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Cisco Learning Network: Supporting the Learning Community of Tomorrow
ance for anyone goofing off, and much of the support and policing is done by the network. Social networking is a powerful tool
The Cisco Learning Network (CLN) is hugely popular with Cisco's suppliers, cus- tomers, and employees reporting more than 12 million visitors. CLN was born from an aggregation of
several disparate sec- tions of the company's existing online instruc- tional materials dealing primarily with test preparation and profes- sional exams. It also includes a social learn- ing component, allowing users to ask questions, find solutions, and reach out for information. CLN has become ever
more essential to the company's operations. In the first two years, web- site visits numbered 12.5 million with 313,000 reg- istrations, 99,500 mes- sages posted, and 44.6 million page views. It is now a key part of the company's strategy to attract new talent and develop the skills of its existing partners and workforce.
SOCIAL LEARNING FOR A NEW GENERATION The CLN community membership is mostly male but otherwise very diverse. They are technical professionals dedicated to IT networking who come from differ- ent countries, generations, and companies. Younger workers are both heavy users
in the CLN and its strongest advocates. The users themselves maintain the bal- ance between lively interpersonal discus- sion and high quality content. The CLN community does not have much toler-
for mentoring at the company. Older, highly certified people often enjoy inter- acting with their younger colleagues on the network. They build valuable rela- tionships and can stay in touch with what is going on in the industry.
The users themselves
maintain the balance
between lively interpersonal
discussion and high quality content.
based learning, such as the Mindshare game, which is designed to help people prepare students for their exams.
Marcello Hunter, Manager, Education Services, Learning@Cisco
CLN enables employees of any genera-
tion to collaborate effectively if they are in different locations. In the future, communities like CLN will become more important as the economy becomes more globalized and applica- tions and content increasingly move to the cloud. There are now foreign lan- guage networks, such as CLN China and CLN Latin America. In addition to supporting social interac-
tion, CLN attracts users by offering prac- tice exams and mobile learning modules on the iPhone. Cisco also created game-
COLLABORATION DRIVES RECRUITMENT The CLN community tries to cater to the needs of the younger generation by deliv- ering high quality content as well as col- laboration. This is strongly tied to Cisco's recruitment efforts. Young workers today are aware that they need to be constantly upgrading their skills and Cisco's learn- ing platform can be an incentive to attract top talent. Users in the community are very serious
about obtaining certification, because this can allow the learner to receive a big increase in salary. Cisco's certification standards are high. There are already mul- tiple areas where learners can earn certifi- cation: CNET, CTNA (on routing and switching, voice, or security,) CTMP pro- fessional, and CTIE (experts.)
Learn More:
Experience Cisco: http://youtu.be/Ct0KTSHhhg8
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