Pattern of Participation and a Comparative Analysis of Thai and Malaysian Students’ Perception towards the Learning Platform and Environment of EU-SUPPORT Social Network

Sharifah Norhaidah Syed Idros, Norizan Esa, Mohd Ali Samsudin, Abdul Rashid Mohamed and Salubsri Charoenwet

University Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

snsi@usm.my

norizanesa@usm.my

alisasamsudin@usm.my

rich@usm.my

salubsri@gmail.com

Abstract: The EU-SUPPORT network is a sub network under the Norwegian Environmental Education Network that focuses on schools from the European Union and some outside the EU to promote the quality education for sustainability. The main activity of the project was the international campaign of CO₂ on the way to schools measured by the mean of transportation to and from school. The resources and instruction of the project activities were available on the website of Co₂nnect and communication among participants was facilitated through web based instruction under EU-SUPPORT network system. While students were engaged in learning activities, the development of social network was monitored through participation and interaction among participants. Pattern of the participation in the social network was represented in term of the amount of discussion and frequency of participation. To examine if discussion was sustained, quality of discussion was determined by the average length of discussion thread. Communication messages were categorized into groups and the average discussion thread was calculated. Two hundred students from secondary schools on Thailand and Malaysia took part as distributed learners in the network through collaborative web based project along with other network members from schools around the globe. A students perception questionnaire was administered the included the construct of learning platform and learning environment. Results from independent t-test analysis indicates there is no significant difference between mean score of students’ perception between the Thai and Malaysian students in the learning platform though there is a significant difference in their perception towards the learning environment, t(198)=3.13, p<0.05(p=0.002). Considering that the EU-SUPPORT is a large network, the density of 0.31 measured is considered to be high. Consequently, interaction in the student collaborative social network under EU-SUPPORT appears to be active.

Keywords: EU-SUPPORT social network, Co₂nnect campaign, pattern of participation, learning platform, learning environment

From: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on E-Learning (2010)