Learning in the wild: coding for learning and practice on Reddit

Abstract

Learning on and through social media is becoming a cornerstone of lifelong learning, creating places not only for accessing information, but also for finding other self-motivated learners. Such is the case for Reddit, the online news sharing site that is also a forum for asking and answering questions. We studied learning practices found in 'Ask' subreddits AskScience, Ask_Politics, AskAcademia, and AskHistorians to develop a coding schema for informal learning. This paper describes the process of evaluating and defining a workable coding schema, one that started with attention to learning processes associated with discourse, exploratory talk, and conversational dialogue, and ended with including norms and practices on Reddit and the support of communities of inquiry. Our 'learning in the wild' coding schema contributes a content analysis schema for learning through social media, and an understanding of how knowledge, ideas, and resources are shared in open, online learning forums.

Social Media for Informal Learning: a Case of #Twitterstorians

“…Reddit's text limit per post (over 15,000 characters) offers but one potential explanation for this result. Compared to Twitter, Reddit may be more inviting for participants looking to ask indepth questions, and/or thoroughly explain their thoughts about a particular issue with fellow community members [60]. Furthermore, the anonymity of the Reddit platform promotes blind 'peer review' through its upvote/downvote system, rewarding Redditors based on the quality of their posts (known as 'karma') which might entice members to put forth well-thought out commentary.…”

Creativity Is Connecting Things: The Role of Network Topology in Fostering Collective Creativity in Multi-Participant Asynchronous Online Discussions

“…Platforms for online collaboration allow large groups of people to communicate and participate in ongoing, a-synchronic deliberations. They have become a prominent space for exchanging thoughts and ideas, sharing information and insights and generating collective knowledge, for professionals, laypeople and learners of all sorts [1,2]. These distributed communities produce collective content products, whether as an intentional process or as a by-product of the multiple interactions between people and content.…”

It is about timing: Network prestige in asynchronous online discussions

“…In massive open online courses, discussion forums provide the main mechanism for learners to forge connections with peers from around the world (Rosé & Ferschke, 2016). In less structured learning settings, social media and online discussion spaces such as Reddit play critical roles in connecting lifelong learners with information and learning partners (Greenhow & Robelia, 2009;Haythornthwaite et al, 2018). Despite technological differences of these asynchronous online discussion spaces, they share a same purpose of facilitating social interaction among learners.…”