Everywhere I turn now, I see articles, blog posts, threaded discussions, tweets, seminars and much more about using social media. More and more learning professionals are now looking at new or more impactful ways of incorporating social media in learning.

Stephanie and I recently came across an interesting TELUS case study that highlights the process they used to pilot a new approach to learning that integrates social and informal components, including webcasts, videos, blogs, microblogs and wikis. The interesting part of this approach is that they used Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2010. Dan Pontefract, Senior Director of Learning for TELUS said “the social networking elements drew us to SharePoint Server 2010” and that “the company’s three-year plan is to move to a situation in which formal learning accounts for just 50 percent of its total learning budget”.

As the popularity of social media takes hold in the learning community, Stephanie and I are seeing more companies with traditional learning offerings like face-to-face training become interested in adopting a more balanced blended learning solution that includes eLearning and social media. In fact, we are currently working with a company that has asked us to recommend a more blended learning solution for their 30,000+ employees.

Interested in reading the TELUS case study? Check it out here http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000006924