An initial characterization of engagement in informal social learning around MIT OCW

  • Authors:

  • David Wiley;Shelley Henson

  • Affiliations:

  • Utah State University;Utah State University

  • Venue:
  • ICLS '06 Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Learning sciences
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

Open Learning Support is a social software system integrated with MIT OpenCourseWare that allows users to find each other in order to ask and answer each other's questions. This paper presents a snapshot of activity within the system eighteen months after launch, utilizing descriptive statistics, social network analysis, and discourse analysis to characterize learner engagement. Future directions for the software based on this analysis are discussed.