Abstract:

Against the background of the requirements of digital age, as one of the first George Siemens depicted the limitations of previous learning theories by characterizing the impact of rapidly evolving technologies and its implications on learning processes. To guarantee a just in time and on demand knowledge transfer on a regular basis, Connectivism states the finding of “nodes”, which could be of both human and machine incarnation, as an essential process in lifelong learning.

In order to reveal the potential of Connectivist learning networks for computer-supported collaborative learning or rather peer learning and at the same time to identify important factors that influence the selection of learning partners, an empirical study on the basis of surveys and guideline-supported interviews was conducted. More than 700 people including pupils, students, teachers, employees and others provided a wealth of information that were distilled to a set of essential functional and non-functional requirements regarding a system that automatically connects people of a social learning environment into context-aware learning networks. It was found that people prefer to collaboratively perform learning and working activities with persons being in the same situation and chasing the same objectives, for example preparation for a specific exam. Any longer, it was determined that also a similarity on personal level is desired, which includes for instance same learning tempo, and same procedure. While the study results reflect that professional expertise plays a tangential role, social aspects like reliability, determination, motivation, active involvement, helpfulness, and communication were identified as further primary drivers in the selection of learning partners.

Based on the derived catalogue of requirements, an existing peer finding algorithm was analysed and extended in order to fulfil the stated demands of Connectivist learning networks in digital age.

Keywords:

Empirical study, learning networks, Connectivism, computer-supported collaborative learning and work, peer learning, lifelong learning.