Social Learning is not a new concept that has just come out of the factory—cloaked in layers of jargons and giving off the appearance of something that is impossible to wrap your wits around. We have been learning socially since ages and doing great at it; we just didn’t know it till Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory started to gain prominence in recent times. According to this theory, we learn best when we observe another person and imitate his behavior and actions. When we see our “role models” better their lives and that of others with their actions, we are inspired to learn more. You follow your favorite blogs to learn new ways of writing and how the masters play with the language. You follow art and photography sites to pick up Photoshop tricks and learn DSLR hacks. At work, you observe your peers and seniors to learn the tricks of the trade. We read self-development write-ups to learn how the achievers in our society begin their day, keep away distractions at work, and remain consistently productive. We are learning “socially” almost always. It has been proven that Social Learning is an effective training strategy for the workplace too. What is exciting is that with the advances in digital technology and the influx of social tools, the “social” element can be easily incorporated into eLearning. Because this concept is gaining ground steadily, you would want to know more about it, how your organization can implement it to create more effective training modules, the myths that surround this concept, and how to design an immersive learning experience. Luckily, experts have penned tons of material on Social Learning, and we have cherry-picked 10 of the best resources on the Web to help you find your way through the sea of information out there. The following resources are for you if you are new to the world of Social Learning.

ATD International Conference & Exposition 2016, the world’s largest event dedicated to training and talent development was held last week. A massive turnout of over 14,000 L&D professionals attended the annual 4-day conference which included keynote speakers such as Brené Brown, Simon Sinke, Jeremy Gutsche and many others. Networking opportunities and a chance to learn about cutting-edge techniques and trends also greeted attendees of this world-class event. Even if you weren’t able to attend, you can still catch all the leading thoughts, opinions, and insider insights of industry professionals who tweeted about the event using the hashtag #ATD2016. And we’ve captured the highlights for you here:

Modern Employee Training Goes Beyond Company Handbook Distribution Staff retention within a company is an aspect that can be difficult to master. Losing a valuable employee has damaging financial and managerial effects. When someone in your company leaves, you are left with a gaping hole where a wheel used to be. In order to fill it, you will need to enlist your recruiting team to find new candidates, manage to hire the right one, then re-train the next wheel to function as well as or better than the last one. Retention is not about luck. High performance within a company is directly dependent upon the intellectual capital you build internally, and this is where onboard learning comes in. Information herein pertains to ongoing education inside your company, NOT new employee orientation. The most effective contemporary onboard training will most certainly contain or be mainly comprised of elearning strategies. In this post, we'll go over how it should look like.

As the corporate world transitions from the four walls of the classroom to a more open virtual world, instructional designers are beginning to discover innovative ways to make eLearning work for learners. However, for many designers out there, it is still something “alien” that they view with excitement and curiosity mixed with trepidation. As it is with any nascent tool or trend, eLearning too is shrouded in myths. The sooner these eLearning myths are busted, the easier it would be for designers to conceive and create courses that provide value to wider audiences.

We’re living in an era where business is becoming primarily digital. As that continues, we face a bigger and bigger gap between those who use digital technology and those who understand digital technology. As this field continues to grow, companies that improve their employees’ digital skills will increase their productivity, be more innovative, and ultimately, enjoy long-term stability and increased profitability.

While your dating life might be just a swipe away, you need to treat your clients like the ones you want to marry. An eLearning designer’s job is not merely to design a course but to interact with clients (internal or external) and create a product that not only fits but anticipates their needs. In order to do this, you need to work on your relationship, build it and maintain it. With the tips you’ll find here, you will be well on your way to getting clients to say “I do” to your next project by working on creating good design and upping what you bring to the partnership.

Average skills are no longer enough to get or keep an average job, and you need even more when you are working in the technology-driven world of e-learning. As computers and machines take on almost Orwellian levels of skills and abilities, once adequate human skill sets simply aren't cutting it anymore. To give you and your e-learning team a fighting chance against the machines, learn, love and live these skills to succeed in 2016 and beyond.

It’s time to get serious about playing because when it comes to eLearning, gamification isn't just for fun. While it’s commonly assumed that gamifying your eLearning courses is merely a pleasant distraction or attention grabber, it is far more useful tool than people tend to give it credit for. According to educational video game designer Marc Prensky “students now learn differently than students did even a generation ago” and "you can't hold people's attention the way you used to.” And because of this attention problem, games are becoming more important than ever in making effective eLearning courses for the actual and coming generations. As gamification makes seemingly mundane tasks fun, using it appropriately can boost participation rates in eLearning courses, increase employee motivation and even improve retention. In this post we will take an in-depth look at why gamification can make your eLearning courses more engaging and effective.