Using Social Annotations to Augment the Learning Space and Learner Experience

Shaveen Singh, Bernd Meyer

Abstract: Learning has always been considered a social and collaborative activity. From the social constructivism perspective, students learn through the process of sharing experiences and build knowledge and understanding through discussion. This pilot study demonstrates the successful integration of an online social annotation tool in a Python programming workshop that allows students to discuss learning material and code segments with their fellow classmates. We investigate how the students leveraged the tool to improve their learning and to log their sentiments while reading the material and attempting the programming activities. We find that those students who had access to the annotation tool spent an above average amount of time on the material. They also had a higher completion rate and performance compared to the control group who did not have the annotation feature available to them. Feedback from the students who used the tool was very positive. Finally, we delve deeper into analysing the annotation patterns and explore how instructors can make use of fine-grained annotation data to inform and adapt the design of CS teaching and learning materials in online or blended contexts.