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The current educational scenario is changing and inclining more towards digital technologies for teaching-learning. Interactions during the classrooms or virtual sessions are vital for students' learning engagements. Learner-learner interactions and educator-learner interactions during online classes are to be promoted and sustained for a better teaching-learning experience. The use of social media in education is noted in previous research. This paper aims to explore the role of social media in learner-learner interactions and its impact on students' learning engagement. A theoretical model is proposed in the study through a review of existing literature. The model testing is done with data of 344 respondents through a self-designed structured questionnaire. The respondents are selected from an urban city in western India. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling are applied for the hypotheses testing and regression analysis. The results indicate that the learner-learner interactions, as well as the educator-learner interactions, are imperative for student learning engagement in online teaching. Also, learner-learner interactions are positively affected by the students' self-efficacy concerning the technology. The study also noted that the use of social media improves learner-learner interaction and student learning engagement in a technology-mediated learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

K-12 online students are increasingly communicating and collaborating with their peers; however, research on the topic is limited—especially research examining students’ perceptions and experiences. Guided by the Adolescent Community of Engagement framework’s concept of peer engagement, this case study examined learner-learner interactions at a cyber charter high school. Ten students were selected by teachers based on their ability to independently engage in learning activities—five students were more independent and five required more support from others. Each student took part in two, hour-long interviews for a total of 20 interviews. The interviewers covered students’ perceptions an experiences regarding teachers, parents, and peers. This report only focuses on peers. Students found that their interactions with peers allowed them to develop friendships, improve their motivation, receive peer instruction, and collaborate effectively with others. Challenges are also covered. The article concludes with recommendations for research and practice.

This paper introduces our best practices of integrating a variety of e-learning 2.0 tools and services to support the learner-learner virtual interactions in a global engineering class, which is jointly offered by five world leading engineering schools with a total of 108 course participants. A qualitative data analysis was conducted to analyze the text chat history collected from this global engineering class. The effectiveness of four specific e-learning tools/services are evaluated and compared. These include: discussion board on learning management system, web conferencing service, mobile messaging service, and social networking service. According to the analysis results, different tools/services play complementary roles in supporting diverse kinds of learner-learner virtual interactions, and some overlapping roles in between certain tools/services may inspire development of future e-learning tools/services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]