This is part of a continuing series talking about the concerns I hear from clients (and potential clients) who are integrating social media into their learning programs.
Adding another a new model of content delivery to what you’re already doing will certainly add some expense. And if your LMS vendor proudly announces that their new upgrade now has a wiki — or a podcast — that doesn’t mean it all just happens. You’ve still got to develop, edit, manage and take care of all this new stuff.
So what are the costs of incorporating social media tools into your existing learning programs? And are they one-time costs, or something that will continue to show up on the budget every month?
SOFTWARE
In general, you can start with free or hosted versions of tools to get your feet wet. Ning for building a social network, PBwiki for experimenting with wikis, YouTube for videos, Audacity for podcasting, WordPress for blogging. (These are just examples — there are literally hundreds of options out there in the world.)
LEARNING DESIGN
If you’re new to the world of social media, there will be a period of skilling-up (like you’d spend in any other new field) where you spend time learning what you don’t know. Then learning what you need to know. And building skills for the new environment. (As you might suspect, I recommend hiring someone to help you with this. That’s what I do for a living — and you can get your new program up and running much faster if you don’t have to make all the same mistakes for yourself.)
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
For some uses, you should be able to re-purpose some of your existing learning content. In other cases, it will require complete ground-up construction of new content. The costs for this will be pretty much in line with what you’re already paying in the brick-and-mortar world. There are also some great models emerging where the members of the community build some or all of the content. You’ll still need to help with some pruning, fertilizing and basic gardening — but there may not be as much ongoing work as you’re used to in the physical world.
ONGOING COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
Despite what people want you to think, most social communities require many of the same functions that physical communities do. My favorite metaphor is still the garden — there’s planting, weeding, watering, fertilizing, fencing (managing pests), tilling and retiring crops that no longer produce. You may be able to develop members of your community who do some or all of this for you, once the system is mature.
HOSTING AND BANDWIDTH
If your community uses audio or video, there will certainly be some challenges (and expenses) involved in making sure that the media is available to those who want to see it. And it’s important that you plan well as you start, so that you have a scalable and reliable system when you hit the big time. (One of the reasons that I often tell clients to go with a system like Ning rather than create something on their own is that security and scalability.)
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So there are real costs associated with the use of social media in a learning program. Some of them will actually cancel out existing expenses (virtual materials rather than printed materials) and some will not (addition of video production).
Whether or not it is TOO expensive depends on your goals, and whether or not you achieve them. You did set clear, measurable goals before you embarked on your dive into this — right?
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