Supporting Learning Process in Higher Education through Social ...

Conference ICL2009

September 23 -25, 2009 Villach, Austria

Supporting Learning Process in Higher Education through Social Network P. Mentzelou, A. Michailidou, M. Bargouli, V. Vounoukis Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki

Key words: e-learning, social network, Higher Education Abstract: This study deals with the use and the perception of Social Network as a supportive learning tool. This Social Network was created for the Information and Communication Technology subject in Food Technology of Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki and it was focused on students needs. Forty students took part in this Social Network for two semesters where assessments and a survey concerning their social network experience performed. In both cases results showed the students that were using the Social Network outperformed the students that they were not using it. .

1 Introduction Nowadays Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools for teaching and learning processes have gained a permanent place in all educational levels. ICT offered a world of new possibilities and perspectives in the educational field as it presents a number of tools in Internet and mobile devices. Educators have seen these tools as means that will allow them the development of new concepts on educational practices and research. In the case where these tools are going to be used purely for the promotion of the learning process they have to be focused on their pedagogical functions and to follow the current learning theories [1]. Consequently, in all educational levels emerged learning approaches where the applications of multimedia learning, collaborative learning, virtual learning environments, etc. have been set and this brought the integration of ICT in many areas of the curriculum and the enrichment of schools and Higher Educational Institutions with the required ICT devices. The application of new technology learning tools and shifting from one way of learning process to another requires a considerable preparation prior to its implementation in order to be effective and to support the widen of options and opportunities for teachers and learners. Accordingly, the teachers and academic staff in order to facilitate and to enhance the learning process with ICT has firstly to understand the way in which students use technological resources and then to set the didactic strategies and to apply the required instructions for the new learning environment [2]. This has added new dimensions in teaching and learning processes as it has injecting new activities on subject’s delivery and generated a shifting from one way of learning process to another. Also, this approach requires from teachers to interpret that the learner is not a passive recipient of knowledge but an active participant of the learning process [3]. Consequently, the application of ICT even in traditional classes increased communication, collaboration and interactivity among: a) academic staff, b) students and c) academic staff and students [4]. The establishment of this new learning environment demands from Higher Education students, prior to their entrance, to know “how” to use ICT. ICT subject is part of the curriculum in the departments of Food Technology in Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki. This subject includes ICT basics and is taking place during the first two semester of the course. As students are coming with different computer ICL 2009 Proceedings - Page 543

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Conference ICL2009

September 23 -25, 2009 Villach, Austria

background skills a preliminary test concerning their knowledge on this area is taking place in order to determine their ICT knowledge level. The initiative point for all students in ICT subject is the acquisition of the required ICT skills. Consequently, there are four elements that the teaching concept model requires: Needed Skills, Process Design, Teaching Facilitation and Learning (Figure 1). Also prior to the beginning of subject teaching there is a need of pre-tests for the organization of the learning module and this pre-tests give a determination of the students’ level requirements and needs, assist to: § subject organization, § establishment of the required techniques § encouragement of critical thinking. This approach is not only for distance learning but has to be used in every case where effective teaching is going to take place because teaching need to form the synthesis between pedagogy and subject required background knowledge.

Figure 1. The concept teaching model The subject’s lecturers are continuously trying to provide additional resource tools that will assist students to reach the demanded level of ICT skills. Except the above problem there is one more problem that has to be added and the case where different educators are teaching the same subject because students are divided in small groups. In Food Technology department there are four groups of students that are following ICT subject and for each group there is a different lecturer. In traditional classes where face-to-face teaching is taking place different teachers that are teaching common subjects is impossible to give exactly the same lectures for these subjects. Also it is very rare for a lecturer to give exactly in the same form or to repeat exactly the same content when there is repeating of the same lecture [5]. Students that enter Higher Education courses usually do not have exactly the same background knowledge on courses’ subjects and this requires expansion of students’ subject understanding, academic skills development and requires from all course the students, independent from their diversity of background and skills, the content and intellectual courses’ levels have to be available, understandable and interpretable by all of them [6]. This generated the need for the application of a tool that will increase communication, collaboration and interactivity among academic staff, among students and among academic staff and students. On the other hand Social Networks have gained the attention of subject’s educators due to the additional resource tools that they offer which may cover most of the above ICL 2009 Proceedings - Page 544

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Conference ICL2009

September 23 -25, 2009 Villach, Austria

requirements and due to their popularity among the subject’s students. In accord, the application of a Social Network has adopted as the additional ICT for cooperation and collaboration processes among teachers and students and they may assist students to overcome their learning problems through the exchange of information, problem identification and decision making.

2 Method Internet Bulletin boards is not something knew they had appeared in the late 1970s where group of individuals were able to discuss subjects of their common interest. These were the ancestors of today Social Network Systems. The most common ones are Facebook and MySpace the difference between Bulletin Boards and Social Networks is that Bulletin Boards were basically topic based and Social Networks are user-based [7]. In this case of the ICT subject a Social Network can offer to students and educators a network area where they can share their problems or questions and to find in most cases the required solutions or answers or to share related information. Through this process an online community can be created where its members are having a common subject of interest [8]. Furthermore Social network can dynamically assist students to gain during their studies in Higher Education knowledge of group dynamics, the flexibility to work in teams, the ability to lead, to problem-solve and to communicate effectively. Since the use of a Social Network is an active learning process where the learner holds a responsible position and the construction of meaning depends on his own ability and his own efforts, this learning process follows the constructivist educational model. In the constructivist model learning comes when there is a construction of learning by the learner. In other words the learner seeks for the required meaning which is supported by the teaching process [9]. The application of ICT on subject learning assists to knowledge building process when the working contexts are relevant and appropriate for the learner [10], to students’ active collaboration and cooperation which can be beneficial for students when they are encouraged to work towards to problem solutions [11]. It is obvious that when a social learning system goes beyond the sum of its parts then the involved persons bring their individual perspectives on any given problem in other words it creates conditions for ongoing collaboration that return individual effort with a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts [12].

