Curriculum Design And Development To Improve Undergraduates’ Informal Learning Based On Social Software

From Web2.0, Social Network Software to Social Media, people always have been using new words todescribe some software, websites or platforms characterized by social features, such as Blog, RenRenNetwork, Microblog and so on. They are conducive to expanding the sources of information, broadeningpeople’s horizons of knowledge, expanding the scope of action. More importantly, people access toknowledge more efficiently in the time or places of informal learning, which further increases theproportion of informal learning in the acquisition of knowledge. As main groups of making use of socialsoftware, college students not only are very receptive to the nascent network of things, but also highlydepend on them by using them frequently. However the time spent on learning is a relatively smallcomparing with the time for entertainment and games. It points out that they are not yet adapted to thedigital learning environment, and not fully aware of the existence of informal learning. Therefore in orderto promoting their own development, how to select and use these tools to build personalized digital learningenvironment efficiently has become one of the important topics in higher education currently.Based on this, we firstly used a questionnaire to analyze the students’ present level of socialsoftware-based informal learning on six aspects: the cognitive level, the behavior level, emotions andattitudes, self-control, self-efficacy and motivations. Then based on ADDIE and Jonassen’s CLEs designtheory, we designed and developed a curriculum named "social software and undergraduates’ learning",combining with the course’s objectives and contents, the strategies of organization and implementation, theassessments of student and curriculum effects to be considered. In Ningbo University we took two iterativeteaching in the form of an open experimental curriculum. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis ofthe effect on student learning outcomes and curriculum, we found that it enhanced students’ awareness andinterest in the use of social software for informal learning. Also, they have mastered basic knowledge andskills of social software by self-learning and cooperation, and initially have been capable to select theappropriate social softwares to build a digital learning environment to meet their own needs.This paper is divided into six chapters, Chapter I is an introduction, describing the background,objectives, contents, significances of the research and methods which would be used; Chapter II is literaturereview and theoretical basis. The existing research at home and abroad is spreading on three aspects: theconcept of social software, the educational applications of social software, informal learning based onsocial software; Chapter III grasped the college students’ present level of social software-based informallearning through depth interviews and questionnaires analysis; Chapter IV designed and developed acurriculum named "Social Software and Undergraduates’ Learning"; Chapter V showed the implementationof the curriculum, such as the whole process, the results of two iterative teaching, proposed improvementsand so on; Chapter VI is the conclusion and prospect of the research.