SNAPP: Realising the affordances of real-time SNA within networked learning environments

SNAPP: Realising the affordances of real-time SNA within networked learning environments

Networked Learning Conference 2010

Dr Shane Dawson, Director ISIT, University of British Columbia

Ms Aneesha Bakharia, eResearcher, Centre for Educational Innovation and Technology, University of Queensland

Ms Elizabeth Heathcote, Heathcote Consulting


SNAPP essentially serves as a diagnostic instrument, allowing teaching staff to evaluate student behavioral patterns against learning activity design objectives and intervene as required in a timely manner.



SNA has been demonstrated to assist educators in identifying instances of: learner isolation (McDonald, Stuckey, Noakes,

& Nyrop, 2005) creativity (Burt, 2004; McWilliam & Dawson,

2009) community formation (Dawson, 2008; Lally,

Lipponen, & Simons, 2007)



Reffay and Chanier (2002) suggest that SNA can act as an educational evaluative tool in order to monitor and assess elements of student group cohesion.

“Getting a view of the big picture of the social interactions between students becomes increasingly difficult as class sizes grow.” (Brooks, et al, 2009)

“... the understanding of the social relationships between learners is incredibly important when an educator is determining how to scaffold the learning content.” (Brooks, et al, 2009)


How can we realise the potential of real-time SNA?


FORUM A

Both Forum A and B have 14 messages posted by 4 participants

Are there structural differences in terms of interaction?

FORUM B




FORUM A FORUM B• No student interaction• All interaction via

Tutor/Lecturer

• Student to student social interaction beginning

• Interpreting the threaded forum view when making decisions regarding satisfactory levels of peer interaction is difficult (Dawson & McWilliam, 2008)

• Determining levels of student engagement and peer networking increases with class size



FORUM A FORUM B• No student interaction• All interaction via

Tutor/Lecturer

• Student to student social interaction beginning

Activation of the SNAPP tool results in the embedding of a social network visualisation directly below the threaded forum display


• Render a Sociogram as an alternate representation of the threaded discussion view

• Real-time Social Network Visualisation of Discussion Forum activity• Integration with Learning Management Systems (eg Blackboard &

Moodle)• Simple installation and usage




DEMONSTRATION


Learner Isolation• Dense interactions between central

nodes• Instances of no interaction occurring

among isolated individuals. • Early warning indicator for

teaching staff investigate lack of interaction

• Intervention may be necessary to ensure isolated learners are included in the emerging community



Facilitator Centric Patterns• Interaction occurs between the

facilitator and individual participants but not between participants.

• Indication that knowledge sharing and collaboration may not be occurring

• Question and Answer Forums (…but more social learning activities may be carried out in alternate venues)



Non interacting groups Structural holes (Burt, 1992)

are an indicator that cliques or groups are developing

May represent a diminishing level of diversity and does increase the likelihood of group think (Uzzi and Spiro, 2005)

Continuance of prior relationships



Facilitator Interaction with High Performing Students

Facilitator interacting only with other central participants

Numerous participants with a low number of connections exist

The facilitator has not made an attempt to reply to un-responded posts or try to incorporate periphery participants within the discussion (Dawson, 2009)



Ideas Student Use

Release SNAPP to students Teacher Portfolio Development

Inclusion of Sociograms as artefacts to support and reflect on facilitation/moderation techniques

MashupsCorrelate interaction data with other attributes eg demographics, grades, etc.



Future Directions Catalogue of common participation patterns Distribute information of the common patterns, how

they can be identified and there relation to various social network metrics

Conduct further research into the intervention techniques and strategies that can be used to alter undesirable patterns of social interaction




• Ms Aneesha BakhariaALTC eResearcherCentre for Educational Innovation and TechnologyUniversity of QueenslandEmail: [email protected]

• Dr Shane DawsonDirector ISITUniversity of British ColumbiaEmail: [email protected]

• Ms Elizabeth HeathcoteHeathcote ConsultingEmail: [email protected]

Visit http://research.uow.edu.au/learningnetworks/seeing