When Social Worlds Collide: Charting the Intersection of Social Media and Courseware/Course Management Systems

Abstract

Today's pre-college students have been immersed in Social Media Systems (SMS) that mediate their everyday interactions. Before students arrive at college they are using typically using blogs, wikis, forums, social connection systems, digital asset sharing systems, and even community game systems to stay connected. When students reach college, their social networks change in both their function and structure. Institutional emphasis is placed upon Course ware/ Course Management Systems (C/CMS) to augment lecture, classroom and discussion section experiences. While a C/CMS may share similarities with their favorite SMS, students do not always experience the same level of social engagement from them as they do with the tools they use outside of the academic experience. This paper examines how students perceive SMS, examines what students consider SMS, and addresses feature differences between SMS and C/CMS mechanisms.