Social Cognitive Learning Theory and Online Communication: Psyche 405

Online communication includes many opportunities in which web-based applications can
be applied to learning and education. Albert Bandura developed the social cognitive theory,
professing that people learn by observing another person’s behavior. (Feist, Feist, & Roberts,
(2018). Julian Rotter proposed that behavior, and thus learning, is developed through the
interaction of people with their environments (Feist, Feist, & Roberts, (2018)). Walter Mischel
asserts the importance of cognitive factors like expectancies, subjective perceptions, goals and
values as primary motivators to behavior. Whereas the three aforementioned theorists may have
slightly different ideas regarding behavior and personality, they all focus on learning from social
interactions. Since social media involves social interactions, the social cognitive learning theories,
as articulated by Bandura, Rotter and Mischel, provide a great amount of insight into how social
media can be an effective tool to online learning. The following article will examine how social media platforms can be effectively applied to learning in general. In addition, a discussion will be presented on the benefits and limitations of three learning platforms designed for learning computer programming.

In a study conducted by Ratneswary and Rasiah (2014), the researchers concluded that
using Facebook for social interactions enhanced the learning process by providing a team-based
pedagogy which allows the educator to better understand the unique digital learning styles of the
students, thus providing innovative ways to involve and motivate students in the learning process.
Referencing Bandura, the researchers asserted, “when social networking sites are used as learning
platforms, the behavior of a student or a group of students is influenced by observing the actions
of other students in their learning community” (Ratneswary & Rasiah (2014), P. 371, 372).
Ratneswary and Rasiah identified five ways that Facebook provided enhanced
learning experiences. First, the platform provided a medium of discussion, thus inspiring
open-minded social interaction. Second, the platform allowed students to easily share ideas,
experiences, assets such as videos and links to other sites, and other related content. Third, the
platform inspired a sense of belonging, which helped some more introverted students engage with
their peers in a more outwardly manner. Fourth, the students’ overall learning experience was
deemed more meaningful and inspiring. Fifth, the platform enhanced communicative competence
through interactive exchange and deliberation on issues related to the topic of study (Ratneswary
and Rasiah (2014), P. 371, 372).

Although the study concluded that social media platforms like Facebook can be of
significant value to the learning process, there are limitations that must be considered. Quoting
Rasiah (2009), “When an activity is carefully planned and organized (where the learning
outcomes are clearly explained), engaging students from the very beginning (student-centered in
nature), students of diverse backgrounds will become actively involved and take responsibility for
their own learning” (Ratneswary and Rasiah (2014), P. 378). The key point to this quote is that the
activities should be “carefully planned and organized”.  Also, the learning environment should be
monitored by an instructor who is not only well-informed on the topic being studied, but also well-trained as an educator. If misinformation slips into a discussion, the deception it might cause could
be more counterproductive to the learning process than the lack of information in the first place. It
is better to leave questions unanswered than to promote deception and misinformation.
A carefully planned and organized learning environment will benefit from the insight of by
Julian Rotter who proposed five basic hypotheses to social learning. First, people’s response to
environmental stimuli is dependent on the significance that they perceive about the stimuli (Feist,
Feist, & Roberts, (2018), P. 548). Accordingly, an attention-grabbing introduction to the
importance and value of the course content will aid in stimulating the students to want to learn the
subject. The way the content is introduced will depend on the topic. For example, in a course
teaching coding or web development, an introduction to the completed final project may inspire the
students to start learning the material that might not be so interesting at the beginning. Also, math
is a topic that many find uninteresting. However, people finding math uninteresting may not
understand the significance of learning the basic corollaries that are needed in order to understand
later content. For example, in algebra, someone must learn that a + b = b + a. In isolation, such a
corollary is confusing. However, by explaining such confusing corollaries with real-world
examples such as word problems, students may gain a greater appreciation to the importance of
such seemingly meaningless topics.

Rotter’s fourth assumption is that “motivation is goal directed” (Feist, Feist, & Roberts,
(2018), P. 548). By demonstrating the final project in a wed development course, the instructor can
motivate the student toward a goal. Also, by demonstrating applications of the use of algebra, the
instructor may motivate students to pay more attention to the boring but necessary steps of
seemingly meaningless corollaries.

So far, this discussion has focused on the open source social media platform, Facebook.
However, this platform was not specifically designed for learning although it has been informally
used in this manner. When designing a specific learning platform, many of the social learning
theories will provide insight into not only the structure but also the type of instructors who develop
the curriculum and monitor the students’ interaction and progress. For example, a platform that
teaches computer programming would benefit from a different structure than a platform that
teaches foreign language. Social cognitive theory assumes that people can learn a variety of
behaviors in many diverse ways (Feist, Feist, & Roberts, (2018)). In the remainder of this article, a
discussion concerning several diverse online learning platforms teaching coding and web
development will be made with an analysis of the potentials and limitations with respect to the
theories previously discussed.

Social cognitive theory proposes that people are producers as well as products of society
(Feist, Feist, & Roberts, (2018)). Self-efficacy is a personal belief that someone can accomplish a
task. It has been shown that People perform better at any task when they have high self-efficacy
(Feist, Feist, & Roberts, (2018)). Accordingly, inspiring self-efficacy among students should be a
major goal to any online learning platform.

W3schools.com is an online learning platform for computer programming and web
development that provides an interface in which the student can read about code and what
functions the code is designed to perform. This platform also provides a way in which the students
can alter or experiment with their own code. With the online editor, students can edit and test the
code examples by themselves. This interaction provides hands-on experience to the students and
helps build self-efficacy by demonstrating that the students can create a change in a web page.
Another learning platform that teaches coding and computer programming is lynda.com.
However, this platform is excessively video based, meaning that the student learns by watching
videos. Albert Bandura claims that much of what people learn comes from observing other
people’s actions (Feist, Feist, & Roberts, (2018)). Thus, watching videos conforms with the social
cognitive theory. However, there is no interaction with the lynda.com platform. This platform also
fails to provide any manner for discussion. If someone wanted to ask a question, they would not be
able to do so on this platform. However, another platform concerning computer programming is
stackoverflow.com. This site has no videos to watch, but there is the opportunity to ask questions.
Also, this platform motivates users with reputations and badges for asking good questions and
answering other people’s questions. In this manner, the platform uses motivation as a learning tool.
Whereas observation such as watching videos may teach people how to do something, motivation
may inspire people to actually perform the action, thus gaining hands-on experience along with
self-efficacy.

Although these coding learning platforms all lack key elements to learning how to code,
each platform has a manner of teaching consistent with the social cognitive and social learning
theories. W3schools.com allows learners to gain hands-on experience, thus inspiring self-efficacy.
Lynda.com provides means of observation for the learner to emulate the video instructor.
Stackoverflow.com provides an interactive environment where the learners can ask questions and
answer other people’s questions. Together, these three platforms provide a conducive learning
environment worthy of emulating. However, if the benefits that each of these three platforms
provide can be combined into one platform that meets the needs of the learners, then the evolution
of online learning will have taken a step toward the future of online learning.

 

References

Feist, J., Feist, G. J., & Roberts, T. (2018). Theories of Personality (9th ed.). Retrieved from
https://phoenix.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259951985/cfi/6/2!/4/2/2@0:0
Rasiah, R. (2009). Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of Teaching and Learning
(ICTL 2009) INTI University College, Malaysia
V.Rasiah, R. R. (2014). Transformative Higher Education Teaching and Learning: Using Social
Media in a Team-based Learning Environment. Procedia – Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 123, 369–379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.1435