Place-Making for Informal Learning in an Online Programming Course

Abstract

In this article, we report on exploratory research that documented the informal student-generated interactions in Piazza, an open-source discussion system. This research leverages the concept of place-making to understand how students co-designed Piazza as a place for their learning of the Python programming language in an advanced programming online course at a large northeastern university. Our analysis shows how students used Piazza in specific ways to connect their informal learning to their formal class learning. We suggest that educators and instructional designers can leverage a place-making approach to grant students learning opportunities by having them co-design their learning.