Beyond Code: Online Platforms and Learning Affordances in Computer Sciences Undergraduate Education

• In Event: Platformization as a Driver of "New" Narratives of Learning Across Formal and Informal Learning Spaces

Abstract

Objectives
Students increasingly use platform-based resources for both school-related and for self-organized learning activities and purposes (Dommet, 2019). This study explores how online platforms, where users can easily find, share or create content, influence, or even shape, learning practices of students. These practices are modeled by those of software development professionals, who use online platforms intensively to find resources, interact with other developers and for career development. This study aims to examine a) the way Computer Science undergraduate students employ platform-based resources (e.g. from Google, Stack Overflow, Github and Discord) for learning and b) the nature of learning affordances enabled by platform-based resources.

Theoretical Framework
We approach the study of online platforms and their resources from a sociocultural theory perspective of learning. Practices are ways of experiencing the world by acting on it, in particular physical space-time locations and involving different relationships (Barad, 2007; Kemmis et al., 2014). Online platforms are sites for the enactment of practices. Resources within platforms play a mediational function, as they link users with different people and information that can enable or constrain actions, generating various affordances (Chemero, 2003) of epistemic, intersubjective, boundary and material nature (Carlile, 2004).

Methods and Data Sources
This study employed a mixed-methods design and was conducted at two large universities in Norway. Participants were 400 students, enrolled in Computer Science or software development courses. Data consisted of a) digital traces of students’ activity on the online platforms, collected through a survey using custom-made software, b) students’ self-reported experiences, collected through the survey and stimulated recall interviews and c) course documents. Survey data was analyzed using latent class analysis, while qualitative interview data and course documents were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Results
The results reveal that students used different online platform-based resources in their learning activities, e.g. online tutorials, communication platforms, Q&A sites, online libraries, video repositories, search engines and source code repositories. Their learning practices, such as the type of knowledge accessed, content and frequency of discussions, and ways of going about solving coding problems, were impacted depending on specific online platform configurations and intensity of use. The use of platform-based resources generated different learning affordances, mostly epistemic, e.g. accessing information through knowledge representations, employing procedural models, or trying out solutions to coding problems. Intersubjective meaning-making of information relevant to learning software development (through interaction with platforms) and transformation and reuse of information from one context to another (informal to school) were frequent as well.

Significance
Students’ use of platforms and learning practices appear not to be structured by curricula but are shaped in situ by relationships between actions and the perceived value of platform-based resources. The results suggest that online platforms permeate curriculum-based learning and students’ practices in subtle ways. Communities of learning, other than the school-based ones, such as online expert forums and specialized professional networking platforms, provide complementary means and learning affordances that appear more relevant for students’ envisioned career paths, which should be of consequence for future curriculum design.

Authors

• Andres Araos, University of Oslo

• Crina Damsa, University of Oslo