Ning use in courses for part-time students
From iProjekt
Online community sites like [[Ning]] and Elgg can be effectively used for education purpose. The use of such Web 2.0 tools can facilitate learner participation and collaboration, peer-to-peer learning and creativity. In case of part-time students it can support and enhance communication with the teacher/instructor.
In the academic year 2009/2010 we used the Ning online community site with two groups of part-time students of the course "Computer-Mediated Communication". These students positively evaluated the usefulness of Ning for education purpose, as well as the usability of the Ning tool.They also found it to be interesting and motivating with a potential for enrichment of the educational experience of students. Since almost all of the students were also users of Facebook, this helped then manage the functionalities of Ning. However, some problems were noticed with unexpected data loss during use of the blog module.
Because of its usefull functionalities (forum, blog, chat, notes taking, personal profiles, events management, uploading of images and video) Ning was very suitable for the course Computer-Mediated Communication which deals with online communication technology. We believe that Ning is one of the best Web 2.0 tools for small groups of students with up to 50-60 course participants.
The use of Ning facilitated the interaction within the groups of part-time students. Some of them stated that Ning even helped them to get to know each other better. Until August 2010 the use of Ning was free of charge for online communities that used onlyy the basic features of this tool. In September 2010 we found that previously formed online communities in Ning were no longer available. For the third group of students which started attending the course in fall 2010 the instructors of the course Computer-Mediated Communication had to pay a small fee to use the basic features of the Ning tool.
Because of its attractive functionalities and favorable experiences with the Ning tool in the winter semester of the 2010/2011 academic year a new group of students was introduced to Ning in the hybrid course Computer-Mediated Communication. The students were asked to create their profiles, upload photos and videos related to the course topics, participate in forum discussions, and keep a diary of course related activities with a blog tool. In addition, they were able to use a chat tool and send personal messages to the instructor and other participants. During the course they had to use several Web 2.0 tools (mind mapping tool Bubbl.us, block-diagram tool Gliffy, Google docs, etc.) and to place the artifacts that they had created with those tools in their blog posts.
After 6 weeks of the use of Ning with the last group of 44 part-time students we found that 39 of them placed their photo on the personal profile page. Most of them changed their theme (appearance) of their personal page aording to their liking. As many as 580 illustrations that were associated with course content were uploaded by the students, 184 links to YouTube videos were placed in the Ning system, and 29 different forum discussions were started mostly by the participants in the course. The students were asked to keep a diary of lectures/exercises and of their course related activities. On occasions they chatted about course requirements. It must be noted that many students exchanged friend requests and gifts. However, the notes functionality of the Ning tool was not used.
Below is a screenshot of some of the photos that were uploaded into Ning by the part-time students of the course Computer-Mediated Communication.
The large collection of videos that were found by the students helps them better understand some of the course related topics and develop concepts.
