What are They Talking About? (LinkedIn e-Learning Groups)

I belong to numerous groups on LinkedIn, some I am active in, some less so. With all the buzz on social media and informal learning, I thought I would take a closer look at my groups and identify the types of discussions that are generating the most activity. This is with the intent of gauging how people are using these groups and perhaps what information is being shared.

Here are the LinkedIn e-learning/ISD groups in which I belong. The number of members are in parentheses.

      

• e-Learning Guild (5,611)


• eLearn (3,416)


• e-Learning Network (3,178)


• ISD & e-Learning Professionals' Group (2,870)


• Instructional Design and e-Learning (310)

Here are the topics that generated the most discussion in my groups.

1. Advice on Learning Management Systems (LMS)


2. Advice / recommendations for e-Learning development tools


3. e-Learning design / ISD approaches


4. e-Learning / ID career advice


5. Career / vendor opportunities

Surprisingly, social media did not make it in the top 5. There was discussion on social media, but it did not generate as much discussion as the above topics. It appears the most popular discussions were on the technical side of e-learning. Hence, the most activity was regarding learning management systems and development tools. Note: The results may have differed if I measured the quantity of specific topics posted instead of identifying the topics that generated the most comments.

 

Have you found similar trends in your e-learning groups?