Here's How To Choose The Best Social And Collaborative Learning Platforms
What is social and collaborative learning and how can learning platforms focused on these approaches help your business? To put it simply, social and collaborative learning platforms are tools managers and businesses can leverage to enhance the learning experience, as users learn from and with others.
The main focus of these learning solutions is that learners can share knowledge and interact with one another. Of course, as with every need, there are a whole bunch of collaborative and social learning platforms you can use to engage your learners. But do they have the right features? For example, you might like to use course sharing and commenting. Or maybe you're interested in utilizing course ratings, blogs, and course discussions. Choosing one of the best social and collaborative learning platforms out there can give a nudge and make training more engaging. Even for team members that have never taken a course in their lives.
As we move forward, social and collaborative learning platforms are the way to go. After all, company growth and success are all about teamwork and collaboration. However, if you want to allow users to collaborate, share, and comment on your organization's learning experiences, you need to do so on a secure and trusted network. That's a must for both informal and formal learning experiences.
To help you make a better decision for your business needs, we selected the best LMS vendors in the market to empower your teams to share knowledge.
Check out this top list to:
- Discover must-have LMS features for social and collaborative learning.
- Get ideas for use cases and explore other success stories.
- Read reviews and compare top LMS platforms.
Keep reading and make your own decision on which LMS tool best fits your social and collaborative learning needs.
The Best Social And Collaborative Learning Platforms
If your company is listed among the Top LMS Solutions for Social and Collaborative Learning in 2023, feel free to add this badge to your website.
360Learning's comprehensive learning platform combines LMS and LXP capabilities coupled with collaborative learning Academies to power your business's upskilling flywheel.
Discover the learning platform powered by collaborative learning.
Want to learn more about the UX? Explore 360Learning reviews in our directory.
Highlights
- Learning Needs
- Co-Authoring
- Reaction Score
Highlights
- Learning Needs
Crowdsource learning needs from the bottom up. Enable learners to raise needs in their flow of work. Lean on internal experts to answer needs and alleviate the pressure for L&D to triage.
- Co-Authoring
Collaborate with your internal experts to accelerate the pace of course creation. Authors can message and provide feedback with a private forum directly in the course.
- Reaction Score
Keep your training up to date and relevant to your learners with the Reaction Score that allows you to easily identify courses that need attention.
Plans And Pricing
Foster collaborative learning with 360Learning. Crowdsource learning needs, pinpoint skill gaps, connect with in-demand experts. Enable expert L&D collaboration, scale course development while maintaining control, and ensure quality and engagement with real-time feedback.
Engage your people, build stronger team bonds, and encourage knowledge sharing with social learning. Keep the conversation and training flowing with collaborative learning tools on the LMS trusted by 70K+ teams just like yours.
Do you want to start sharing expertise to get the best out of employee engagement?
Sign up for your forever-free account today.
For TalentLMS reviews, make sure to visit our directory.
Highlights
- Blend The Training Experience
- Pool Your Team's Knowledge
- Foster A Healthy Sense Of Competition
Highlights
- Blend The Training Experience
Increase interactive participation with built-in videoconferencing tools (or integrate your favorite). Host webinars, live discussions, and ILT to boost knowledge retention.
- Pool Your Team's Knowledge
Recreate the classroom's social dynamic online. Encourage the exchange of ideas between both passive and active learners on discussion boards.
- Foster A Healthy Sense Of Competition
Make social learning fun and addictive. See your learners strive to beat their best (and each other's) scores on leaderboards with badges and trophies.
Plans And Pricing
Test TalentLMS free, forever. Upgrade to a paid plan only when you're ready. And, with adaptable pricing, you'll always find a cost-effective plan to meet your needs.
An experience-driven learning platform that includes a full-fledged social learning engine, this LMS helps offer highly effective trainings to employees, partners, and customers. Plus, it enables all learners to engage at every level.
Would you like to join some of the world's best brands, that use Adobe Learning Manager to engage their learners?
Explore Adobe Learning Manager reviews.
Highlights
- Peer-To-Peer Informal Learning
- Engagement Driven By Personalization And Collaboration
- Engaged Learners With Gamification, Certifications, And Badges
Highlights
- Peer-To-Peer Informal Learning
Use social learning to share knowledge on social learning boards aligned to specific skills.
- Engagement Driven By Personalization And Collaboration
AI-based recommendations, learning paths, and dashboards make training fun and engaging.
- Engaged Learners With Gamification, Certifications, And Badges
Recognize and reward social learning participation, in addition to the gamification engine aligned to learning progress.
Plans And Pricing
Adobe Learning Manager has the tools to set your team up for success. Choose between active user or monthly user plans based on your use case. Best of all? You can start off your courses with a few simple clicks. Designing learning paths is so much easier when you have the right tool. Plus, you can even make learning plans to register your learners automatically!
iSpring is a global vendor of training software and tools that help businesses engage teams, partners, or clients with high-quality eLearning. Over 51,000 customers choose iSpring to improve their corporate cultures daily.
Do you want to enjoy the full power of social learning in a business context?
Check iSpring Learn reviews.
