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alwaysaddglitter

The space for social media in structured online learning | Salmon | Research in Learnin... - 3 views

  • digital social tools and environments located outside of the provision of a formal university-provided Learning Management System.
  • We identified that, although some participants benefitted from social media by crediting it, for example, with networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities, others objected or refused to engage with social media, perceiving it as a waste of their time.
  • Social media sites are increasingly being used for educational purposes and a range of benefits and drawbacks have been documented in the research. We examine how the usage of social media in the MOOC enhanced participants’ overall learning experience and how it led to increased networking and knowledge sharing with peers.
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  • When deployed for learning, social media can facilitate the development of online communities, allowing for collaborative and participatory engagement by placing emphasis on collective knowledge and social interaction
  • Social media can help strengthen the social relationships among students, heighten students’ self-esteem, and boost their learning performance
  • social media platforms tend to be more popular with students for peer-to-peer interactions (Davies et al. 2010; Veletsianos and Navarrete 2012) due to their familiarity and flexibility.
  • In MOOCs, where engagement and motivation tend to be low (de Freitas, Morgan, and Gibson 2015; Yang et al. 2013), social media may be beneficial in fostering online learning communities, which, in the context of a MOOC, are necessarily located online, enabled by an LMS (also referred to as Virtual Learning Environment) or social networking site.
  • The participants have a shared goal, support one another, produce material collaboratively, show a sense of belonging to the community, and are interested in the welfare of its members.
  • Online learning communities have been found to engage students in collaborative learning and reflective practice (Oliver et al. 2007).
  • Other studies show that students feel that social media reduces student collaboration because students work separately on different parts of a project, which minimises opportunities for collaborative learning
  • Students may feel that using social media in education distorts the boundaries between their online social and educational worlds, between social and informal and formal spaces, and between public and private spaces
  • Both students and academics may feel that social media for educational purposes interferes with their private lives, which raises concerns about representing identities in the online enviro
  • How and to what extent does social media enhance or complement participants’ overall learning processes and outcomes?’ is the key question that drives us to be particularly interested in investigating two outcomes
  • In addition to the structured LMS, more informal social media elements were offered. The CD MOOC designers selected Facebook and Twitter as social media platforms for participants to use, based on the studies that social media contributes to collaborative learning experiences
  • The Facebook group and the Twitter hashtag (#CDMOOC) were created in February 2014 to coincide with the beginning of the CD MOOC.
    • alwaysaddglitter
       
      The use of hashtags to organize thoughts and connect virtual users seems to be a best practice with online instruction related to social media.
  • On the Facebook group, moderators guided participants to ask questions about the CD MOOC, seek practical help, communicate and discuss issues around work tasks, and share links to online group work and resources. Twitter was used by both the CD MOOC team and participants to share practical information and resources, while also encouraging participants to share their thoughts and experiences.
    • alwaysaddglitter
       
