1. What is Social Learning?
• Social learning, is all the learning
done outside of formal training,
such as classroom training and
other tracked and managed
online education. Also known as
informal training.
• It happens as a formation of
communities of people sharing
common interests, to share
information which remains
largely untracked and
unmanaged activity.

2. The Trend
• Large organizations consider this
informal sharing of information to
be the largest part of learning
process. So companies enhance
these activities and harness the
power.
• Building communities around
common interests, sharing, rating,
ranking, tagging, commenting, one-
on-one and group dialogue,
blogging, tweeting and collective
authoring take place in this new
learning world.
• And people love it. 

3. Why Social Learning?
Companies need to adopt new technologies and take advantage of the strengths of
neomillennial workers who network, multitask and share valuable information
organizationally with the proper tools.
The benefits of social learning strategies:
A successful social learning
• To promote business collaboration and informal enterprise:
learning environments in which multiple groups
share ideas, opinions and knowledge.
• is transparent in all activities
• The break down communication barriers that often • remains pro-active
emerge between different groups, time zones, and • keeps everyone informed
locations. • provides multiple feedback
loops
• To enable employees to share their unique
expertise with one another through crowd
sourcing, thus enhancing the skills of colleagues.
• To enhance the transfer of knowledge throughout
the organization.

4. Social Learning and the WEB
With the evolution of web we see online learners and they are surrounded by the
digital world, as a result have developed new ways of understanding, learning and
processing new information.
In the past, attaining "full social interaction"
The Always-On Generation
required students and teachers to be tied to
• 74% use IM every week
a physical space-such as a traditional
• 94% surf the Web for
classroom. homework help
• 41% use IM or e-mail to talk
But as the web-based and other technologies to teachers
have evolved, students and teacher alike are • 30% have used IM to find
achieving many of the social benefits of social new friends
interactions in synchronous and asynchronous
Web-based learning environments.

5. Neomillennial learners
Those born after 1982.
Online learners have grown up by
the digital world, and as a result
have developed new ways of
understanding, learning, and
processing new information.
They have grown up with the Web,
are “always-on,” and expect to
utilize technology in their learning.

6. User Experience & Social Learning
It is time to refine the
understanding of instructional
Clear
design for new content delivery Structure
to meet the expectations of
Efficient Intuitive
today’s learners as well as
closely aligned it to the learning Simple
objectives.
Engaging Supportive
It is required that we adopt new
Accessible
social networking technologies
and integrate them into the end
user’s experience and learning
style.

7. User Experience & Social Learning
Questions to ask:
• How will the use of any particular social
media element help the student
achieve full cognitive development?
• How will the use of social media
support neomillennial learning styles?
• How will the use of social networking
technologies facilitate learning situated
in a social context?
• What steps as a designer we can take to
help users decide which links will meet
the users' expectation for that link?

8. User Experience & Social Learning
How Users Read Text on the Web
• Highlighted Keywords
hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations/Color
• Meaningful sub-heading
Do not use “clever” sub-headings; the user doesn’t have time to decipher
your intended meaning
• Use one idea per paragraph
users skip over additional ideas and/or scan the text for the necessary
information
• Less is more on the web
use half the word count(or less) than conventional writing
• Use an inverted pyramid style
start with conclusion, then provide more details
J. Morkes and J. Nielsen, Applying Writing Guidelines to Web Pages, 1997.
Retrieved March 14, 2005 from www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/rewriting.html

9. User Experience & Social Learning
Navigation Structure
• Language
• Design
• Meeting Users
Expectations
J. Garrett, The Psychology of Navigation, Digital Web Magazine, 2002.
Retrieved March 25, 2005 from http://www.digital-web.com/articles/the_psychology_of_navigation

10. User Experience & Social Learning
Navigation Structure
• Users look for specific words to
• Language
conceptualize their mental image
• Design
as their target
• Meeting Users Expectations
• Users look for similar word usage
for clues on which links will lead
them to new information
• Users will mentally flag link that
reassure them they are on the right
path

11. User Experience & Social Learning
Navigation Structure
• Location of links denotes
• Language
importance. E.g., a link located at
• Design
the top of a web page denotes
• Meeting Users Expectations
importance.
• Users will try to extract all the
information they can from the
visual treatments of links, web page
design and content
• Links that are visually clustered
together are viewed as
conceptually related

12. User Experience & Social Learning
Navigation Structure
• Effective use of language, visual
• Language
design, and vocabulary may
• Design
override users’ preconceived
• Meeting Users Expectations
mental image
• Designers need to “predict” what
content users are expecting to find
by clicking a link
• Users have experience on the web
and are looking for conceptual
similarities