Highlights
- Org Chart And Corporate Portal
- Messaging And Discussion Boards
- Integrations
Highlights
- Org Chart And Corporate Portal
Enable colleagues to find needed contacts in any department or subsidiary. Post attention-grabbing news and collect people's reactions to increase engagement.
- Messaging And Discussion Boards
Learners can ask SMEs questions on discussion boards or via direct messages. They have personal profiles on the platform and can leave reviews on courses.
- Integrations
Launch MS Teams or Zoom meetings right on the platform. Create an entire ecosystem for learning and collaboration by bridging your favorite software with iSpring Learn through REST API.
Plans And Pricing
An extensive set of social learning and collaboration features is available within the Business pricing plan of iSpring Learn. The price starts from $3.14 per month. The iSpring Learn LMS comes with an online tool for collaboration on courses: iSpring Suite Max.
Learning Pool recognizes the importance of social and collaborative learning, and that's why their platform, Stream LXP, focuses a lot on sharing knowledge. Leverage their course format and gamified elements to transform the LXP into a social platform and beyond. They can surely help you deliver upskilling, social, and end-user learning at its best.
Try Stream LXP, a learning suite that evolves with your ambition.
For more info, explore Stream LXP reviews in our directory.
Highlights
- Social Intelligence Dashboard
- Manager Sign-Off And Feedback
- User-Generated Content
Highlights
- Social Intelligence Dashboard
Unique semantic and sentiment analysis reporting provides unparalleled insight into engagement and positivity to identify high fliers and those that require intervention.
- Manager Sign-Off And Feedback
Connect team members with their managers across any device, including 1-2-1 feedback messages and OTJ sign-off.
- User-Generated Content
Learners create their own content directly from any device to share with tutors and other users, to create communities of inquiry around learners' submissions.
Plans And Pricing
Stream Learning Suite puts social and collaborative learning at the heart of the modern, connected, personalized, and effective learning experience that today's learners expect. Seamlessly integrated with the lowest total cost of ownership in its class.
Create better learning experiences with ELB Learning. They offer a comprehensive product suite and services to achieve training goals, including an LMS that makes social and collaborative learning easy.
Get a free account or schedule a demo at elblearning.com.
Visit our directory for Rockstar Learning Platform reviews.
Highlights
- User-Generated Content
- Microlearning Module Builder
- Easy Management
Highlights
- User-Generated Content
Easily source knowledge from SMEs in your organization to share with those who need it. Upload text, images, or videos, reuse them, and personalize them for learner groups.
- Microlearning Module Builder
Your SMEs can create simple microlearning on the fly inside the Rockstar Learning Platform.
- Easy Management
Publish to desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. Automate enrollment, set recurring training for compliance, certification, and more. Single sign-on available, too.
Plans And Pricing
The Rockstar Learning Platform scales to accommodate organizations of any size, including large enterprises with globally dispersed offices. Pricing plans are based on the learner and admin count and can be upgraded with authoring tools, courseware, and data migration.
Schoox makes learning fun and rewarding with personalized content, an easy-to-use mobile app, gamification, communication tools, and intuitive user experiences that look and feel familiar to employees.
Do you want to boost morale, motivate learners, and enhance the employee experience?
Get a demo and start engaging learners to achieve results.
For user input, make sure to read Schoox reviews in our directory.
Highlights
- Personalize Learning Experiences
- Foster A Learning Culture
- Explore Career Paths
Highlights
- Personalize Learning Experiences
Use AI algorithms and custom rules to assign relevant content, recommend courses based on a variety of factors, plus so much more.
- Foster A Learning Culture
Connect people using news feeds and message boards, while leaning into gamification, leaderboards, and badges to make learning fun.
- Explore Career Paths
Empower employees to choose their path forward and build skills by highlighting career paths and content based on role, skills, and more.
Plans And Pricing
Schoox helps you take people's skills to the next level—and your business with it. Spark genuine connections by giving learners the tools to participate in social learning that builds relationships, boosts company culture, and fosters a feeling of belonging.
Meridian integrates workflow with collaboration and innovative learning capabilities, enhancing the learning environment. The platform's advanced analytics tools provide valuable data-driven insights to promote continuous improvement.
Learn how Meridian LMS seamlessly integrates learning into your everyday activities.
To read Meridian LMS reviews, make sure to visit our directory.
Highlights
- Blended Learning
- Interactive Learning
- Social Collaboration And Cohorts
Highlights
- Blended Learning
Elevate customer engagement by delivering a combination of online and in-person training methods. Meridian LMS is also AI-powered. Thus, it empowers you to create personalized experiences for your learners.
- Interactive Learning
Meridian LMS allows you to create a proactive training plan. You can easily manage your interactive learning activities and get 360 feedback that goes beyond what's possible within a traditional classroom environment.
- Social Collaboration And Cohorts
If you want to keep your workforce engaged, Meridian LMS gives you plenty of flexible opportunities. You can use it not only for collaboration, but for self-improvement as well.
Plans And Pricing
What's best about Meridian is that it strives to seamlessly integrate the learning environment into your everyday activities and workflows. In today's workplace, there is a need for collaboration, no matter the equipment or the environment. Thankfully, Meridian provides all the solutions you need to make that possible.