      #EME6414 is structured relatively the same way minus the Facebook group but rather numerous other groups on various Web 2.0 tools
  • The social media postings data revealed that Facebook was most frequently used by the CD MOOC participants, compared to the microblogging site Twitter.
  • with some participants ‘signing off’ by displaying their certificate of completion.
  • The Twitter hashtag attracted 664 tweets over a 9-month period. Initially, Twitter was used by participants to announce their intention to participate in the CD MOOC, and then during the MOOC to gather, provide and exchange resources and information.
  • approximately half of all interviewees used at least one of the social media platforms in the CD MOOC. The most used form of social media was Facebook (used by 31%), a small minority (3%) used Twitter only, while 14% of interviewees utilised both Facebook and Twitter.
  • The Facebook group was used for discussions, while Twitter was used for gathering and providing information.
  • The first theme revealed that the online collaboration through social media assisted participants by enhancing their learning. The second theme showcased that many participants enjoyed and benefitted from using social media to engage with a diverse range of people with whom to network and exchange knowledge.
  • the third theme illuminated the reasons behind participants’ objections or reluctance to use social media within their structured online learning experience.
  • These participants reported various positive social aspects of their learning process enhanced by using Facebook, confirming other studies
  • Participants who used the CD MOOC Facebook group, but did not use Twitter, thought that social media was useful for posting and gathering information, and that Facebook improved their learning outcomes by facilitating discussion with peers and moderators. Facebook was also seen as an easy aid to increase learning and encourage discussions with peers as it facilitated the sharing of videos and images, and hence allowed participants to directly see others’ work. Facebook also served as a spark for a discussion, which could then be built upon within the more structured MOOC environment.
  • Both survey and interview participants spoke of the benefits of networking with people from different backgrounds, locations and professional affiliations when using social media platforms to connect and further their learning outcomes in the CD MOOC.
  • ‘collaborating with participants worldwide made it a great cultural experience, particularly in seeing how social media is taking on the world’.
  • The main objections to using social media can be divided into three categories: a belief that social media might be a waste of time; the perception of social media platforms as confusing or intimidating; and concerns about blurring social and professional identities.
  • these participants believed that social media would ‘take time away’ from what could otherwise have been spent on the structured parts of the CD MOOC,
  • Meanwhile, a number of participants wanted to use the social media with which they were familiar and comfortable. Some of these participants were notably less enthusiastic about the use of CourseSites LMS of the CD MOOC, instead preferring to spend time on social media.
  • learners often prefer to use the social media to which they are already accustomed
  • Another objection by participants related to their lack of knowledge about social media platforms and their resulting confusion.
  • A third key objection of participants to engaging with the social media elements of the CD MOOC dealt with reluctance about what was perceived as a potential merging of professional and social identities
  • The reluctance to blur social and professional identities is a common theme emerging from the literature on online learners and MOOC participants
  • Based on their findings, Jones et al. (2010) recommend that learning design address individual student preferences to either combine or separate their online identities.
  • The benefits included enhancing learning through the social and informal interaction with their peers, and from the online communities that formed around the CD MOOC. Connecting with peers using social media also strengthened participants’ sense of belonging to the CD MOOC cohort.
  • The challenges of online learning include becoming skillful in and comfortable with new technology, developing ways to relate to and communicate with other learners online, and becoming comfortable about having an online presence and digital identity.
  • The space for social media in structured online learning
    • alwaysaddglitter
       
      In this article, researchers created a MOOC focused on assisting professors understand and apply the Carpe Deim design method to designing their own courses. In addition to using the LMS Blackboard as the vehicle for MOOC publishing, facilitators were interested in studying the effects social media had on MOOC participants. MOOC facilitators used Facebook and Twitter as the two main social media platforms. Facebook was used to ask questions, seek help and discuss issues. Twitter was used to share information and resources and participants were encouraged to share their thoughts and experiences using #CDMOOC. Upon completion of the MOOC, Facebook was the most used site compared to Twitter. Out of 1000 MOOC participants who were surveyed at completion, 29 agreed to be further interviewed about their social media engagement; half used at least one of the social media platform revealing "the most used form of social media was Facebook (used by 31%), a small minority (3%) used Twitter only, while 14% of interviewees utilized both Facebook and Twitter". Three themes that emerged from the study related to MOOC and social engagement revealed three themes. One, social media did enhance online collaborative learning for participants. Two, the ability to engage with diverse knowledgeable professionals was enjoyed by many participants. Three, main objections why participants did not engage with social media include a belief it may be a waste of time, unfamiliarity with platforms and identity concerns.
    • alwaysaddglitter
       
