Learning space model for educational social networks

Abstract

Learning now occurs in various manners in social networks, utilizing practice communities and learning networks. In this context, students are interested in exploring learning activities of other students without having to read through large quantities of textual content. Students tend to be interested in finding information concerning their majors, contents of their subjects and their co-learners. However, with the huge amount of information available, it is difficult for users to identify relevant information. Visualization comes in to help improve the situation. In this paper, we identify opportunities for deploying visualization in educational social networks to enhance learners' efficiency, effectiveness and learning experiences. We present a new learning space model designed to capture learning activities in educational social networks. A new 3D visualization system for the learning space model is also developed to help users obtain a better understanding of learning activities in social networks. We evaluate our approaches on educational social networks using real data. The evaluation results show that our approach of visualizing learning activities helps learners grasp a better overview of their study environment. Also, the learning process is perceived as easier, more engaging and more fun for the users, compared to traditional ways of displaying information.