Analyzing social learning management systems for educational environments

A Social Learning Management System (Social LMS) is an instantiation of an LMS where there is an inclusion and strong emphasis of the social aspects mediated via the ICT. The amount of data produced within the social educational network (since all the students are potential creators of material) outnumbers the information of a normal LMS and calls for novel analysis methods. At the beginning, we introduce the architecture of the social learning analytics required to manage the knowledge of a Social LMS. At this point, we adapt the Kirkpatrcik-Phillips model for scholastic environments in order to provide assessment and control tools for a Social LMS. This requires the definition of new metrics which clarify aspects related to the single student but also provide global views of the network as a whole. In order to manage and visualize these metrics we suggest to use modular dashboards which accommodate for the different roles present in a learning institution.