Twitter, Moodle, blogs - new ways of learning at university

By Tobias Hanraths Jul 28, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Leipzig, Germany - Ever since universities began offering learning platforms supported by internet-based technologies, student life has changed considerably, making lectures in vast auditoriums, seminars in rooms and lines at the library largely things of the past.

For example, when political science professor Rebecca Pates of the University of Leipzig in Germany suggests a discussion of Italian and French support for reform of the Schengen Agreement on border controls, it's not unusual if the topic is debated over Twitter.

'We want to integrate the course into the daily routine of the student,' said Pates. Students who signed up for the course shouldn't have just two hours a week to think about the material, rather they should use whatever amount of time they have, perhaps while reading the newspaper or listening to broadcast news.

They can respond to something they read or hear about the topic immediately, and Twitter provides an ideal means of communicating their own ideas.

'Students should communicate more with each other,' said Pates.

The course that uses Twitter also has its own blog in which students can report on lectures and summarize study trips. This opens the information up to other students who might have missed those events. The blog also provides a list of reading material and links to internet videos of lectures on related topics. Leipzig University is not alone in offering courses that use Twitter and other similar technologies.

In fact students have used search engines, Wikipedia and social networking websites to support their learning platform for years.

'Students today expect documents that go with a lecture and other class material will be made available on the internet to read and download,' said Michael Gerth, who oversees electronic learning, e-learning for short, at the University of Leipzig.

Gerth and his colleagues offer students two platforms to choose from. Moodle is a virtual classroom in which instructors can store documents or offer e-learning units. This is supplemented by Mahara, the internet equivalent to a student's desk where he or she can upload and collect documents. Gerth said Mahara offers even more.

'You can blog or connect with fellow students in a study group,' he said. Both are catching on only sluggishly, however, because students separate their university life from their private life, said Gerth. 'Study groups still are formed more through personal interaction in dormitories and by students connecting through acquaintances and friends and not in the internet.'

Nevertheless, the social aspects of university learning platforms are ever more important, said Elmar Schultz, who is in charge of new media at the association of universities and other higher education institutions in Germany.

'Since about 2006 Web 2.0 components increasingly have been playing a role in the area of e-learning,' said Schultz. Some lectures or other events related to a course have accompanying entries in Wikipedia or blogs in which the discussion in the lecture hall can be continued and deepened. Such elements supplement classic e-learning.

Blended learning is another term used to describe how electronic learning methods can be used not to replace classic courses and lectures, but to supplement them. How much e-learning a student should do depends largely on the subject.

'In engineering courses the characteristics of a 3D model can be much more easily explained using a computer,' said Schultz. At Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf students majoring in natural sciences and medicine can do their basic course in physics completely on a computer, including experiments.

'The students see an image of an experimental setup that they can manipulate per mouse click,' said physics professor Dieter Schumacher. Short video clips provide feedback. As opposed to following a video of an experiment, they might have to start over if they make a mistake.

'We know from studies that the learning effect of on-screen experiments is comparable to that of experiments conducted in a laboratory,' said Schumacher.

Educators are finding that other subjects lend themselves to e-learning. Gerth said that at the University of Leipzig text-based subjects, particularly languages, work a lot with Moodle. The significance of e-learning in any course is above all a question of the commitment of the instructor.