2.1 The Social Network Ning Social Networks can be used in classrooms in different ways. The students and the lecturers can input their own contents for specific material of the ICT subject and consequently they can be used as collaborative tools. The type of comments or questions that the students may leave in the social network may be used as observations on how students evaluate the use of Educational Social Networks and the educational activities on the whole. Up today, there is not enough literature that demonstrates the impact of Social Networks on the learning process and especially their use as supportive learning tools. The Social Network that was created as a bounded one (a private, restricted social networking). The software that was used for the creation of this Social Network was Ning which provides broadcasts, forum discussions, blog posts, private messages and profile comments. The feature that Ning differentiate from the other known ones like Facebook or MySpace is that users have the ability to create for a particular subject their own custom social network according to their needs or interests. Ning lets creators of networks determine the site’s appearance and functionality, as well as whether the site is public or private. The networks include features such as photos or videos, lists of network members and events, groups within the network, and communication tools such as forums or blogs. There are no limits to the number of networks a user can join and no technical skill is required to set up a social network. ICL 2009 Proceedings - Page 545

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Conference ICL2009

September 23 -25, 2009 Villach, Austria

Ning lets users experiment with online behaviour and community tools. Through this process, the best practices for social networking will emerge and rise to the top, resulting in a stronger sense of what functions technology can most appropriately serve. Successive networks build on previous ones, and users will become increasingly sophisticated and discerning in their use of social networks generally and of individual tools in particular. This Social Network was only set for the academic staff and students of the Food Technology ICT subject. This was done with the goal to assist the students for the ICT subject mainly and also to smooth the differences between subject deliveries among the educators. Ning has been used as a mean for developing and fostering collaborative connections across ICT subject. Students and educators had the ability to post questions, solutions, answers, comments on classmate’s and educator’s responses, and reflect on the readings. Every week, ICT subject students engaged in discussion co-lead by one of the educators. Students and educators were able to upload video, imagines, and files within the posting itself. Consequently students expanded and enhanced their postings and utilized additional technological tools.

3 The Study This Social Network was created for the Information and Communication Technology subject in Food Technology of Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki. In this Social Network the expectation was to focus on how students’ needs were satisfied and also to explore the value, the use and the perception of students about Social Network as learning supportive tools. For the students’ perception concerning the supportive level and the value of Social Network assessments; two surveys conducted to the students that were using it. There are two basic factors that have to be considered during the design of this virtual social network and these are the group size and the degree of freedom of the facilitators. The key roles concerning the cutting edge of the group size play the subject’s lecturers who facilitate it. Consequently, limits have to be set to the size of the group of the involved individuals (students) as in large groups it is difficult to disseminate, to aggregate or to present [13], [14]. Also the degree of freedom of the facilitators who are responsible for this Virtual Social Network has to be clearly defined in cases of open communication. Additionally, facilitators have to be clearly informed on the sharing of tacit knowledge and knowledge transaction [15], [16]. Finally, responds to the input questions, ICT content and other aspects of the ICT subject were placed either by lecturers or by classmates according to the type of the required output. In this case knowledge development requires support activity, decision making and evaluation, a definition of the boundaries of skills and knowledge of the community and acknowledge of how this knowledge is applied [17]. Consequently, there is a shift from learning by knowledge to learning by knowledge construction. In a Social Network students do not have to wait for the next face-to-face lecture for the satisfactions of their requirements as here they were able to ask or to discuss the problems that they are facing and to gain faster responds, knowledge acquisition, competences and skills, and the ability to gain and to master knowledge through their interaction with their peers or their lecturers. Comparisons between students of traditional classroom learning and studying with the application of Ning Social Network have been carried out. For this purpose the students were divided in two groups of twenty students where one group was the one that was using the Social Network and the other one was the one that was not using it. 3.1 Data collection and Analysis The data collection regarding students’ performance of these two groups took part through assessments of indicated syllabus parts. The subject syllabus was divided in seven distinct parts ICL 2009 Proceedings - Page 546

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Conference ICL2009

September 23 -25, 2009 Villach, Austria

and after the completion of each part the same projects and written assessments submitted to all ninety students. At the end of the semester the students of group B had to fulfil an additional questionnaire with questions concerning Social Network usefulness, the type of assistant that they had or they wanted to have and an open question where they were able to make suggestions on how this Social Network can be more effective for them. The collected data were the seven projects and the seven assessments that the students have been worked out. Quantitative analysis has been conducted for projects and assessments given marks. The mark scale was rated from 1 to 10 where 5 was the base mark and 10 the best mark. According to the results the overall performance in assessments and projects of the students of Group B was higher than the students of Group A (Table 1). In Fig.2 are the percentages of students and their marks. The marks represent the mean of all the assessments and projects respectively. Number of Students that received