Analyzing the social networks of high- and low-performing students in online discussion forums

• Main Authors: Ghadirian, Hajar, Salehi, Keyvan, Mohd Ayub, Ahmad Fauzi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2018
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/54113/1/Analyzing%20the%20social%20networks%20of%20high-%20and%20low-performing%20students%20in%20online%20discussion%20forums.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/54113/; https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08923647.2018.1412570

An ego network is an individual’s social netwrk relationships with core members. In this study, the ego network parameters in online discussion spaces of high- and low-performing students were compared. The extent to which students’ ego networks changed over the course were also analyzed. Participation in 7 weeks of online discussions were analyzed for 12 high-performing students and 9 low-performing students. Results suggested that ego networks’ compositions of high- and low-performing students were significantly different. Particularly, high-performing students had denser ego networks and tended to exhibit a higher level of centralities than low-performing students. Results of network visualization indicated that high-performing students increased and kept their networks stable over the course in comparison to low-performing students, who had fragmented networks. Several networks’ change mechanisms for high- and low-performing groups are also identified and discussed.