The number of organizations that adopted online training in the last few years has grown significantly. There are several reasons for this transition- cost-effective, flexible, and many more. The Coronavirus outbreak has only fast-forwarded the growth of online training in the corporate space.
Although online training has some amazing benefits, there are a few drawbacks too. One of them is the lack of peer learning and interactive sessions. Exchanging ideas with peers and learning through others must develop a collaborative learning culture in the organization. Without much social interaction, your employees might feel unmotivated and uninterested to learn.
To counter this problem, many organizations are leveraging discussion forums for interaction and collaboration with tutors and fellow learners. Exchange of ideas, solving problems together, and building learning strategies will help your employees in the learning process. The learning management system that you use should include an online learning collaborative experience through discussion forums. Connecting these discussion forums with social platforms provides an enriching learning experience and a greater level of interaction. To let you know more about discussion forums, we have listed down their benefits.
1)Peer reviewing:
Through the discussion forums, learners can share their thoughts and ideas on a specific topic and receive feedback instantly. Peer-to-peer reviews are a great way to inculcate collaborative learning. Learners can help each other out when they are stuck on a particular topic, they can also suggest to each other where they are going. So, learners don’t need to wait for the instructor as they can learn from each other on most occasions.
Peer reviewing is also a great way to motivate the learners. If a learner falls behind from the rest of the group, he /she will try to give the best to be on par with other learners. Nobody wants to be in the last, so there is a high chance of good healthy competition among the learners.
2)More interactive sessions:
Through discussion forums on LMS like “DigitalChalk,” learners can share their ideas via live chat communications. To know more, you can check DigitalChalk reviews and see how their amazing features helped the users.
The learners can answer each other’s questions through live chat. However, the instructor should set certain guidelines on the communication of the learners so that nobody uses inappropriate or foul language. This also helps to maintain the harmony of the session.
3)Enhances the quality of work:
When the learners discuss with each other and show their work to tutors and other individuals, they will try to put their best foot forward. Nobody wants to join the discussion forum without proper preparation for the topic that they want discussion. This whole process helps to understand the topic more deeply and precisely. Hence, we can say that discussion forums enhance the quality of work.
4)Role-playing:
Involving a diversified work culture to work towards a common goal gives a varied perspective and ideas on the same topic. This helps in thinking out-of-the-box and having a completely new perspective. Role-playing is considered a great option to involve everyone in the team and motivate them to achieve a common goal.
5)Makes learning fun:
Through discussion forums, learning becomes more fun and interactive. Learning can challenge each other through quizzes and other interactive games. Through games and leaderboards, learners can compete with each other to get to the top of the leaderboard. When everyone enjoys learning so much, they tend to retain the knowledge better.
6)Improves communication skills:
When you are discussing with a group of people, sharing your ideas, articulating your questions and all, it will help in improving your communication skills. This will also remove the fear of addressing a large group of people which most people have in the initial stages of their careers. In a way, you can say that discussion forums help to build an amazing overall personality which is very essential to blossom in a corporate career.
Conclusion:
Exchanging ideas and thoughts with peers fosters collaborative learning which is an essential way to make the learners engage with the course. Discussion forums make learning more fun, engaging and interactive. So, it’s high time every organization adopts discussion forums. We hope through this article, you get to know some amazing things about discussion forums.
