‘Content creator’ is a term that is trending worldwide with more than 50 million YouTube channels joining the creator economy. Youtube is the leading learning platform with more than 86% of the users from America using the platform to learn new skills through ‘User Generated Content (UGC)’. According to YouTube’s Internal Reports, learning and education related videos garner 4X more watch time than the adorable cat videos everyone loves. Everyday educational content on YouTube gets around 500 million views.  

Now, how is an entertainment platform becoming a learning platform?

1. It is making content highly accessible with intelligent recommendations.
2. It provides interactivity with likes, comments, and shares.
3. User generated content is relatable to the learners.
4. Learners trust the popular content as it is peer-reviewed.

The question that it brings forth is how can you employ the same strategy to train your workforce on new skills using a learning management software?

  User Generated Content can be anything starting from short how-to videos, blogs, podcasts, feedback forms, Q&As and more. While Gartner reports that 80% organizations are using UGC in their L&D strategy, there are still reservations which needs to be mitigated.   People learn faster when learning from each other as their emotional response to a familiar person is higher. Similarly, when provided a learning environment similar to their usual digital environment, learners get hooked to the learning content faster.   In the pre-remote era, 70% of employee learning would happen through social interaction with seniors and colleagues. This basically means that employees learnt by observing others at work, trying out new skills and receiving direct feedback, collaborating, and discussing concepts with others. The aim is to replicate the same collaborative environment in a virtual set up and it is an effective strategy. According to McKinsey, companies can increase their highly skilled knowledge workers’ productivity by 20% to 25% if they implement social technologies.  

Using a Learning Management Software to Make UGC Work

Targeted Delivery of Content

  The enterprise learning management system (LMS) is the best way to create a centralized content library where your learners can access the content uploaded by their peers. Imagine, you have a subject matter expert who has created a short bite-sized video on a sales pitch. This video can now be uploaded on the LMS and be visible to all personnel in a sales profile. The modern learning management system also acts as a curator and recommendation system perfect to guide your learners to the right kind of content just as YouTube does.  

Easy Moderation of Content

  It is absolutely important to ensure the quality and relevance of the learning content created by an internal expert. That is why moderation is a crucial part of implementing UGC in your learning strategy. With a learning management software, you can easily create system roles within the platform like administrators, trainers, mentors etc. who can check the content uploaded by your employees and then approve for publishing.  

Drive Engagement with Social Features

  Replicating the success of YouTube would also require you to provide the option to interact the way it does. The social features on an LMS are the perfect way to let your employees interact with the in-house content creators asking them questions, sharing insights and in turn developing a culture of continuous learning within your organization.  

Incentivize Content Creation

  Gamification is one of the most celebrated features of an LMS and rightly so. It is the best way to motivate the learners to participate and it can also be used to motivate your employees to create and share learning content on the LMS. Points and rewards given to the content creator shall also encourage others to learn, engage and become creators themselves.   Learning and development in any organization is all about the practice of rediscovering one own self and building potential for steady growth. The culture of learning driven by user generated content in not only a cost-effective and sustainable option but a healthy practice where employees feel seen and valued for their skills.   A practical example the effectiveness of user generated content is the implementation of I-Tube, the internal video library of UGC by Volvo Eicher developed by Tenneo (formerly Tenneo (formerly G-Cube LMS) LMS). Talk to our learning consultant today about how you can do the same.