ABSTRACT
Massive open social learning brings benefits of collaborative learning and social networking to people taking Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). It exploits the ‘network effect’ where the value of a networked experience increases as more people join in. The aim is to engage thousands of people in productive discussions and the creation of shared projects. MOOCs, seamless learning, game-based learning, personal inquiry and geo-learning are all developing as large-scale social activities. There are forums for learners to discuss the course and some people may get together in scheduled meetings, but more can be done to engage people as active learners, sharing their ideas and discussing their different perspectives as they learn online. An example of a large-scale social learning system is Stack Exchange, with over 5 million users. Many consumer technologies have started small, then expanded, then engaged people in networked social interactions.
