MSocial: Practical Integration of Social Learning Analytics into Moodle

Abstract

In the last years, educational community is asking for a change by introducing social tools in formal learning contexts. Besides, although meaningful research on the effects of social learning can be found in the literature, all authors agree that further research is needed. Social Network Analysis (SNA) has been proven to be a useful tool for both researchers and teachers. However, both standard SNA tools and the most popular social network sites are external to the Learning Management Systems (LMS) anda, therefore, they are hard to integrate by teachers into their educational designs. This study shows MSocial, a novel tool integrated into the Moodle LMS, that allows students interact in their social networks without losing their presence in the LMS. MSocial monitors student activity in social networks (both inside and outside of Moodle), calculates SNA metrics and shows the results promptly in the Moodle course site. Therefore, teachers can easily understand, visualize, and analyze the social participation and interaction of students and incorporate these results to improve the learning process.