Privacy in Web 2.0 Learning: Experiences with the Acceptance of Working Professional Students

• Published in: Ubiquitous learning 2013-01, Vol.4 (4), p.25-40
• Main Authors: Kaufmann, Christian, Holweg, Gerd, Wahl, Harald, Balog, Peter, Mense, Alexander
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Colleges & universities; Distance learning; Learning Processes; Online instruction; Privacy; Student Surveys; Students; Teaching methods; Web 2.0
• ISSN: 1835-9795; 2475-9686
• DOI: 10.18848/1835-9795/CGP/v04i04/40347

Nowadays, digital technologies affect our entire life, so it is not surprising that they also change the way we learn and teach. Key elements of e-learning are the time and mostly local independence of the learner. Therefore, learning has become “mobile” and is no longer tied to the presence at the school, the college, the university or the workplace at home. As a consequence, teachers and lecturers are required to adapt to the altered circumstances and to revise their teaching methods. Sometimes, new methods include progressive ideas like using Social Media platforms for providing learning content—platforms, which are usually used for private matters only. Besides traditional teaching methods, the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien in Austria offers several e-learning methods to enrich teaching and learning processes in different degree programs which are organized as full-time, part-time, and distance learning courses. The acceptance of the method is a key element for the learning progress, the acceptance of different e-learning methods has to be measured. In particular, the question of major interest is, whether the university can advance with learning content into the private community platforms without decreasing the acceptance of our students. For this purpose, a student survey was conducted. The results show that several Web 2.0 services are widely used by students however the educational utilization is very difficult because of the diversity of the provided services and students acceptance to use these services not only for their private live.