EXPLORE THE POTENTIALS OF APPLYING SOCIAL LEARNING ANALYTICS TO UNDERSTAND STUDENTS' LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN A NING-BASED ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY

This paper proposes the design of an explanatory case study using social learning analytics to analyze and understand students' online learning process in a Ning-based undergraduate-level online course in a Midwest comprehensive university in the United States. This paper firstly briefly introduced the structure of the online course. Then, based on different research questions, this paper explores the potentials of applying social learning analytics methods, particularly network-focused, discourse & content-focused, and context-focused learning analytics to understand students' learning experiences in the Ning-based online learning course.