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The role of social network analysis as a learning analytics tool in online problem based learning

BACKGROUND: Social network analysis (SNA) might have an unexplored value in the study of interactions in technology-enhanced learning at large and in online (Problem Based Learning) PBL in particular. Using SNA to study students’ positions in information exchange networks, communicational activities...

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Autores principales: Saqr, Mohammed, Alamro, Ahmad
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6530148/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31113441
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1599-6
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author Saqr, Mohammed
Alamro, Ahmad
author_facet Saqr, Mohammed
Alamro, Ahmad
author_sort Saqr, Mohammed
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description BACKGROUND: Social network analysis (SNA) might have an unexplored value in the study of interactions in technology-enhanced learning at large and in online (Problem Based Learning) PBL in particular. Using SNA to study students’ positions in information exchange networks, communicational activities, and interactions, we can broaden our understanding of the process of PBL, evaluate the significance of each participant role and learn how interactions can affect academic performance. The aim of this study was to study how SNA visual and mathematical analysis can be sued to investigate online PBL, furthermore, to see if students’ position and interaction parameters are associated with better performance. METHODS: This study involved 135 students and 15 teachers in 15 PBL groups in the course of “growth and development” at Qassim University. The course uses blended PBL as the teaching method. All interaction data were extracted from the learning management system, analyzed with SNA visual and mathematical techniques on the individual student and group level, centrality measures were calculated, and participants’ roles were mapped. Correlation among variables was performed using the non-parametric Spearman rank correlation test. RESULTS: The course had 2620 online interactions, mostly from students to students (89%), students to teacher interactions were 4.9%, and teacher to student interactions were 6.15%. Results have shown that SNA visual analysis can precisely map each PBL group and the level of activity within the group as well as outline the interactions among group participants, identify the isolated and the active students (leaders and facilitators) and evaluate the role of the tutor. Statistical analysis has shown that students’ level of activity (outdegree r(s)(133) = 0.27, p = 0.01), interaction with tutors (r(s) (133) = 0.22, p = 0.02) are positively correlated with academic performance. CONCLUSIONS: Social network analysis is a practical method that can reliably monitor the interactions in an online PBL environment. Using SNA could reveal important information about the course, the group, and individual students. The insights generated by SNA may be useful in the context of learning analytics to help monitor students’ activity.
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spelling pubmed-65301482019-05-28 The role of social network analysis as a learning analytics tool in online problem based learning Saqr, Mohammed Alamro, Ahmad BMC Med Educ Research Article BACKGROUND: Social network analysis (SNA) might have an unexplored value in the study of interactions in technology-enhanced learning at large and in online (Problem Based Learning) PBL in particular. Using SNA to study students’ positions in information exchange networks, communicational activities, and interactions, we can broaden our understanding of the process of PBL, evaluate the significance of each participant role and learn how interactions can affect academic performance. The aim of this study was to study how SNA visual and mathematical analysis can be sued to investigate online PBL, furthermore, to see if students’ position and interaction parameters are associated with better performance. METHODS: This study involved 135 students and 15 teachers in 15 PBL groups in the course of “growth and development” at Qassim University. The course uses blended PBL as the teaching method. All interaction data were extracted from the learning management system, analyzed with SNA visual and mathematical techniques on the individual student and group level, centrality measures were calculated, and participants’ roles were mapped. Correlation among variables was performed using the non-parametric Spearman rank correlation test. RESULTS: The course had 2620 online interactions, mostly from students to students (89%), students to teacher interactions were 4.9%, and teacher to student interactions were 6.15%. Results have shown that SNA visual analysis can precisely map each PBL group and the level of activity within the group as well as outline the interactions among group participants, identify the isolated and the active students (leaders and facilitators) and evaluate the role of the tutor. Statistical analysis has shown that students’ level of activity (outdegree r(s)(133) = 0.27, p = 0.01), interaction with tutors (r(s) (133) = 0.22, p = 0.02) are positively correlated with academic performance. CONCLUSIONS: Social network analysis is a practical method that can reliably monitor the interactions in an online PBL environment. Using SNA could reveal important information about the course, the group, and individual students. The insights generated by SNA may be useful in the context of learning analytics to help monitor students’ activity. BioMed Central 2019-05-22 /pmc/articles/PMC6530148/ /pubmed/31113441 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1599-6 Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Saqr, Mohammed
Alamro, Ahmad
The role of social network analysis as a learning analytics tool in online problem based learning
title The role of social network analysis as a learning analytics tool in online problem based learning
title_full The role of social network analysis as a learning analytics tool in online problem based learning
title_fullStr The role of social network analysis as a learning analytics tool in online problem based learning
title_full_unstemmed The role of social network analysis as a learning analytics tool in online problem based learning
title_short The role of social network analysis as a learning analytics tool in online problem based learning
title_sort role of social network analysis as a learning analytics tool in online problem based learning
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6530148/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31113441
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1599-6
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