A lot has already been written and said about social media and its use in education. Nevertheless, there are still some gaps concerning the interoperability and integration of these tools with learning management systems. This article presents some conceptual ideas about this integration as well as a European project where there is an attempt to integrate both and so contribute to this discussion.

1. Anabela Mesquita1
Paula Peres2
Luciana Oliveira2
1CICE – ISCAP / Polytechnic of Porto and Algoritmi RC
2CICE – ISCAP / Polytechnic of Porto
Social Media as a Facilitator of Financial Literacy
Competencies in eLearning Courses:
The European Project e-Finlit

2. INTRODUCTION |
A social revolution in how we communicate has taken place in
recent years.
“Group of Internet-based
applications that build on the
ideological and technological
foundations of Web 2.0, and that
allow the creation and exchange of
User Generated Content“
(material that is published either on a
publicly accessible website or on a social
networking site accessible to a selected
group of people; material that needs to
show a certain amount of creative effort
and material that has been created outside
professional routines and practices)
Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010, p. 61; OECD, 2007).

3. INTRODUCTION|
Social presence / Media richness
Low Medium High
Self-presentation /
Self-disclosure
High
Blogs and microblogs
(e.g. Twitter)
Social networking sites
(e.g. Facebook)
Virtual social worlds
(e.g. Second Life)
Low
Collaborative projects
(e.g. Wikipedia)
Content communities
(e.g. Youtube)
Virtual game worlds
(e.g. World of Warcraf)
Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010
Classification of Social Media

4. SOCIAL MEDIA POTENTIAL IN EDUCATION |
Student support / administrative service
and learning
• Stay connected to the course and classmates
despite their busy schedule;
• To overcome barriers related with time and
space;
• To organize project meetings and study
sessions, share articles and videos, post
reflections and ideas, discuss approaches to
assignments, remind about deadlines and exam
dates;
• To disseminate information;
• To publish course contents;
• To assess student learning;
• To provide feedback to students;
(Wilson, 2013)
 Teaching-learning: formal educational
and informal educational
communication Informal educational
 Classroom administration: regulates
learning tasks, schedules and
procedures. Social media has proven
to be excellent in terms of processes
clarification and celerity, student
responsiveness and time economy.
 Student social integration: fostering
the formation of the sense of
belonging and the development of a
learning community.
(Oliveira, 2015)
Social Media

5. CHALLANGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION IN EDUCATION|
Time required to update,
keep and monitor
Lack of training
to adequately
use the tools
User privacy and integrity
Time to reflect before making
posts or statements, that might
be moderate before publication
Lower level of formality
between teacher and
student

6. SOCIAL MEDIA POTENTIAL IN EDUCATION |
In order to shift the current educational paradigm and focus it
on the learner individual needs, it is necessary to:
• prepare different types of materials (diversity) and to
• design alternative pedagogical pathways that allow learners
to make their personal learning choices.
The focus is not the teacher anymore, who delivers the
content, but the student who creates and manages his /
her own personalized learning path and learning
objectives.
Customized Learning Environment
“is not a piece of software. It is an environment
where people, tools, communities and
resources interact in a flexible way”
Wilson (2013)
The development of such an environment should
be facilitated not only by designing adjustable
/ flexible learning contents, but also by
facilitating and fostering students’ integration in
learning networks outside the LMS.

7. CONTENT REQUIREMENTS|
• All elements in the contents guide learners in achieving the learning objectives 
• The purpose of instructional materials is clearly explained 
• The purpose of how the instructional materials should be used for learning activities is clearly explained 
• The materials are structured in order to facilitate individual study 
• The materials are structured in order to development study skills 
• All materials are current 
• All material are presented in a variety of perspectives 
• All material are appropriated to the learners’ need, knowledge, and experience 
• The materials are relevant 
• All contents are clearly presented 
• Contents introduce, assess and reinforce new concepts and skills 
• Contents are logically structured and sequenced 
• Contents are sufficient and not in excess 
• Contents are challenged, centred on the student, be relevant for students’ life 
• Contents allow the interaction 
• Contents are divided in little pieces 

8. CONTENT REQUIREMENTS |
• The language used in the contents is simple and include visual elements 
• Contents are adequately balanced regarding cognitive load 
• Materials provide learners with feedback through self-assessment activities or tests 
• The availability, function and purpose of learning materials are clearly defined 
• Contents are provided in a flexible manner, allowing different learning paths 
• Contents are provided in a flexible manner, allowing customization and personalization to individual learning styles 
• Contents are media enriched with specific purpose (including videos, tutorials, interviews with specialists, scenario
based learning, games, etc.) 
• Materials suggest sufficient library resources 
• Contents provide a glossary of terms associated 
• Contents present a distinction between compulsory and recommended study/reading 
• Contents include commented bibliography 
• Materials are effective and not contain significant errors of facts, misleading or out-of-date information, concepts and
approach 
• Contents are inclusive, respect cultural diversity and gender sensitive 

9. CASE STUDY: EFINLIT FINANCIAL LITERACY ONLINE COURSE |
Portugal – ISCAP School of Accounting and Administration of Porto
(Coordinator) (Higher education institution)
Cyprus – INNOVADE LI LTD
(Enterprise)
Italy – CE.S.CO.T. VENETO – Centro Sviluppo Commercio Turismo e Terziario
(Business association)
Austria – E-C-C Verein fuer interdisziplinaere Bildung und Beratung
(Training Centre)
Slovenia – INTEGRA INSTITUT, Institut za razvoj cloveskih virov
(Training Centre)
Slovaquia – QUALED obcianske sdruzenie pre kvalifikáciu a vdelávanje
(Training Centre)
Cyprus – CARDET Centre for Advancement of Research and Development in
Educational Technology (Training Centre)
Spain – IEF Institute of Financial Studies
(Research Centre)

10. CASE STUDY: EFINLIT FINANCIAL LITERACY ONLINE COURSE|
Identify and address specific needs of EU citizens in financial literacy
Utilize ICT tools and digital literacy to improve EU citizens’ competencies in dealing with
financial issues
Develop a partnership model of a wide range of expert organizations in the fields of
training, online learning and literacies
Address the challenges of financial management generated by the current economic
transformations taking place in EU
Meet the basic objectives of EU 2020 strategy such as social cohesion through digital literacy
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2
3
4
5

11. CASE STUDY: EFINLIT FINANCIAL LITERACY ONLINE COURSE|
Proposed online training modules:
• Digital Literacy and Access to Financial
Information
• Basic Maths
• Budgeting
• Savings
• Indebtedness
• Credit and Loans
• Consumer Rights
• Investment and Entrepreneurship
Support technology:
• eLearning platforms
• WEB 2.0 tools
• Mobile applications
• Digital content
• Videos
• Online management tools
• Social Media

12. CASE STUDY: EFINLIT FINANCIAL LITERACY ONLINE COURSE|
• Instruction design methodology based on an
adapted version of the ADDIE model;
• Modules design based on principles of User-
Centered Design (UCD).
content modularity and free-flow navigation

13. CASE STUDY: EFINLIT FINANCIAL LITERACY ONLINE COURSE |
Modules hosted in a
virtual learning
environment

14. CASE STUDY: EFINLIT FINANCIAL LITERACY ONLINE COURSE |
Navigation of the
modules is flexible and
adequate to the profile
and needs of each user

15. CASE STUDY: EFINLIT FINANCIAL LITERACY ONLINE COURSE|
Content modularity and
free-flow navigation

16. CASE STUDY: EFINLIT FINANCIAL LITERACY ONLINE COURSE|
Current stage:
Social Media Integration
Development of a “supportive environment such that students
feel the necessary degree of comfort and safety to express
their ideas in a collaborative context”, thus providing the
necessary foundations for the development of learning
communities based on cooperative relationships.
The expansion of teaching-learning relationship into
social media environments, namely Facebook groups.
the integration of social media tools and networks in the
financial literacy course is a key priority to the partnership

17. THANK YOU!
Anabela Mesquita
(sarmento@iscap.ipp.pt)
http://efinlit.eu
Paula Peres
Luciana Oliveira
"The European Commission support for the production of this
publication does not constitute an endorsement of the
contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the
Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may
be made of the information contained therein."