Overlapping Between Offline and Online Group Membership in a Social Annotation Network

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 4:20 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Technology for Collaboration (Table 27)

Abstract

Social annotation tools support students to engage in online knowledge sharing and construction, which can facilitate flipped learning. However, few studies have explored whom students interact with in a social annotation network and the overlap between online and offline group membership. To address these research gaps, we investigated 97 undergraduates' social annotation activities in Perusall (a social annotation platform) over seven weeks. Social network analysis (SNA) was applied to identify sub-communities and explore the overlapping between students' sub-community membership and offline group membership. The findings revealed the existence of three distinct sub-communities. Moreover, students from the same offline groups tended to belong to the same online sub-community, suggesting a natural formation of cohesive clusters.

Authors

• Tianlong Zhong, Nanyang Technological University

• Gaoxia Zhu, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University

• Hanxiang Du, Western Washington University

• Xiaoshan Huang, McGill University

• Juan Zheng, Lehigh University

• Shan Li, Lehigh University

• Chenyu Hou, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University