Welcome
Social Learning Space
Supporting students articulating from FE to HE by utilising social media technology
By Dawn Carmichael
Abertay University
Introduction
• Social Learning Space (SLS)• Tayside and Fife Articulation Hub funded• Innovative browser based web apps• Informed by Social Networking design
patterns• School of Engineering, Computing &
Applied Mathematics students
Rationale
• Students from Further Education to Higher Education challenges:– Social contacts (networks)– Background information (culture)– Mismatched subject knowledge & skills
(subject)• SLS Project seeks to address all three
Nature of project
• Five web applications including ‘FB Group App’
• The project:– Doesn’t seek to promote (or measure)
academic achievement– Does seek to promote social connections and
social learning• FB app evaluated by:
– Questionnaires, Interviews– Computer logged data
Project Resources – the app
Social Networks
• Isolation a reason for non-progression• Social Networks – social presence &
communication• Social Networking software:
– Sharing opinions and promoting reflection– Promote sense of academic community
• Facebook – 85%-99% student use• Increasing academic interest
Facebook pros & cons
• Pros– Promote digital literacy– Social presence– Promote reflection– Promote social capital
• Cons– Student privacy concerns– Time wasting
Academic Facebook
• Student preference for communication over email and VLEs
• High levels of Facebook checking > low engagement
• Commenting on content > high engagement
• Facebook groups – questioning, collaboration and feedback
Results – interviews with articulating
students• Facebook checked for communication
more often that email• Facebook not preferred overall to VLEs• Privacy demarcation between ‘groups’
and profiles • Facebook group app –
– Helped with integration– Preferred to other SLS apps
Results ‘FB Group App’ – Survey of articulating
students
Academic communityTutor Participation
Results ‘FB Group App’ – Survey of articulating
students• Correlation between engagement and
participation in using the app• No evidence of a causal relationship• Social capital & the app – an average of
36 more friends
Social Network Analysis & the App
• Before and after using the app– Degree significant increase– Betweeness significant increase– Eigenvector value no significant increase
• Increases may have occurred anyway• Future study into dynamic measures of
social capital
Results – Social Network Analysis
Tutor high betweeness > connectednessProvides connectivity for the graph
Conclusions
• The Facebook group app with ‘social tools’ promoted – Academic community– Social capital
• Tutor participation is important• Preserve student privacy by demarcation• Using social networks means meeting
students where they are