Category Archives: Articles of Interest

Top 10 – The Best of eLearning

The Lectora eLearning Team compiled a list of “Top 10” resources to help inspire eLearning professionals.

Top 10 according to lectora
Check out the resources below. There are some good ones.

  1. How to Build Your Graphic Design Toolbox
    Find the latest design and development tools to expand your graphics via The eLearning Coach
  2. The Top 50 Education Twitter Chats (and How to use Them)
    This post has every Twitter chat you’ll need from education technology to social learning via edudemic
  3. Making Courses More Tablet-Friendly
    Get quick and simple mobile development and design tips via E-Learning Uncovered
  4. How Important is Informal Learning?
    Find out why informal learning is critical to employee success via Learning Solutions Magazine
  5. 15 Popular EdTech Tools Being Used Around the World
    Learn the latest tools to increase productivity, connect with your learners and share via edudemic
  6. The Mobile Learning Ecosystem I – 10 Important Questions
    10 Questions to ask when you develop mobile learning via Upside Learning Blog
  7. Is it mLearning when you Learn from doing a Google Search on a Mobile Device?
    Learn how mobile devices make mLearning unique via The M-Learning Revolution Blog
  8. How the 10 Most Innovative Colleges Use Technology
    See how forward-thinking institutions use technology in learning environments via edudemic
  9. Turn These Slides into eLearning
    Learn how to quickly turn PowerPoint presentations into full e-Learning courses via Integrated Learning Services
  10. 5 Tips on Developing a Quality Elearning Course
    Step back and look at the big picture with great tips via CommLab India

Relationships among collaborative learning, social presence, and student satisfaction in a blended learning environment

Stephen D. Sorden recently completed a dissertation titled “Relationships among collaborative learning, social presence, and student satisfaction in a blended learning environment”

The abstract states:
“The Social Cognitive Framework for Blended Learning (SCFBL) is proposed as a
guide for designing blended learning experiences. The components of the framework
include the executive function, learning goals and objectives, learning space, learning
design, interactive environment and affective results. The primary conceptual framework
for this model is based on social cognitive theory (SCT) and the related theory of selfregulated learning in social settings, focusing on the study of social knowledge and the
cognitive processes that occur when humans construct their own subjective reality. This
approach differs from sociocultural theory in that it focuses on the individual and how the
individual interacts, affects and is affected by the social environment. The SCFBL is a
social influence model rather than a sociocultural model.

This study reports results of the Collaborative Learning, Social Presence, and
Satisfaction (CLSS) Questionnaire for subjects from one campus in a multi-campus
community college system who participated in the spring 2011 study (98 students from
11 blended courses). The CLSS questionnaire measured the amount of perceived
collaborative learning, perceived social presence and reported satisfaction in a blended
course. The questionnaire consisted of a section of demographic questions and then three iii
sections that measured the three constructs with a total of 34 questions (11 satisfaction, 8
collaborative learning, and 17 social presence). The data analysis consisted of (a) data
screening (which brought the number of participants down from 108 to 99), (b) assessing
for normality (which brought the number of participants down from 99 to 98), (c)
descriptive analysis, and (d) correlational analysis using the Pearson Product Moment
Correlation Coefficient (Pearson’s r). A Mann Whitney U test was run separately on the
nominal variables for Caucasian and Latino ethnicity, which found a significant, higher
perception of social presence for the Latino participants. The descriptive analysis showed
that the sample roughly mirrored the general population of the college. The correlational
analysis resulted in the rejection of the first three null hypotheses, while the fourth was
retained. The study concludes with a discussion on the implications of the results for
education and blended learning, along with recommendations for future research. ”

You can read the dissertation online at: http://sorden.com/portfolio/dissertation.pdf