Learning Management System versus Social Networking Sites

Tasneem F Alfalah,Jannat F Falah,Walaa Qutaishat,Wa’Ed Ishretih,Salsabeel F Alfalah,Maram Al-Zu’Bi

doi:10.5539/ibr.v10n6p123

Tasneem F Alfalah, Jannat F Falah + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v10n6p123

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Abstract

Purpose - The motive of this study was the notice of the constant movement of the students in The University of Jordan (UJ) from official communities to creating groups on SNSs. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate an analysis about students’ usage of E-learning and Facebook, and identifies the major functions that are missing in the e-learning system. This paper firstly, compared students’ usage for Learning Management Systems (LMSs) vs. Social Networking Sites (SNSs), and secondly, investigated the students’ perceptions towards educational value of integrating social networking features in the LMS through Mobile Learning (m-learning).Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from students from multiple sources: observation, interviews, and survey. The obtained results formed students perceptions toward currently used LMS in the university and SNSs, which lead to extracting their requirements to enhance the LMS used.Findings – The results of this research emphasize the importance of SNSs as a communication tool and the development of e-learning systems to move beyond LMS and engage students in an active use of the system as a resource of their information and collaborative activities.Originality/value –This study contributes to examining UJ students’ perceptions toward embedding the characteristics of the smart learning and the social network services into an e-learning system. In contrast to previous studies in enhancing LMS by just integrating features of SNSs into LMS without utilizing smart learning.

Highlights

With the emergence of Web 2.0 whose main value is social networking, Internet users can create and share information collaboratively and
E-learning incorporates all teaching and learning activities by using networked information and communications technology. Other terms described this mode of educational activities such as online learning, virtual learning, and web-based learning, e-learning embraces more than the other terms since the letter “e” which stands for “electronic” would incorporate e-learning of all educational activities, whether they were performed by individual users or groups working online or offline, through computers or other electronic devices
Statistics were performed on the number of members on some of the groups and pages related to the university at the time of the conduction of this research

Summary

Introduction

With the emergence of Web 2.0 whose main value is social networking, Internet users can create and share information collaboratively and . Social networks provide tools that can either be presented by SNSs (such as Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) or by indirectly extracting data about user interaction (such as emails, chats, blogs, etc.) (Aşkar, 2011; Musiał and Kazienko, 2013). These tool-initiated potentials cannot be ignored with regard to educational settings, and have moved educational technology beyond the ordinary use of computers, laptops, 3D printers, etc. E-learning has become increasingly diffused in many educational institutions implementing Learning Management Systems (LMSs). LMSs have been used to accelerate e-learning applications whether they were used for http://ibr.ccsenet.org

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