Research on exploratory learning model based on social software

Exploratory learning is an effective approach in higher education. It plays an important part in the cultivation of students´ abilities of learning and innovation. But it is restricted by traditional learning environment. Therefore, we spend about one year in developing a platform composed of three kinds of social software. We attempted to integrate their merits into the learning process. An important outcome of this is the learning model summarized from practices, which is constituted with six steps. The first section of this article describes the characteristics of this platform. Researches on the practices of the learning model fall into the second part, which illustrates the significations and implementation of the 6 steps. How to organize learners to learn on one´s own based on abundant network resources and collaborate with others? How to value the learners´ learning results? In the final section, some experiences and suggestions are listed to share with other researchers.