Odysseus 2008

For ODCSSS 2008 our theme was, The Global Family; The Global Workplace - "Technologies for Social Connectedness". We had 16 students in 2008 working under this theme from around the world.

Social Networking-based Adaptive e-Learning

Odysseus: 
2010

Background:

E-learning is fast moving towards a new generation which will include social networking aspects. In the past relationships between Web pages were created and maintained via hyperlinks only. At the same time relationships between family members, colleagues, and friends were created in real life, but had no Web representation. This was true until social networks were launched which enabled sharing information of common interest.

Today, these social networks are increasingly used. Facebook had more than 350 million active users in 2009, with 50% of active users logging in on any given day, and more than 3.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blogposts, notes) shared each week [2]. Twitter was ranked the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category in February 2009, experiencing a monthly growth of 1,382% [3]. Most notably is that over 90% of undergraduate students use social network websites [1], fact which needs to be exploited in the favour of education.

Aim:
 
The project aims at performing an investigation in the structure of posts in social networking sites using exploratory factor analysis in order to determine their interests. Words can be selected and their usage in students’ posts can be analysed. The numbers of words and the frequency of their use by each student will be measured. Mapping these to certain learning topics will be performed. The project will also aim to extend a previous ODCSSS project (Connect!) to permit collaboration using social networks (Twitter, Facebook, etc.). Connect! is a web-based adaptive engine, built using Java Servlet technology. Connect! was tested and integrated with AHA! Adaptive e-learning system. Connect! assigns students in groups based on criteria such as: learning style, communication tool preferences, knowledge level, digital literacy.
 
Outcome:
The project outcome will be an extended version of Connect! to support social networking-based e-Learning.
 
 
Supervisors and Mentors: 
Dr. Cristina Muntean
Dr. Gabriel-Miro Muntean
Host: 
DCU