Digital Learning Communities (DLC): Investigating the application of social software to support networked learning

In the complexity of competing study, work and social demands, university students face many challenges to their effective participation in, and engagement with, the university environment. The fragmentation of their time is often associated with a decreased on-campus presence. The project has been funded by the Australian Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching. Its primary aim is to increase undergraduate and postgraduate student engagement, especially peer-engagement and communal learning, through the innovative application of social software in university teaching. Drawing on design-based research approaches, we are devising a series of pilot studies across the three universities to examine ways that social software can provide students with opportunities to engage with their peers in a discourse that explores, interrogates and provides a social ground for their in-class learning. The project is designed to promote and advance learning and teaching in universities by using social software to foster the development of digital learning communities.