Creating social learning spaces to enhance the learning experience

Social media has been used effectively for teaching and learning for many years in developed countries. It seems there needs to be an understanding of the affordances that social media could bring to the learning space in the African context. We use qualitative research and content analysis to see how and why the learners used social media in a private Higher Educational (HE) institution in South Africa to enhance their learning experience. The course was split into face-to-face lectures and social media use by the learners and facilitators. The learners were required to engage with various social media tools to collaborate and share skills with their classmates and facilitators. We also explore the affordance of social media. Content analysis was done to see the participation of the learners in the course’s Facebook page. Data was also collected from the focus groups that led to findings that indicate that WEB 2.0 tools had the potential to support learner collaboration that is self-directed and engaging. Learners adopted social media with confidence and used it to learn beyond the borders of the physical classroom. Daily interactions and the sharing of artefacts resulted in an informal and vibrant learning ecology that became self-sustainable ..