Abstract
In the last years, educational community is asking for a change by introducing social tools in formal learning contexts. Besides, although meaningful research on the effects of social learning can be found in the literature, all authors agree that further research is needed. Social Network Analysis (SNA) has been proven to be a useful tool for both researchers and teachers. However, both standard SNA tools and the most popular social network sites are external to the Learning Management Systems (LMS) anda, therefore, they are hard to integrate by teachers into their educational designs. This study shows MSocial, a novel tool integrated into the Moodle LMS, that allows students interact in their social networks without losing their presence in the LMS. MSocial monitors student activity in social networks (both inside and outside of Moodle), calculates SNA metrics and shows the results promptly in the Moodle course site. Therefore, teachers can easily understand, visualize, and analyze the social participation and interaction of students and incorporate these results to improve the learning process.
Highlights
Online social learning is an emergent phenomenon that has been facilitated by the breaking of the barriers between formal and non-formal learning [1]
Face-to-face classrooms are combined with online learning taught through Moodle, which is the Learning Management Systems (LMS) used in the Virtual Campus of the University of Valladolid (UVa), and the use of social networks
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS We have used the collected data to check if social activity indicators are correlated with academic performance
Summary
Online social learning is an emergent phenomenon that has been facilitated by the breaking of the barriers between formal and non-formal learning [1]. There are contradictory results about the effect of Social Networks Sites on learning, so many researchers suggest that it is necessary further research [6], [21] and tools that allow to register and analyze student social activity and integrate it into the LMS. In this complex research context, the novelty of this work is the proposal of a SNA tool integrated into Moodle that registers and analyses Moodle social activity (in forums, for example) and student activity in the most popular social networks We will discuss a case of study in order to illustrate its potentiality and utility and we will expose the conclusions of this work
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call