Call-for-papers: “Using Social Media for Collaborative Learning”

	ISSN online: 2050-3962 ISSN print: 2050-3954 Sample articles Forthcoming articles

The International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments (http://www.inderscience.com/ijsmile) is a newly established journal for scholars to share their experiences and research finding on the use of web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning.

Collaboration has numerous potential benefits for learning. It enables group members to help and learn from one another; it helps to promote students’ social relationships; it may also develop students’ communication and critical thinking skills.

However, there are also a lot of challenges in the collaborative learning process. For instance, how can a teacher know that every student contributes to the completion of a project? How can group members coordinate their strengths and efforts? And how can a teacher effectively monitor the collaborative learning process and fairly assess individual contribution?

By using a social media platform such as Facebook Group, certain evidence can be automatically recorded and this evidence enables the teacher to monitor students’ progress and their individual contributions. Also, the recorded evidence may allow the teacher to fairly assess students’ contributions. Nevertheless, there might be challenges in using online platforms to support group collaboration too. For instance, students may not use the platform at all.

This special issue aims to provide an opportunity for researchers to share their experiences, case studies, thoughts and innovative strategies for using social media platforms to promote, coordinate, monitor and assess collaborative learning effectively.

Subject Coverage
Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Using social media platforms (such as Facebook Group, Google Group, Yahoo Group, Edmodo, Wiki, Weblog) to support group collaboration
• Using social media to effectively coordinate group members’ collaborative efforts
• Using social media to promote group members’ positive interdependence
• Using social media to monitor group members’ individual contributions
• Using social media to support peer evaluation
• Using social media to facilitate the assessment of students’ contributions and learning outcomes
• Case studies of using specific social media platforms to support group collaboration
• Strategies and challenges of using social media to support collaborative learning
• Design and evaluation of social media apps for collaborative learning
• Assessment of collaborative learning

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper was not originally copyrighted and if it has been completely re-written).
All papers are refereed through a peer review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Author Guidelines page.
All papers must be submitted online. To submit a paper, please go to Online Submissions of Papers.

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 31 July, 2013
Notification to authors: 15 September, 2013
Final versions due: 31 October, 2013

Dr. Qiyun Wang
Editor-in-Chief
The International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments