ADAPTATION PREFERENCE AND CHOICES OF LEARNERS TOWARDS THE SOCIAL INTERACTION TOOLS IN ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
The aim of this research was to investigate the factors that affect the choice of learners’ adaptable social interaction tool preferences in designed online learning environments and their views on online learning environments. The study group of the research was composed of 87 students, from Gazi University Faculty of Gazi Education Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology who were enrolled in “Project Development and Management-I” course in 2010-2011 Fall Semester. The choice of this course for the implementation was due to the appropriateness of the course for cooperative, applied and project-based implementation. The data collection tools were choice and preference reasons of learners for social interaction tools form and structured forms in which they stated their views on the environment. To summarize the findings; the most important factor in the environment preference of the learners was that they think the number of the interactive tools and having more interactive tools in the learning environment are more beneficial in their learning. The second reason for student preference was whether there is a white board in the learning environment or not. Students wanted to use the white board implementation in general. Learners mostly tend to choose the tools that they believe to interact comfortably, productively and fast. Finally, it was concluded that the satisfaction levels of learners towards the learning environments were quite high.

Keywords
Online learning, interaction, adaptable, social interaction tools