The context of online learning has been transformed by the advent of Web 2.0. While universities have just recently started to use Web 2.0 applications, these applications already exist in the students’ personal and educational world. Yet it is still not clear in what ways universities may be able to incorporate Web 2.0 applications in learning and teaching practices. This paper gives an overview of Web 2.0 applications for universities and discusses new opportunities that Web 2.0 has brought for universities. Examples of how some universities have used these applications are then outlined and categorized. The paper also discusses some of the main issues with Web 2.0 applications and provides recommendations for resolving these issues. p. 1

3. Web 2.0 Applications Web 2.0 applications can be categorized into five types (Boateng et al., 2010): Communicative: applications that are used to share ideas, information and creations. Examples are Social networks, Blogs, and Podcasts Collaborative publishing: for working with others in a shared working environment for a particular purpose. Examples are Wikis and Blogs Documentative (content management): applications which collect and/or present people’s experiences and thoughts. Examples are Blogs and Social Bookmarking Generative: applications to generate something new to be used by other users. Examples are Mashups and Media sharing Interactive: applications which facilitate information and resource exchange between users. Examples are Social bookmarking and RSS p. 2

Universities have generally adopted the above applications for their teaching and learning activities in two ways (Sclater, 2008). One way is to develop the client software, which may include one or more Web 2.0 applications and is tailored to the university and students’ needs. The software mediates between the student and the many resources and must be installed by the learners on their computers. Whereas the second way, which includes initiatives such as Elgg (http://www.elgg.org), does not require additional software and distributes learning resources by allowing students to access them via their web browsers. This way eliminates provision of e-learning facilities by the university for their students and instead free resources available on the internet will be p. 2

3.1 Social Networks p. 3

3.2 Media sharing p. 3

3.3 Social bookmarking p. 3

3.4 RSS feeds, Information aggregation, and mashups p. 3

3.5 Wikis p. 3

3.6 Blogs p. 3

3.7 Podcast p. 3

4. The Benchmark p. 3

Franklin and Harmelen (2007) have studied the implications of Web 2.0 for universities and suggest the following issues for further consideration: p. 4

A mechanism for controlling/moderating the Web 2.0 discussions: p. 5

The decision whether to locally host the systems or rely on externally hosted systems p. 5

Encouraging the users to use Web 2.0 applications; and assessment of use of these applications on learning outcomes p. 5

Development of a Web 2.0 strategy p. 5

References p. 6