Tips for Researching Social Learning Systems

You are in a Learning Department meeting and the subject of a Social Learning System has come up. Everyone agrees that the organization needs one and that a good solution could provide your organization with both business value and cost savings. You have been chosen to complete some initial research and report back to the group.

You have no budget. You don't know what capabilities the organization requires or what your infrastructure can support. Should it be an enterprise system or can it be externally hosted? You don't know the answers to these and many other questions.

The task seems daunting. Where do you even start?

You can, however, at this point, 'blue-sky' what is available in the marketplace to help define your organization's needs, budget, and capabilities.

Here are some important considerations to help you complete the initial research:

1. Define Your Audience - Who and how many people will be using the system:

• Who will be administrators and end users? You will need to research these groups and what will be important to them.
• How many learners will be using the system? Some providers may use pricing that is based on the number of learners/users.

2. Identify 'Must Have' Criteria - Functionality that is required:

• What are the 'Must Have' tools that the user and administrator groups require? Not knowing this could end in costly functionality that you might assume would be advantageous but in reality is not tied to a business or learning benefit. Ensure that these requirements are documented.

3. Identify 'Nice to Have' Criteria - Functionality that is optional but not required:

• What are the 'Nice to Have' tools? Identifying these tools may be important when it comes to choosing a provider, setting the budget and deciding what could get implemented in a future phase. For example, in your final selection stage, one provider may offer a 'nice to have' as part of their package while the other provider has a cost attached to it.