#362 Poster

Monday 16 April 15:00 - 17:15 Bar/Conservatory

Open Social Learning on OpenStudy and its Impact on the Informal Learner

Preetha Ram, OpenStudy, US
Hua Ai, Georgia Tech, US
Chris Sprague, OpenStudy, US
Ashwin Ram, OpenStudy, US

Conference Theme: Impact

Abstract: Informal Learning occurs outside the framework of traditional educational institutions.  It is also described as being learner driven and often has a communal or social aspect.  It includes the acquisition of skills and competencies that may not be formally taught in a school curriculum.
The expansion of OCW and OER has empowered both self-learners and traditional learners to access new content.  However, when they have questions related to this content, or express a need to interact with others studying this course, they usually have no recourse.  For some OCW/OER users however, OpenStudy provides a social learning platform where they can ask for help and receive help from their peers leading to a very different learning experience.   OpenStudy’s 80,000 registered members include many self-learners, many of whom originate from OCW/OERs, who are currently not enrolled in a formal educational institution. We therefore have an unparalleled opportunity to study informal learning in a very large-scale context. 
Evaluating learning of learners who have no affiliation to schools and grades, in an unscripted environment presents a challenging problem.  In addition, we felt that course grades were not the appropriate yardstick with which to evaluate informal learning.  While users who are in school or college span 160 countries and 2000 institutions, self-learners may not be enrolled in any institution.  Collecting grades for all users would have been an impossible task.  We present instead, a study using a combination of well-established surveys developed by Elaine Seymour and others, where the learner is asked to report on their own learning gains or motivation to learn. The work of Kuh et al establishes the correlation between self reported gains and other achievement scores and adds confidence to our study. 
The poster will present our findings which will be particularly relevant to OCWs and OERs.

References:
Seymour, E., Wiese, D., Hunter, A. & Daffinrud, S.M. (Marzo del 2000). Creating a Better Mousetrap: On-line Student Assessment of their Learning Gains. Paper presentation at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, San Francisco, CA