Your best trainers are your employees. Make the most of their talent with collaborative learning!

According to Digiforma, only 30% of professional training courses are completed. This figure clearly shows that there is still a problem with traditional learning methods, which are not very conducive to interaction, and therefore to the deep involvement of learners.

Faced with this situation, some companies are turning to a new learning method that seems to be winning over employees: collaborative learning. By offering a more dynamic experience focused on their real needs, collaborative learning quite simply gives employees a renewed appetite for learning.

This article reveals the ins and outs of collaborative learning, so that you too can take your professional training to the next level!

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What exactly is collaborative learning?

Definition of collaborative learning

Collaborative learning is a corporate training method that enables employees to share their knowledge and learn from each other.

Collaborative learning is based on a clear premise: when the need arises to develop certain knowledge and skills, you may already have one or more employees in your organisation who possess just such knowledge and skills. In that case, why call on external contributors? You might as well capitalise on it 😉.

This approach echoes the new management models, and therefore the desire of employees to move towards greater horizontality and autonomy.

☝️ Collaborative learning should not be confused with cooperative learning. The latter involves working in small groups to solve a given problem.

Differences between traditional vocational training and collaborative learning

What are the 6 benefits of collaborative learning?

#1 More committed employees

Collaborative learning works like a decentralised peer-to-peer system, in which employees become more independent and more proactive.

In this scheme, it is they who express the need for skills upgrading, as opposed to the top-down model where the initiative comes from management, training managers or human resources. And that strengthens employee commitment.

😀 Employee commitment is also strengthened on the side of the employee responsible for sharing their knowledge, because their expertise is recognised.

#2 More relevant teaching content

With this method, your training courses become more relevant, since they are delivered by members of the company who know and understand your specific business, your issues, etc.

The result is programmes and learning paths that are much more rooted in reality, enabling learners to put the knowledge they acquire into perspective with their day-to-day tasks. And that, too, helps them learn better!

#3 More effective learning

Collaborative learning is also more effective in terms of the quality of instruction, since we are dealing with active learning, which is conducive to knowledge retention.

In other words, thanks to this process, employees memorise more information than if they passively watch videos or simply follow a lecture.

#4 More agile businesses

Collaborative learning makes it much easier to respond quickly to an emerging training need in the organisation. If someone in the organisation has the knowledge that other employees lack, you might as well take advantage of it rather than waste time finding an external trainer, organising sessions, etc.

In this way, the company gains in flexibility, which is a significant competitive advantage.

Collaborative learning also generates feedback from learners, which helps to continuously improve the modules. As a result, courses can easily evolve in line with the needs of teams.

#5 Less expensive training

If you save time on implementing your learning programme, you inevitably save money. Making savings is therefore one of the many benefits promised by collaborative learning.

🤑 Not to mention that the training itself costs less (provided you're equipped with the right tools!). And for good reason, no more expenses linked to :

• paying an external trainer or educational engineer,
• hiring a dedicated room,
• paying for staff to travel to sessions, etc.

#6 Tighter-knit teams

Finally, collaborative learning helps to forge links and encourage team spirit, in particular through the creation of communities of learners conducive to exchanges (of practices, knowledge, experience, resources, etc.) 🤝.

And that's quite a benefit in a context where teleworking is becoming more widespread, often resulting in teams being dispersed geographically!

On the other hand, some traditional training methods, particularly e-learning, increase the isolation of learners.

And the disadvantages of collaborative learning?

However, for collaborative learning to work, you need to have in-house employees with sufficiently advanced knowledge of a given subject to share it.

👉 Let's say you need to train employees on a new piece of software. Perhaps no one in the company has tried it out enough to develop a training programme worthy of the name and avoid approximations? Then you need to be aware that, unfortunately, this method can't work every time!

At the same time, collaborative learning requires time on the part of the employee who has been raised to the rank of trainer. While they are instructing their colleagues, they are not concentrating on their primary tasks. And depending on the structure of your organisation or the time of year, depriving yourself of this workforce can have a negative impact on overall productivity.

☝️ However, we will see below that this last disadvantage can be greatly reduced by using the right tools!

How collaborative learning works

How does collaborative learning work in practice?

It all starts with a training need that has to be met quickly. For example:

• Are you implementing a new technology in your company?
• Are you making major changes to your management methods or project management?
• Do you need to bring your staff up to speed with a new trend that is causing a lot of ink to flow in your sector?

In the traditional scheme of things, using learning engineers and other external bodies takes time and money.

But with collaborative learning, anyone can quickly and independently create the appropriate training paths and modules. What's more, these online modules can then be improved based on feedback. The result is a longer lifespan for the training courses, and of course more relevance in the teaching provided.

💡 As you will have realised, the notion of collaborative learning implies the use of appropriate software. While there are a number of solutions on the market capable of supporting this method, 360Learning is a key player. This collaborative learning-oriented learning management platform (LMS) enables modules to be created in just a few clicks (just 17 minutes for the first one!), thanks in part to AI-assisted design. With this collaborative approach in mind, 360Learning also supports the co-creation of content and the collection of user feedback, thereby meeting companies' continuous improvement objectives.

Collaborative learning applications: 3 examples of use cases

If all the human and technological conditions are right, collaborative learning can be a godsend for companies in many situations.

Here are a few use cases to help you identify the benefits 👉.

Onboarding new employees

Using collaborative learning when onboarding a new employee means saving time by deploying training sessions, which may be automated, but are nonetheless perfectly tailored to the new recruit's roles and job.

What's more, this method facilitates the social and professional integration of the employee, since in just a few clicks he or she can access a whole knowledge base on the company's culture, roles and responsibilities, internal processes, etc. All of which makes for a good first impression.

All it takes is a few clicks to access an entire knowledge base on the company's culture, roles and responsibilities, internal processes, etc. All of which makes for good first impressions, and helps you retain your talent!

Regulatory updates

When there are changes in general regulations, or simply at company level, collaborative learning provides a relevant response... and above all a much more friendly one (for subjects that are not always 😮‍💨)!

What's more, by using the right tools, it's possible to track employees' progress on these subjects, because regulations are no joke!

Training in new software

The implementation of new software within a company often represents a profound change for employees, a change that can even compromise their well-being at work. Hence the need to support them with (proper) training.

Collaborative learning can be used to :

• to create courses designed to get teams up and running quickly on their new tool ;
• then support them over time, as technical and functional updates are made.

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Implementing collaborative learning: a few best practices to keep in mind!

Finally, here are 6 bonus best practices for deploying collaborative learning effectively in your company 👀:

• Identify precisely the learning objectives you want to achieve, making sure they are aligned with the needs of your company as well as the learners.
• Establish a strong team spirit beforehand, without which the collaborative learning mayonnaise won't take.
• Develop flexibility in your organisation and your internal processes, so that everyone has the flexibility they need to adopt the principles of collaborative learning.
• Encourage the participation of people from different departments, hierarchical levels and areas of expertise, to enrich discussions and stimulate knowledge sharing.
• Fully embrace the feedback culture, a sine qua non for maintaining the quality of learning content.
• Use the right tools, which are essential to the smooth running of collaborative learning. Without structuring software, you risk finding yourself managing a gas factory!

It's up to you!