Social learning is the process of learning through interaction with, and observation of, other people — colleagues, managers, peers, and subject matter experts. Based on Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, it recognises that people learn as much from watching and discussing with others as from formal training programmes. In the 70:20:10 framework, social learning accounts for 20% of effective learning — the “learning from others” component.
Social Learning in the Workplace
- Peer discussion forums: Communities of practice where employees ask questions, share solutions, and learn from each other’s experience
- Mentoring and coaching: Structured one-to-one knowledge transfer from experienced to developing employees
- User-generated content: Employees creating short explainer videos, tips, or guides based on their own expertise
- Collaborative projects: Cross-functional work that requires learning from colleagues with different skills
- Social feeds in the LMS: Activity streams where learners share completions, badges, and comments — creating visibility and social proof
- Live group sessions: VILT and webinars where peer perspectives enrich the learning beyond the facilitator’s content alone
Why L&D Teams Should Design for Social Learning
Most workplace learning happens informally — in corridors, over lunch, in Slack threads, and during project debriefs. L&D teams that ignore social learning are designing for the 20% of learning that happens in formal training while ignoring the 80% that happens everywhere else. Building social learning features into an LMS — forums, peer recognition, collaborative assignments, and knowledge sharing tools — makes the informal learning visible, searchable, and scalable.
Social learning built into EdzLMS
Discussion forums, peer recognition, and collaborative learning — alongside structured courses in one platform.
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