Abstract:

This work has the goal to study the impact of social tools in e-learning. Lack of student participation and intrinsic motivation in online learning environments is a challenge to instructional design. There are some online communities which overcome this challenge by attracting participants from diverse backgrounds to engage, learn, and share information within their context. In these implications, one discusses the identifiable characteristics and addresses some strategies to implement them in learning environments. Technological innovations do not necessarily bring innovations in online learning. It is rather philosophical and methodological considerations that can yield to innovations in online learning. Participants are intrinsically motivated to be engaged with what the community has to offer and learn from these interactions. With the advance of communication and transportation technologies, the term "community" has transformed into new meanings. Before, a community was dependent on the physical location of its members. Members who were located far away from the center of the community had weaker connections, due to communication difficulties. Technological innovations enabled new ways creating communities. Computer-mediated communications enabled people to communicate regularly without significant costs and without being in close proximity.
The two basic attributes of an online community are bonding and culture. A community, generally, is not a chain of one-on-one relationships; it is rather a web of affect-laden relationships that encompasses a group of individuals. This is bonding. Secondly, a community should have a set of shared values, and historical identity. This is shortly the culture of the community.
The study of how a community works may inform online learning environment design endeavors, especially in regards to philosophical and the methodological issues,.
Analysis is made as to social tools should also be used and integrated or not into an LMS. Finally considerations are made about the monitoring made to the learning process once one is taking a course lodged in an LMS.

Keywords:

Social tools, LMS, constructivism, e-learning, cognitivism.