Social customer relationship management and student empowerment in online learning systems

Social Customer Relationship Management (social CRM) empowers customers (students) to participate in the teaching and learning processes. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of social CRM on online learning systems and to explore the concept of social CRM in the context of big data. We conducted a survey of 856 students in Brunei Darussalam (Brunei) to explore their views regarding online learning using social CRM. Purposive sampling was employed to collect data. The findings of the study show that use of social CRM in online learning enabled a paradigm shift from a static centred-learning environment to a dynamic distributed-learning environment. Social CRM extends the role of students from passive knowledge receivers to active knowledge creators. The use of social CRM in online learning redefines the value added of online learning by empowering students to achieve richer outcomes in terms of resource adoption, knowledge creation and knowledge sharing.