The role of the learning platform in student-centred e-learning

It is often a case that technologically-oriented research on e-learning stresses the tools and individual features used in e-learning platforms rather than the pedagogical model and the underlying course structures. This study compares the outcomes from a similar course in a similar setting using very different learning platforms designed by the same research group. The tool used in the first course, EDUCO, offers awareness of other learners by real-time social navigation features. The tool used in the second course, EDUCOSM, relies on easy-to-make joint asynchronous annotations on documents. The pedagogical model for the courses was the same: student-centered learning in self-organizing and self-evolving groups using peer support to tackle open-ended large problems. The results suggest that the learning outcomes can vary, especially in a case where the environment is open and transparent in a sense that it enables learners to easily rely on and help each other in peer-to-peer fashion.