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This study aims to know the opinions of pre-service teachers on their digital competence and to determine whether these opinions vary according to gender, branch and perceived level of digital competence. In this study, a cross-sectional survey model was used. In such a context, the study was conducted with 518 pre-service teachers who were studying in different provinces of Turkey. The study used a digital competence questionnaire as a data collection tool. When the results were evaluated, it can be said that the digital competence of pre-service teachers is moderate and that it varies significantly according to gender, branch and perceived level of digital competence. It is thought that the results of this study will guide the researchers as they reveal the needs of the pre-service teachers and contain information about what should be focused on the training or activities to be organized to meet these needs.

There have been various studies on developing the efficiency of the e-learning environment, as these environments have become more prevalent in recent years (O'Neil, 2008; Reiser & Dempsey, 2012). Despite the benefits of education in these environments, the communication problem due to physical separation of the tutor and the learner is one of the main issues discussed in the literature. In order to overcome this problem and to ease learners' communication with others, e-learning environments are enriched with social communication tools (Sung & Mayer, 2012). Because of the fact that social presence is a problematic term, it is described in various ways by different researchers (Annand, 2011; Cui, Lockee, & Meng, 2012). Short, Williams, and Christie (1976) define social presence as the salience of the other in mediated communication and the consequent salience of their inter-personal interactions. Gunawardena and Zittle (1997) describe it as a Ebru KILIÇ ÇAKMAK, Ph.D., is currently an associate professor of Computer Education and Instructional Technology. Her research interests include e-learning, instructional design, multimedia design, human-computer interaction and scale development.

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PurposeInterest is currently growing in open social learner modeling (OSLM), which means making peer models and a learner's own model visible to encourage users in e-learning. The purpose of this study is to examine students' views about the OSLM in an e-learning system.Design/methodology/approachThis case study was conducted with 40 undergraduate students enrolled in advanced programming and database management system courses. A Likert-type questionnaire and open-ended questions were used to obtain the students' views. System usage data were also analyzed to ensure the richness and diversity of the overall data set.FindingsThe quantitative data of the students' views were analyzed with descriptive statistics; the results are presented as graphics. The qualitative data of the students' views were examined by content analysis to derive themes. These themes are organized into four subtopics: the students' positive views, their negative views, their improvement suggestions and their preferences about using similar OSLM visualizations in other e-learning systems. The students' subjective views are discussed in the context of their recorded interactions with the system.Research limitations/implicationsCompetition due to seeing peer models was considered by participants both as positive and negative features of the learning system. So, this study revealed that, the ways to combine peer learner models to e-learning systems that promote positive competition without resulting social pressure, still need to be explored.Practical implicationsBy combining open learner models with open peer models, OSLM enhances the learning process in three different ways: it supports self-regulation, encourages competition and empowers self-evaluation. To take advantage of these positive contributions, practitioners should consider enhancing e-learning systems with both own learner and peer model features.Originality/valueDespite increasing interest in OSLM studies, several limitations and problems must be addressed such as sparsity of data and lack of study of different contexts and cultures. To date, no published study in this area exists in Turkey. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by examining OSLM features in an e-learning system from the perspectives of Turkish students by using both their system interaction data and their subjective views.