Learning in the Wild: Coding Reddit for Learning and Practice
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Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences j 2018 Learning in the Wild: Coding Reddit for Learning and Practice Priya Kumar Anatoliy Gruzd Caroline Haythornthwaite Social Media Lab, Ted Rogers School of Management, School of Information Studies, Ryerson University Ryerson University Syracuse University [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Sarah Gilbert Marc Esteve del Valle Drew Paulin The iSchool, Department of Media Studies and School of Information, University of British Columbia Journalism, University of Groningen University of California, Berkeley [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Abstract essential texts and ideas. Yet, they are sites for learning where questions are asked and answers provided, where This paper introduces a ‘learning in the wild’ coding crowds of participants comment, correct, and argue about schema, an approach developed to support learning answers, and where those who answer make the effort to analytics researchers interested in understanding the present information in informed, accessible ways, with different types of discourse, exploratory talk, and citation to sources and further resources. No one manages conversational dialogue happening on social media. The this learning; no one earns a university degree or a research examines how learner-participants (‘Redditors’) workplace promotion from this kind of teaching or are leveraging subreddit communities to facilitate self- learning (at least not directly). It is thus that we call this directed informal learning practices on the social ‘learning in the wild’ (with due acknowledgement of networking site. The coding schema is tested and applied Hutchins’ Cognition in the Wild). It is informal and non- across four ‘Ask’ subreddit communities formal learning that is taking place outside traditional (‘AskHistorians’, ‘Ask_Politics’, ‘askscience’, educational environments, with what is asked about, ‘AskAcademia’). The research brings attention to how answered, and learned at the discretion and direction of knowledge, ideas, and resources are being shared and those who ask and answer. It is crowdsourced learning, supported outside the confines of traditional education but not of curricula or courses, but in conversation-sized and professional environments. pieces, based on crowdsourcing interest in answering just- in-time questions. This paper reports on the development of a coding 1. Introduction schema for content analysis of informal learning on social media derived by examining the kinds of learning There are many ways to use the Internet for learning. happening on Reddit, and results on the kinds and There are resources such as Wikipedia pages, YouTube distribution of learning practices found in four ‘Ask’1 videos, online news, electronic books, and open access subreddit communities. The research contributes to our journals. There are interactive learning opportunities, such understanding of online conversations in support of as open courses and online degrees. And then there are the learning, and to content analysis for online social learning wilds of open online discussions on sites such as Digg, practices. Snapzu, Stacksity, Voat, and Reddit [38]. These social media sites offer arenas for discussion that are contributed 1.1. Trends in open, online learning to, led, and moderated by members of the site. Discussions can be for play, social interaction, and curiosity; but they Our research group has been working for a number of are also for learning. This is learning that is not occurring years studying the practices of learning online, primarily through instructor-led courses; it is not based on a pre- in open online classes, and observing and researching the defined syllabus; and there is no mandate to cover trends toward more learner-centered participation. Among 1 ‘Ask’ subreddits use a Q&A style format where questions are posed and answered by Reddit users. They vary by scope, audience, and topic. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10125/50131 Page 1933 ISBN: 978-0-9981331-1-9 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) the trends is the way open, online participatory practices analysis, natural language processing and social network merge with learning practices in online settings. An early analysis are brought into play to gain an understanding of trend in online education, that appeared even before the online social learning processes [4, 16]. Work in social more widespread recognition of participatory media, is the learning analytics is in its formative stages, and is adoption of collaborative learning. The wide adoption of challenged by the multiple ways to approach open, online collaborative learning as a pedagogical choice emerged in learning. Considerations can include intra-group relations, part as a response to the demands of a 24/7 classroom of technology choices and affordances, virtual versus face- simultaneous, asynchronous, online discussion, and but to-face interaction, and online conversational practice, as also in recognition that social learning is a practice that well as how people learn. sustains adult learners beyond course contexts and Social learning as originally conceived holds that translates to practices that are found in adult life and work learning occurs through observation of behaviors, communities [21, 33]. including others’ reactions to those behaviors; the learner As open online initiatives drive collaborative, (e.g., a child), chooses to imitate or not the behavior participatory, crowdsourced forms of learning, they also according to the reactions observed. For adults, depend on greater learner autonomy and responsibility. apprenticeships provide a framework for this kind of Today’s learners grapple with self-directed learning [17], learning by observing and doing [29], with master making sense of their own experience through connecting craftsman modelling appropriate practice. In open, online and creating their own learning ecologies [31]. Open environments similar learning processes are going on as online courses, including MOOCs with ‘massive’ individuals lurk and observe before posting, as they enrolments, attract such learners, people who are not observe inappropriate behavior sanctioned. necessarily aiming for a certificate at the end of their In formal education, it may be assumed that it is the experience but who are taking the opportunity and teacher’s practice that is being observed and imitated. But initiative to be self-directed learners [42]. These learners formal learning also entails formal structures – the teacher maintain their own responsibility for reading source as the only voice to be heard; the physical room structures material, engaging with fellow learners, and completing that put teachers at the front; the right answers for learning assignments. At times, they help the whole examinations and the right approaches for assignments. learning process by acting as explainers for others, These constrain who talks to whom, and thus who and synthesizers of material, citation providers [21], and what is observable to model. Such is not the case for open, active evaluators of others’ work [36]. Personal online learning. Even in educational settings, the norms of information management and personal learning turn-taking conversation are transformed by management become prominent for these learners, as they asynchronicity and the reduced cues of online, computer- pick, choose, and consolidate the use of particular social mediated environments. Social learning analytics expands media and forums for their learning practices and their the view of social learning to include consideration of learning portfolios (e.g., essays and reflections posted as social networks that reveal how learning opportunities blogs). The learning perspective of connectivism, and occur or do not occur according to the structure of the connected knowledge [40] comes to the fore when networks of people, ideas and resources in which individuals make sense of their information environments individuals are embedded [20, 23]. Work in computational by connecting resources, and actively constructing social learning analytics and social network analysis is “learner generated contexts” that support individual and beginning to be used to help visualize the otherwise group knowledge [31]. invisible teacher-student and student-student online The growth in online learning in educational settings, interactions in distance learning programs [16, 20]. and the prospect of massive enrolments in single courses As well as changing who interacts with whom, new such as MOOCs drives a third trend. This is the trend media has altered the way we communicate and interact. toward more automated measurement and evaluation of Technologies provide different kinds of features – online conversations as learning analytics develops as a asynchronicity, anonymity, text and pictures – that affect field. Learning analytics is most commonly understood as what can be communicated and how. In open online “the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of forums, distinctions between teachers (producers) and data about learners and their context, for purposes of learners (consumers) are blurring [13]. New literacies are understanding and optimizing learning and the emerging that respond to the changed nature of environments in which it occurs” [40]. Within this field, conversational practice in online settings and online there is a growing area of research on social learning learning [22]. analytics.