Investigating Different Educational Blog Characteristics to Support Collaborative Learning based on Connectivism Learning Theory

Ahmed Yousef, Radwa Salah, Eman Makram

2020

Abstract

Higher education institutions have undertaken some approaches to increase learners’ collaboration skills for opening up opportunities for new forms of knowledge formation. The emergence of the social communications tools, particularly Web 2.0 technologies has provided access to the views and opinions of a wide range of learners. Blogs have become one of the most popular social communication tools in the context of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). Many educators are using blog for several reasons: the power of self-editorship, the free space provided for learners to present their ideas, the quick and simple updates, the open access to the learning topics and indexes. Connectivism learning theory emphasizes the importance and role of networks and connections between learners. Considering that, the aim of the present research was to investigate the relationship between different types of blog post characteristics (e.g. separate - sequential) and comments length (e.g. detailed - concise) in order to support collaborative connections among learners. The population of this research consists of blog posts and comments posted on CSlab platform that was designed to introduce and encourage interaction among learners in the “Introduction to Computers” course offered by Fayoum University, Egypt. The results of this study indicate that blogs have positive impact on increasing collaborative learning activities. Moreover, that sequential blogs with concise comments are more influential and facilitates interaction between peer and social communities of learners who received more comments.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Yousef A., Salah R. and Makram E. (2020). Investigating Different Educational Blog Characteristics to Support Collaborative Learning based on Connectivism Learning Theory.In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-758-417-6, pages 118-129. DOI: 10.5220/0009425601180129

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu20,
author={Ahmed Yousef and Radwa Salah and Eman Makram},
title={Investigating Different Educational Blog Characteristics to Support Collaborative Learning based on Connectivism Learning Theory},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,},
year={2020},
pages={118-129},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0009425601180129},
isbn={978-989-758-417-6},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,
TI - Investigating Different Educational Blog Characteristics to Support Collaborative Learning based on Connectivism Learning Theory
SN - 978-989-758-417-6
AU - Yousef A.
AU - Salah R.
AU - Makram E.
PY - 2020
SP - 118
EP - 129
DO - 10.5220/0009425601180129