Designing learning activities in a social networking environment: Challenges, successes, and lessons learned

Abstract

This paper reports on the design and delivery of a non-credit self-directed online course entitled Social Media Tools and Supporting Your Professional Learning (AUSMT). The primary impetus for the course was to provide practice in and support of student use of the social media tools available in social networking site environments for learning. The learning activities were designed to engage students in professional learning using interactive social media tools such as: microblogging, forum discussions, blogs, wiki pages, social bookmarking, and social media resources. Findings of this active research project indicate that this type of learning design results in students: learning about social media use, leaning how to improve professional material sourcing, and learning what the social media landscape consists of, while still retaining the feel of a controlled environment. Motivational factors and the facilitator role when future students navigate this open course are topics of further research.