Top List Ranking: eLearning Industry's LMS Selection Criteria
Globally recognized LMS experts, including C. Pappas and our editorial team, did a thorough review of each vendor's eligibility and relevant published content (articles, eBooks, webinars). Our committee ranked the top LMS solutions for learning accessibility on the following 9 criteria:
- Customer support
- Customer experience
- Software features
- Software innovation
- Customer reviews
- Economic growth potential
- Company's customer retention
- Employee turnover
- Company's social responsibility
Now that you've gone through our top LMS list rankings, please make sure to read our tips and insights. All the information shared below will help you choose the best tool for your social and collaborative learning platform needs.
Benefits Of Social And Collaborative Learning Technologies
Many organizations choose social learning platforms as a solution so that they can create, manage, and deliver engaging employee training programs. These solutions are a bit different than the typical Learning Management Systems (LMS), mainly because they empower learners to interact using the model of social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. If your team enjoys this model, you'll have no problem engaging people and providing a human context to their learning experiences with these platforms.
On the other hand, collaborative learning platforms allow a group of people to join together. They can either choose to solve a problem or learn a new skill. Or they can even work on creating a service or a product. Most of these platforms are designed to unleash the full potential of high-growth start-ups and businesses.
By combining the LMS with online collaborative tools, you help your teams access collective expertise and share knowledge on the spot. Here are only some of the benefits of social and collaborative learning platforms:
- Preparing learners for real-world situations
- Capturing important decisions and collating key discussions
- Putting training material into context for deeper learning
- Opening learners to new perspectives to understanding a problem
- Affording trainees opportunities for communication and leadership
What I love about these social LMS platforms is that you can learn and collaborate in the flow of work. It's not just that you can create content and share knowledge. You get to develop as a group and empower your Subject Matter Experts.
The Best Features Social And Collaborative Learning Platforms Should Have
Social and collaborative learning platforms can contain a wide range of features. Most of them tap into the active learning benefits so that training becomes more engaging.
Let's see some of the most desirable features of a social and collaborative learning platform:
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Competitive Gamification
Studies have shown that incorporating game elements into work improves learning outcomes. Gamification allows you to empower learners with rewards and badges! You can utilize them to incentivize learning and get them thirsty for more. Plus, interactive quizzes and team challenges can make things even more exciting as collaboration comes into play. Gamification is the way to go if you want to encourage active learning and make your workplace more fun.
-
Peer Feedback
Having a constant flow of constructive feedback will help drive learning and performance. Truth be told, learning material needs to continuously improve. So, getting peer feedback will help everyone stay updated and be more effective. No critique, just tips for improvement. Also, video conferencing tool integration is crucial for feedback and communication.
-
Social Q&A
Utilizing a live Q&A can fill in information gaps very fast. And your co-workers will ask questions. So, having this feature helps them get immediate answers from fellow learners. Combining a social Q&A with a discussion forum is a plus! This is a must if you're looking for an efficient knowledge-sharing system. In addition, it'll save you much time since you'll be able to resolve open questions in batches.
-
Video Creation
What's more engaging than creating your own animated videos, right? Using this feature will help your information get easily digested and make information retention a breeze.
-
SCORM Compliance
You'll need your platform to have SCORM compatibility if you're planning to purchase third-party courses.
LMS Vendor Selection And Evaluation For Social And Collaborative Learning
For me, collaborative learning is a favorite training methodology because employees get the chance to share their subject-matter expertise. And they can do so as a group. That's perfect for team building. Also, learning from peers and teaching courses based on your own experience and knowledge can make a massive difference for the company you're working for. Why? Because gained knowledge stays within the company and expands. This is essential if you're planning to scale.
Some learning platforms enable collaborative learning by including social, peer-based, and collaborative elements within the UI of the learning experience itself. In contrast, others offer them as an add-on. Thus, when choosing your learning platform, try to define if all the features you need are included. Also, ensure that the learning experience is something your team members will enjoy.
Please consider these for your LMS comparison and evaluation:
- Discussion forums, Q&A, reactions, peer feedback
- Gamification elements and engagement tools
- Video creation and video conferencing integration
- Explore reviews, awards won, and relevant success stories
- Make sure to take some LMS free trials to get more insight
Active learning is key to success, and implementing a social and collaborative learning platform can bring you one step closer to your goals. According to a recent study, organizations that focus on collaboration are five times more likely to drive high performance.
If you're ready to introduce more human interaction to your learning approach, you can try any of the learning platforms in this top list!
Next Steps
As you can understand, there's a wide variety of online learning collaboration platforms. Some of them are better for companies, while others are the best fit for educational institutions. Either way, your needs or the needs of your colleagues or employees is what will define your LMS decision.
Things are shifting, and in a post-pandemic world, collaboration is once again a top priority for companies. No matter if you're on a hybrid model, remote working, or have returned to the office, implementing collaborative learning will help you stay ahead in the game.
Are you curious to learn more?
Feel free to explore our collaborative learning resources!
We hope that this top list helped you find the one social and collaborative learning platform that can help you achieve your exceptional goals while working on it alongside your colleagues.