User-Generated Content: State of the Art

An online survey on user-generated content in Higher Educations was conducted among 500 lectures and students across Europe. The most popular form of UGC were Wikis (277), discussion boards (243) and blogs (234), but social sites are also used among a significant number of respondents (173). We also asked what was the most relevant quality indicator regarding the content and equally as in scientific traditional content, the references and the background of the author increases the credibility.

We clustered three groups depending on attitude on UGC and web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning, own use and participation in the creation of content.

The active, totally convinced optimist: 40%

• she/he has a positive attitude towards the use of web2.0 applications and UGC for teaching and learning.
• she/he uses the respective tools
• she/he participates in the creation and use of UGC

The “light” optimist: 36%

• she/he has a relatively open attitude towards web2.0 and UGC
• she/he uses the tools when necessary
• she/he contributes to the creation of UGC if required

The “I see no sense in that”-pessimist: 24%

• she/he  views web2.0 and UGC as useless for learning and teaching purposes.
• she/he ignores the respective tools

You would like to find out more yourself? The data set with all answers can be found HERE!