A Predictive Study of Students' Social Presence and Their Socio-Interconnectivity in Online Discussion Activities

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Impact of Social Support and Community Involvement

Abstract

Social presence (SP) is indispensable to the online discussion learning community. It is unclear if SP may relate to diversified socio-interconnectivity development of social roles in a learning community. This study empirically investigated: How will social presence predict students’ prominence (i.e., in-degree, out-degree, betweenness centrality, closeness centrality, eigenvector centrality, reciprocated vertex pair ratio, & PageRank) in the social network interaction of discussion board within an online course? The predictive utility of social presence for all social network roles was supported but reciprocated vertex pair ratio. Learners with higher social presence play active, intermediate, center, prominent, prestigious roles as dynamic community of learners.

Authors

• Alexandra Miller, Northern Arizona University

• Christina Gabaldon, Northern Arizona University

• Cherng-Jyh Yen, Old Dominion University

• Hoda Harati, North Arizona University

• Chih-Hsiung Tu, Northern Arizona University

• Develyn Biagas, Northern Arizona University

• Candi Running Bear, Northern Arizona University

• William Terrill, Northern Arizona University