Content area
Interactions create webs of interconnected activities, and may give rise to emergent phenomenon. The word interaction in educational settings refers to person-to-person communication, and thus exists in in-class discussions, in-class debates, and so forth. Educational settings that emerge from such collaborations give rise to a network of interactions among the stakeholders involved. This paper briefs an exploration on the concepts of social network analysis and their ability to shed light on the impacts of incorporating social network platforms in educational settings. In this paper we try to analyze the information flow based on undergraduate student online interaction patterns to understand their learning of Simulation (XXXX) and Senior Design (XXXX) courses offered at The University of XXXXXXXXX. Online Facebook groups were created as a part of this study to initiate a computer mediated communication platform for students to connect and engage in classroom based meaningful discussions. We use Netvizz, a data extraction tool to collect data from student groups in Facebook social networking platform. The networks constructed using this data are analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively for understanding the interaction patterns observed.
Details
Social networks;
Network analysis;
Information flow;
Education;
Data collection;
Computer simulation;
Colleges & universities;
Computer mediated communication;
Social media;
Internet;
Extraction;
College students;
Distance learning;
Classroom communication;
Simulation;
Social network analysis;
Undergraduate students;
Information sharing;
Data;
Social groups;
Networking;
Interpersonal communication;
Classrooms;
Learning
