Web Social Science Applied to e-Learning

I found Robert Ackland's "Web Social Science: Concepts, Data and Tools for Social Scientists in the Digital Age" (SAGE Publications, 2013), on the new books stand at the ANU Library. This is very relevant to the pedagogy of e-learning, as the techniques for carrying out social research can be applied to research into the effectiveness of on-line learning. The introductory chapter includes a potted history of the Internet and the web, but more importantly discusses what virtual communities and on-line social networks are. This could be useful for illuminating a discussion of what on-line education is.

What is on-line education?

Ackland discusses how a "community" develops  "common beliefs, norms and shared understandings. Ackland sees an on-line group of being less cohesive than a community being "... a group of people who conduct personal computer-mediated interactions, where the interaction is focused on a topic that reflects the community of interests of the group ...". Therefore I suggest the students in an on-line course could be considered an on-line group, with the aim of a vocational educators being to have the students become part of community. Social science research techniques could therefore be used to evaluate the effectiveness of education, by seeing how cohesive the group is and how well those students become part of the community.