  In addition, the company benefits from having a steady stream of fresh, up-to-date learning material at a relatively low cost.  Here are some of the other benefits of UGC in e-learning:

 

Motivation and engagement

Many employees will get a boost in motivation when they are chosen to create learning material for colleagues — it’s a form of recognition for their talents and accomplishments. It can also be more engaging for employees to learn from colleagues rather than from strangers with no connection to their company.  User-generated content can include details that are relevant to your organization, which adds variety and helps users connect more with the material.

 

Peer-to-peer learning

Having subject-matter experts within your company share their knowledge helps to create a culture of collaborative learning. Employees begin to see each other as sources of knowledge and know who they can turn to when they have questions.

 

Cost efficiency

Producing custom e-learning content can get expensive if you hire out the entire process to professional content creators. Employee-generated content can help you produce fresh content on a regular basis with less expense.

 

Timeliness and relevance:

UGC essentially lets you “crowdsource” your content, which can significantly speed up production time. Once you have the process nailed down, you can quickly produce relevant, up-to-date learning materials as new content needs emerge or policies and procedures in your organization change.

 

 
Nadine Pedro
[Translate to English:] Nadine Pedro, chemmedia AG

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Challenges of using UGC in corporate e-learning programs

While user-generated content has a multitude of benefits, there are also some potential pitfalls to avoid and hurdles to overcome. These include copyright issues and data protection, quality assurance, and potential hesitancy on the part of your content creators.

Copyright and data protection are a major point of concern, especially for European companies. On the one hand, you will need to provide guidelines for your employees regarding the use of copyrighted materials or personal data in their content. On the other hand, you will need appropriate permission to use the materials your employees have produced and to share their names or other relevant information within the course. Consult with your company’s legal department to make sure that these issues are addressed appropriately.

You’ll also need to provide clear instructions to your employees about what content to create and how to create it.  Ensure that the topic and desired result of the training is described in detail, and give employees advice on structuring their lessons — don’t assume that everyone will remember to have an introduction, body, and conclusion! If they are writing a blog post or an infographic, provide a suggested length, formatting requirements and/or required output format. Treat this like you would a creative brief — because that’s essentially what it is.

You may find that some employees are hesitant to create user-generated content. They might be afraid to “put themselves out there” and risk possible criticism. Or they may not realize how valuable their specialist knowledge is and feel worried that they have “nothing to share”. Fortunately, both of these issues can easily be overcome with the right training and support. 

It may also be helpful to communicate enthusiastically and clearly about the new e-learning content within your company. If employees understand the goals of the user-generated content and recognize that all levels of management consider it a valuable resource, it will boost acceptance and appreciation of the new learning material.

 

Best practices for implementing user-generated content in your company

Getting started with UGC isn’t difficult, but you’ll want to create a structured plan to guide everyone through the content creation, editing, approval, and implementation processes. Here are some tips to get started.

 

 

Create a content plan

Before you dive into creating user-generated content, you’ll need to do some prep work. Start by reviewing your existing e-learning materials. Ask yourself questions such as:

  • What content is currently missing or needs to be updated?
  • Which employees would be best suited to creating this content? Who is a subject matter expert and also willing to appear on camera or write?
  • What content format(s) do we want to use?
     
 

Create guidelines and define workflows

Create guidelines (creative briefs) for your employees. Here are some of the details to include:

  • What exactly should they discuss? Go beyond just naming the topic: explain what is missing from your current course material or what questions employees need to have answered. 
  • How long should the content be?
  • Share any relevant material that might help them get started — this could be existing course content, internal documents, or relevant blog articles from other sources.
  • If employees are creating content to supplement an existing course, be sure to give them access to the course and explain which gaps need to be filled.

 

Next, define your workflow for editing, approving, and publishing the user-generated content. Do you want employees to upload their own content to your LMS? Or should it be edited and published by a member of your team? When creating your plan, remember that editing and moderating UGC may require a bit more effort than professionally created content. 
There may even be opportunities to refresh existing courses with low-effort UGC. For example, you could have subject-matter experts leave comments in existing courses to explain a nuanced issue in more detail. Or you might just have them upload existing documents to a course to provide learners with additional background information. You can get creative here — whatever works for your company is fair game!
 

 

Decide on the right tools

The right tools make all the difference. With a user-friendly authoring tool, your employees can easily learn to upload their own content to your LMS or even put together a whole course with the materials they have created. Ideally, your authoring tool will have collaborative features and an integrated review process that will make it easy to review and adjust new content before publication.

Alternatively, employees could submit their content in text form, and you could have a course author go in and supplement the written content with audio, video, or graphics from your media library or with other modules from your existing course content.

 

Tool comparison

Banner comparison authoring software
Visualization of authoring software comparison in e-learning

The ultimate authoring tool comparison

Articulate 360, Lectora, and Knowledgeworker Create

This comparison of 3 popular authoring tools in e-learning will help you to understand the advantages and disadvantages of different authoring tools so that you can make the right choice for your own company. You will find out which authoring tool best suits your needs and the needs of your employees based on its functions and thus makes the learning process more effective and efficient.

 
 

Integrating UGC into your learning management system

When adding your user-generated content to your learning management system, you’ll want to consider how to make it easy to reuse. Can the material be broken down into smaller chunks, which could be more versatile and easier to incorporate into future courses? As always, be sure to add appropriate labels and tags so the content can be found easily and added to courses and learning paths as needed. 

In many cases, you’ll add UGC to existing courses to make them more relevant to your specific organization or to give the content an update. You could also create an entire course using user-generated content — for example, an onboarding guide for new employees. The choice is yours.

 

The bottom line.

Because UGC is created by real people within your organization, it feels more realistic and relevant — and that appeals to many employees. User-generated content can help to create a culture of collaborative learning and allow your company’s subject-matter experts to share their specialist knowledge in an easily digestible format. 

User-generated content can also be used to help you keep your e-learning content fresh, relevant, and up-to-date — without costing a fortune. While there will be a certain time investment required to organize and create the content, the overall costs will be much lower than hiring the job out to professional course creators.

It may take some time and effort to get your UGC program up and running. But by following the tips presented in this article, you’ll set your company up for success and have a steady stream of fresh, low-cost learning content at your fingertips.

 
Kristal Fellinger Copywriter and Translator
Kristal Fellinger
Copywriter & Translator
 
 

Title image: Juicy FOTO/shutterstock.com