Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have received a fair amount of publicity, but mixed reviews overall. Participants appreciate the collaborative nature of MOOCs, and their accessibility—but much of the learning is passive in style, which tends to be fairly ineffective, transfers poorly to on-the-job skill application, and doesn’t maintain participants’ interest. Today’s typical MOOC format is therefore not particularly well-suited for most corporate training needs. Companies are, nonetheless, interested in capturing the positive qualities of MOOCs.

How do we enable learners to practice and improve their ability to respond appropriately in a conversational context? Obvious examples for conversational training are: people who are learning a new language, new hires in call centers or in customer service, or trainees in the hospitality industry. While person-to-person conversational training is ideal, the time available for individual training in person-to-person settings is often limited.

Social learning is the latest trend in eLearning and corporate L&D—for good reason. As organizations move from hierarchies to wirearchies and communities of practice become the new content management solution, building meaningful connections between colleagues is critical. However, most organizations are going about social learning the wrong way, and technology vendors aren’t helping by bolting on discussion forums and adding integrations into social media which are not enough to capture the benefits of social learning.

Despite its growing popularity, online facilitation remains a mystery to many faculty and workplace learning professionals. Often restricted by learning management system platforms, online facilitators feel constrained when designing, developing, and delivering high-impact, high-engagement learning events.

Technology has completely changed the way we live, work, and learn. Technology has brought us the Internet, smartphones, tablets, and many more tools that have changed our lives forever. Of course, these same technologies have also brought us memes like Socially Awkward Penguin, Success Kid, and yes, Grumpy Cat.