Online Social Learning Model

Social learning theory by Bandura [1] focuses on the environment, behavior, and one´s psychological process of learning. Although [1] gave detailed explanation on these elements in his theory, some adjustments need to be done for online learning medium where the environment, behavior, and psychological processes might be far different from the face-to-face learning. O´Reilly and Morgan [2] raised the issue regarding the need of flexible new models, methods and strategies for online assessment and instruction and the lack of alternative pedagogical frameworks based on traditional and face-to-face instructions will result in practices that perhaps did not address the characteristics and possibilities of the online medium. Furthermore, most researches in online social learning focused on the elements of social learning theory separately where no such model or framework has been developed. Therefore, there is a need of social learning model for online learning among university´s students. The purpose of this study is to formulate online social learning model based on three main factors, which are social learning environment for online learning preferred by students, students´ social presence in online learning, and students´ psychological process through online learning. To formulate the model, this study will investigate is there any correlation between social learning environment, social presence and students´ psychological process through online learning. In this study, online social learning environment involves the students´ interaction in the e-Learning system. Social presence is defined as the ability of participants in a community to project themselves, socially and emotionally, as real people through a medium of communication [3]. In this research, online social presence means student´s perceptions of being in and belonging in an online course. Students´ psychological process of learning involves thinking, remembering, problem solving and reasoning. A- l of these processes occur in students´ mind through online learning. This research uses the quantitative research design. A case study research design has been used in this study, which is descriptive based design using survey method. The survey method is a study that has to involve collecting data at a certain period of time which is usually uses questionnaires as the main instrument in the study. In this research, the researcher will use 149 undergraduates´ students as a sample out of the whole population of 220 students. The sample size determination is based on the Krejcie and Morgan´s table for determining sample size. Based on the table, the minimum total sample size has a higher level of trust, which is 95 percent. Thus, by applying the formula, the total size of the samples, which is 149 students is not much different from the total sample set by Krejcie and Morgan in their table. The sample size set by Krejcie and Morgan for the population of 220 persons is 132. This study will be carried out at one of Malaysian universities. The total population is 220 students. Researcher has been acknowledged that the respondents already have an experience in using e-learning system before. Analysis for this study will be divided into four parts, which included background of the respondents, preferences towards online social learning environment, online social presence, and students´ psychological process through online learning. For the purpose of gathering information, the appropriate instruments, which meet the objectives of the study, need to be developed. The questionnaire will be used to obtain quantitative data. These questionnaire items were adopted from Constructivist Online Learning Environment Survey (COLLES) developed by Taylor and Maor [4]. Meanwhile, the questionnaire items on online social presence were adopted from previous studies by Yen and Tu [5] and items related to students´ psychological process through online learning were taken from previou