Abstract:

CIDET, since 2014 is developing a virtual learning environment called Edueca (http://www.edueca.com). This learning platform tries fulfil following functionalities:
- Content delivery, course organisation, learners management
- Knowledge management, valorisation and distribution
- Networking, link with other people and with sources of information

By this triple-aim approach we offered common existing learning activities, as it can be: discussion, debate, abstractions, brainstorming, analysis, collaboration, etc. in a more goal oriented activities thanks to the assistance of the environment, that is: share the information, create new knowledge, help others, lead a team, defend your position, etc.

The Edueca environment is therefore a facilitator, together with the trainer or coordinator (depending of the role of the person that manages the group). We are helping not only to facilitate the learners’ acquisition of the course competences and skills, but also to create their own virtual spaces, and virtual network.

Learning in this space is empowered thanks to the motivation, interests and experience of the adult learners, taking advantage of this valuable characteristics we have observed that learners attending in this environment could learn and collaborate as in others already existing virtual learning environments (as moodle). The difference is in Edueca is it social network approach, the interactive environment specifically designed for adult and senior learners, that provides huge benefits:
- Andragogy-based activities, focused to use the leaners’ experience and empower it with the intrinsic leaners’ interest
- Virtual facilitator helps learners to find other learners with common interests based on questionnaires and their participation on the activities. This facilitates networking.
- Tools as forums used for activities as debate and discussion with information produced that later can be incorporated to the learners’ knowledge database or to the trainers’ materials. This helps to uncover the knowledge, making visible and re-usable.
- Long-term dynamics support, that is keeping the course group to survive after the end of the course, by including social-network techniques

This platform has been tested on the courses provided by the EHHLSA “European home learning service for seniors association” (http://ehlssa.odl.org/) and Ed-Way “Education on the way: Introducing technology-enhanced informal learning” (http://www.ed-way.eu) projects the both KA2 Erasmus + Strategic partnership projects and we show in this paper the social networking approach and the effect it had on the students once the course finished as a main measure of the method impact and persistence.

Keywords:

LMS, VLE, VLN, e-learning.