As we delve into the world of UGC, we set the stage for a deeper understanding of its significance in modern learning environments. This concept enhances the learning experience and aligns with the evolving needs of today’s learners and organisations.
What is UGC?
User-generated content (UGC) has been a concept in learning management systems for some time. In the learning context, it refers to content created by learners, beyond what formal education organisations provide. Rather than just passive consumption, users actively generate and share their own learning materials for others to consume. Content such as videos, podcasts, blogs, infographics, and virtual communities foster collaboration, knowledge exchange, and a sense of community. This allows learners to contribute to the learning content and enhance the overall learning experience.
While these concepts are not new, L&D leaders have grappled with the creation and distribution of learner-generated content, figuring out how to harness the power of UGC, link it to learning outcomes, and manage the creation and distribution of learner-generated content so that it enhances the learning environment rather than comprises it.
Further, as productivity platforms, like Teams and Slack, and social media continue to serve as sources for user-generated content, corporate learning management systems are being tapped to monitor and measure how they are used to enhance career progression and company productivity.
How are L&D teams leveraging user-generated content?
We interviewed several customers and other industry professionals to find out how they’d like to use user-generated content in their organisations. We found enthusiasm for allowing their colleagues to contribute more but trepidation about how that would look and be managed. Our research participants made it clear that maintaining the security and integrity of their LMS was extremely important to them.
Our customer-led research provided a blueprint for what would make L&D practitioners excited about UGC functionality:
- Easy to enable specific groups to share content
- Easy to deploy to specific users or groups
- Support for a variety of non-traditional formats, such as videos, documents, PowerPoint presentations, and links to resources on the Internet
- Signposting to make it clear to learners who created or uploaded the content
- Separation of peer-created content from company-created content for the purpose of maintenance and reporting
- Quick and simple ways for L&D teams to manage the flow of new content
The New UGC features in Kallidus Learn
At Kallidus, we adopt an agile work methodology. This involves thorough research conducted with our customers to inform product enhancements.
Our new UGC feature set facilitates knowledge-sharing among learners, enabling them to overcome siloed knowledge, preserve insights when people exit the business and blend informal wisdom with formal training.
If an organisation wants to narrow controls for UGC so that only subject matter experts can create content, we’ve prioritised enabling a simple workflow to gather content from SMEs. This simplifies the journey of content curation from trusted people into the LMS. If an organisation wants to use UGC more broadly, the platform lets you link communication and collaboration tools that are used daily to User-Generated workflows in the LMS.
It’s time to see how you can benefit from UGC in your organisation. Click to learn more about Learn LMS and book some time to see the UGC feature set.
