Group items tagged

This paper published by The Open University looks at how social presence can be used to engage students with online learning. It outlines the benefits and problems of online communication for learning and then looks at the pros and cons of different online communication tools.

The findings indicated that young people who had used Facebook (but not YouTube) for more than a year had higher scores in tests of verbal ability, working memory, and spelling, compared to their peers who had used it for a shorter time period.  - FB and other social media as a 'practice ground' for data sorting, communication and social connectedness - Also some interesting details on survey methods used. 

This web article shares the results of a study exploring which types of interaction are most predictive of students' sense of community in online graduate courses at a US university. Interactions between learners which emerged as contributing the most to sense of community, in decreasing order of contribution, were (a) introductions, (b) collaborative group projects, (c) contributing personal experiences, (d) entire class online discussions, and (e) exchanging resources.

This web article published by Faculty Focus suggests that students are more willing to ask questions and interact with their fellow students in face to face settings if they have been offered the opportunity to engage through synchronous online tools. It then outlines reasons why these tools are beneficial for learning.

Now this was and is interesting. Thanks mr T

This recording of a webinar organised by The eLearning Guild looks at the common reasons learners disengage in synchronous virtual environments, and which factors you can influence to change this. There are also five pdf resources including a helpful checklist on the features of an engaging online classroom.