Content aggregation and knowledge sharing in a personal learning environment: Serendipitous and emergent learning in open online networks

The integration of social web and networking technologies into education is transforming learning practices particularly learning environments in higher education. Such technology-mediated learning environments based on the potential of Web 2.0 and free/open social software tend to be more open, networked and distributed. What we can see now in online education realm is perhaps a paradigm shift from less institutionalized learning management systems to more flexible student-centered learning environments as it is called Personal Learning Environments (PLE). Such networked and distributed learning environments seem to have the potential of bringing various opportunities and resources for learners. This paper, by describing a PLE as a set of learner-defined tools and services, highlights how participants in open online courses use a variety of tools and resources as their PLEs for searching, aggregating, creating and sharing contents. In this online ethnographic research design, data was gathered through an online survey, semi-structured interviews and online artifacts from the participants in three open online courses. This work also draws attention to study how serendipitous discoveries and kind of emerging learning might occur by being immersed in the abundance of resources and engaged in various online networks and communities. The results of the initial yet-in-progress analysis of this study suggest evidences of serendipity and emergent learning in open online contexts.