      In this article, researchers created a MOOC focused on assisting professors understand and apply the Carpe Deim design method to designing their own courses. In addition to using the LMS Blackboard as the vehicle for MOOC publishing, facilitators were interested in studying the effects social media had on MOOC participants. MOOC facilitators used Facebook and Twitter as the two main social media platforms. Facebook was used to ask questions, seek help and discuss issues. Twitter was used to share information and resources and participants were encouraged to share their thoughts and experiences using #CDMOOC. Upon completion of the MOOC, Facebook was the most used site compared to Twitter. Out of 1000 MOOC participants who were surveyed at completion, 29 agreed to be further interviewed about their social media engagement; half used at least one of the social media platform revealing "the most used form of social media was Facebook (used by 31%), a small minority (3%) used Twitter only, while 14% of interviewees utilized both Facebook and Twitter". Three themes that emerged from the study related to MOOC and social engagement revealed three themes. One, social media did enhance online collaborative learning for participants. Two, the ability to engage with diverse knowledgeable professionals was enjoyed by many participants. Three, main objections why participants did not engage with social media include a belief it may be a waste of time, unfamiliarity with platforms and identity concerns.
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    In this article, researchers created a MOOC focused on assisting professors understand and apply the Carpe Deim design method to designing their own courses. In addition to using the LMS Blackboard as the vehicle for MOOC publishing, facilitators were interested in studying the effects social media had on MOOC participants. MOOC facilitators used Facebook and Twitter as the two main social media platforms. Facebook was used to ask questions, seek help and discuss issues. Twitter was used to share information and resources and participants were encouraged to share their thoughts and experiences using #CDMOOC. Upon completion of the MOOC, Facebook was the most used site compared to Twitter. Out of 1000 MOOC participants who were surveyed at completion, 29 agreed to be further interviewed about their social media engagement; half used at least one of the social media platform revealing "the most used form of social media was Facebook (used by 31%), a small minority (3%) used Twitter only, while 14% of interviewees utilized both Facebook and Twitter". Three themes that emerged from the study related to MOOC and social engagement revealed three themes. One, social media did enhance online collaborative learning for participants. Two, the ability to engage with diverse knowledgeable professionals was enjoyed by many participants. Three, main objections why participants did not engage with social media include a belief it may be a waste of time, unfamiliarity with platforms and identity concerns.
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    Were you able to share your annotations because it was a web version of the article rather than the .PDF? I tried to do that with mine but couldn't get it to work.
Vanessa

Massive Open Online Courses: Setting Up (StartToMOOC, Part 1) by Inge de Waard : Learni... - 2 views

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    First in a series on setting up your own MOOC (or any other course, really) using google and related tools.
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    This article is fantastic. I like how the author is acknowledging that creating a MOOC will seem daunting to newbies, but her detailedness calmed my fears of doing something like that. As I explored the article and its links, I switched from being overwhelmed at the thought of creating one to having a flood of ideas on what I could do in such an environment. What a transitition!
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    I think the articles are great, I looked at a few of the parts. Nice descriptions and screenshots. I haven't asked this before, and maybe I should know this but what are the RSS feeds? I have ignored them because I didn't know what they were. Since part 2 tells me how to add them to my site, I wonder what they are.
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    Thank you very much for sharing this, Vanessa, I'm going to try it, it seems like a great platform to use. Fran, basically if you want to follow a blog or a website and don't want to check every day if there's something new published, you add this blog/website to a feed reader (I use Google Reader) and see all the new posts of the different blogs and websites published on the same page. This is (more or less) a RSS feed. Such a great help for managing information!
Michele Gardner Hale

A Handy Cheatsheet on MOOCs | EdSurge News - 0 views

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    Dr. Dennen--You might be interested in this.
Vanessa

Software Will Not Eat Education | Technology and Learning | InsideHigherEd - 1 views

  • Hire enough faculty to have classes small enough so that the professors can get to know the students as individuals.
    • Vanessa
       
      To me, this is such a major point. I wonder, however, what the masses value. Human interaction doesn't come cheaply. I think that if a MOOC provides as much instructor interaction as a regular university course, then the university needs to rethink what they're doing. (And yes, I know this is the case in many instances, including some instances in which class size would allow greater instructor-student interaction). Thoughts?
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