13. User Experience & Social Learning
Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence
• THINKING
• SENSATIONAL
• COMMUNCATIONAL
• NATURALIST
MI Descriptions Source: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_Intelligence)

14. User Experience & Social Learning
Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence
Verbal-Linguistic: To do with
• THINKING words, spoken or written. People
• SENSATIONAL in this area are generally good at
writing, oration, and learning
• COMMUNCATIONAL from lectures.
• NATURALIST
Social Software:
• Self-Publishing
• Wiki
• Podcasting
• Virtual Learning Environments (VLE)
• RSS/ATOM
• eMail
Resources:
Blogger, Type Pad, Yahoo! 360,
Wikipedia, Odeo, iPodder, Moodle,
Bloglines, FeedBurner, IMs

15. User Experience & Social Learning
Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence
Logical-mathematical: To do with
• THINKING numbers, logic, and abstractions.
• SENSATIONAL Those who favor this intelligence
• COMMUNCATIONAL generally excel in math and
• NATURALIST computer programming.
Social Software:
• Wiki
• Asynchronous newsgroups
• Social Bookmarking
(organizing/structuring information)
• iPod
Resources:
Wikipedia, WikiBooks, Yahoo Groups,
Google Groups, BlinkList, Furl, Yahoo
myWeb2.0, Pod2Go.

16. User Experience & Social Learning
Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence
Visual-spatial: To do with vision and
• THINKING
spatial judgment. Such people excel
• SENSATIONAL
in art or engineering.
• COMMUNCATIONAL
• NATURALIST
Social Software:
• Photo Social Networking
• Create Multimedia
• Games
• Instant Messaging
Resources:
Flickr, Snapfish, Picasa, Apple iMovie,
Odeo.com, Creative Commons,
Funbrain.com, PBSKids.com, IMs

17. User Experience & Social Learning
Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence
Body-kinesthetic: To do with
• THINKING
coordination, movement, and doing.
• SENSATIONAL
These people tend to learn better by
• COMMUNCATIONAL
doing things and interacting.
• NATURALIST
Social Software:
• Social Bookmarking
• Online Gamers
• Instant Messaging
• Multimedia
Resources:
Tapped-In, Blink List, Furl, De.Lico.us

18. User Experience & Social Learning
Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence
Auditory-musical: To do with hearing.
• THINKING Music helps them work better, and
• SENSATIONAL helps them learn better from
• COMMUNCATIONAL lectures.
• NATURALIST
Social Software:
• Podcasting
• Audio-Blogging
• Audio Books
• iPod
• Voice Messaging
Resources:
AudioBlogger, Audible.com, iTunes,
YackPack

19. User Experience & Social Learning
Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence
Interpersonal-communications:
• THINKING To do with interaction with others.
• SENSATIONAL Tend to learn better in discussions.
• COMMUNCATIONAL
• NATURALIST Social Software:
• Synchronous Learning
• Communities
• Instant Messaging w/VOIP
• Asynchronous Newsgroups
• Wiki
• Self-Publishing
Resources:
Tappin-in, ParaChat, HaloScan,
KwikiKwiki, PBWiki

20. User Experience & Social Learning
Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence
Intrapersonal-communication:
• THINKING
To do with oneself. Tend to learn
• SENSATIONAL
better in self-regulated learning
• COMMUNCATIONAL
activities.
• NATURALIST
Social Software:
• Newsgroups
• Social Bookmarking
• Wiki
• Podcasts
Resources:
Blackboard, SocialText

21. User Experience & Social Learning
Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence
Nature: People in this category are not
• THINKING only good with life but also with the
• SENSATIONAL various functions of it and mechanisms
behind it.
• COMMUNCATIONAL
• NATURALIST People in this group tend to end up in
biology, or environmental oriented
careers
Social Software:
• Newsgroups
• Photo Social Network
• Self-Publishing
• Social Bookmarking
• Multimedia
• Podcasting
Resources:
All resources covered previously

22. Social Leaning Portals
“an information space through which people can communicate . . . by sharing their
knowledge in a pool.”
Tim Berner-Lee

23. Conclusion
However, as user experience designers it is mandatory to be careful not to use
social networking for the sake of using social technology. And keep in mind how the
use of any type of technology element can support social learning—individually or
as a collective group.
The neomillennial “always on” student will control the how, what, and when a task
is completed.

24. Thank you!
Sandeep Rathod.
User Experience Architect
Mumbai | Bangalore | India
Cell: +91 9916690976
email: sandeeprathod@hotmail.com
LinkedIn.com: http://in.linkedin.com/in/inklingsutra