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The ROI of Social Learning
By Kevin Jones | October 5, 2007
I write this as I am formulating my thoughts.
There is a debate about how to do ROI on Social Learning and technologies or even if there should be an ROI at all. Can it even be done? My answer is NO. Not in the traditional sense of the definition of ROI. There are efforts to measure using the traditional ROI. I have not seen anything widely successful (although I have not looked really hard either). But what I do know is that many people have tried and have come up with some great case studies instead.
ROI is “Return On Investment.” But the return of what? Value. How do you measure value? Using a philanthropic example, I could say that an employee of mine has a certain ROI and I could calculate that fairly easily. So what is the ROI of a baby who is born with Down’s Syndrome? Throughout this little person’s life, they will probably never produce more than they consume - in terms of money. But they have a high ROI in other ways. How is that measured?
An extreme example, I know. But this shows that some things in which we invest resources can have an intrinsic value (having value by its very nature) and not a hard measurable number to define its value (there is a word there that I am not finding to describe this…). Yet we know they are valuable.
How do we prove that? How do we prove that Social Learning is valuable? Maybe it is in a new type of ROI, one that shows a value measurement of some other type.
I don’t have the answer, but it is certainly worth looking into more.
Other posts on similar topics- Measurement for Employee Learning Week
- TK08 - Tony Karrer and Implementation of Social Learning
- Becoming a consultant
- Announcing The New Social Learning SIG
- How to Sell Social Learning to the Powers that Be
Topics: - Social Learning SIG |
October 5th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
What I find especially intriguing about the article you referenced is the idea that social computing (or learning in our case) is about relationships. And, you can’t quantify the value of what is learned in the context of interacting with others.
In a related article the author discusses the idea of measuring “social capital” or the number of connections between people. So does that mean the more “connections” I have on LinkedIn, the more valuable I am? Or is it what is implied in those connections (e.g. people who actually have information or knowledge that is meaningful to me)?
October 8th, 2007 at 7:08 am
A ‘Connection’, in and of itself, does not mean anything except possibilities. If you think of a screwed in lightbulb, there is a connection there. At that point it is only worth the possibility. The real value comes when the connection is used, through electricity, and the light functions.
I see three tiers of values assigned to connections:
1) The CASUAL connection (aka a ‘friend’ on a social network): You do not understand, and very possibly not intend to use, the value of this connection. But, if needed, you can, for example, blast a question away to a whole lot of these connections and hope you get a valuable answer.
2) The VALUED connection: You understand the value of this connection. Although maybe not formal or used every day, this connection might hold some information / skill / pathway into an area you are interested in or may be in the future.
3) The VALUABLE connection: This connection was either a CASUAL or VALUED connection used and thus it becomes VALUABLE.
Given that, if you don’t have the Casual connections it is more difficult to have Valuable connections.
October 8th, 2007 at 7:15 am
[...] posted this post regarding ROI on Social Learning on BlogCascadia as well. Karen Pierson added this comment: What I find especially intriguing about the article you [...]
October 9th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Perhaps this is like the concept of we are all just six degrees of separation from anyone on the planet. From a social learning or connection perspective, I think there is real value in being able to locate a person, get feedback on an idea, discuss training techniques, etc by being plugged-in. Can I calculate the ROI? No, but the information and access to people is invaluable, especially when I find what I really need at the time.
A personal computer……..$1,000
Internet connection……..$42.95/month
Answers and access………Priceless