Emerging student support trends on social media platforms in open education system
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Diversity of interactive environments has increased with use of developing technology in open education systems. In this sense social media platforms allows to coming together of learners. Distance education institutions can make important decisions by following students’ interaction in these environments. Especially students established themselves non-formal social media platforms are subject of investigation. There are different support needs of students throughout student learning life in distance education institutions. These issues are called student affair in distance education literature. These issues may vary by countries, region or program. Anadolu University is a mega-university in distance education area. There are some student support issues in this system and they attempt to find supports. Some of them can be listed as follows: New Registration and Registration Renewal, Examination Services, Course Exemption, Student Certificates, Forgotten Password and Sign-in Problems, Academic Amnesty, Military Service, Student ID Cards, Diploma and Diploma Supplements, Associate Degree, Honor Certificate, Postage and Shipping Services, İnternational Programs and Tuition Fee. In this subject some solutions can produce by following trends of students. In this study, Facebook groups have been investigated which created by distance education learners on social media platforms. These groups were analyzed with maximum interaction and Open Education Faculty Department of Sociology Facebook group is selected. Interaction and trends in the group are discussed in the context of student support. NodeXL, Gephi and Quintly software are used for social network analysis based on shares, comment and likes. The research aims to uncover student support trends on social networks. Student trends will be discussed under categories. Findings of the research can contribute to development of student support activities in this open education system. Further learners’ trends are important to show that intensity topics. Emerging student support trends on social media platforms is important to produce solutions.
Keywords: Student support; open and distance learning; social networks; content analyses; sociology
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
References
Knoke, D. & Yang, S. (Eds.). (2008). Social Network Analysis. (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412985864
Yıldırım, A. & Simsek, H. (2006). Qualitative Research Methods in Social Science. Ankara: Seckin Publications.