. (2013)  The Warwick Research Archive Portal (WRAP) makes this work by researchers of the University of Warwick available open access under the following conditions. Copyright © and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable the material made available in WRAP has been checked for eligibility before being made available. Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-forprofit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Stepanyan, Karen, Mather, Richard and Dalrymple, Roger. (2013) Culture, role and group work : a social network analysis perspective on an online collaborative course. British Journal of Educational Technology, which has been published in final form at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12076. The version presented here is a working paper or pre-print that may be later published elsewhere. If a published version is known of, the above WRAP url will contain details on finding it. Harcourt Hill Campus, Oxford, OX2 9AT, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0) 18 6548 8600. Email: rdalrymple@brookes.ac.uk Abstract This paper discusses the patterns of network dynamics within a multi-cultural online collaborative learning environment. It analyses the interaction of participants (both students and facilitators) within a discussion board that was established as part of a three-month online collaborative course. The study employs longitudinal probabilistic social network analysis (SNA) to identify the patterns and trends within the network. It conjectures and tests a set of hypotheses concerning the tendencies towards homophily/heterophily and preferential attachment. The paper presents identified interaction network patterns in relation to cultural differences. It also evaluates network dynamics by considering participant roles and group work in the course under study. Results of social network analyses are reported along with measures of statistical confidence in findings. The potential for extending exploratory SNA methods and visualisation techniques in educational research are discussed here. 2
REF discusses the patterns of network dynamics within a multicultural online collaborative learning environment.
Culture, role and group work: A social network analysis perspective on an online collaborative course
BJET
BJET
Psychology Computer Science