Abstract
Although several studies related to social-context awareness (SA) and knowledge-context awareness (KA) argued that each (SA or KA) can individually enhance peer interaction in an online learning community, other studies reached opposite conclusions. These conflicting findings likely stem from different experimental settings. Most importantly, few studies have investigated the difference between the impacts of SA and KA under an identical experimental setting, which can be used to determine whether SA or KA better enhances peer collaboration. Restated, direct empirical comparisons of these two approaches are lacking. This work simultaneously investigates the impacts of SA and KA on quantitative and qualitative peer interaction and learning performance using the same experimental setting. Additionally, an underlying repeated-measurement design is applied to investigate peer interaction patterns and learning performance in SA and KA communities. Experimental results show that SA can stimulate more quantitative peer interaction than KA. However, both SA and KA have limited capacity to elicit qualified message content, even in a longitudinal experiment. Although the scores of SA and KA communities did not differ significantly on the first posttest, the SA community had significantly better learning performance on the second posttest, likely related to more extensive and frequent interaction among peers within the SA community.








Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.References
Aleven, V., & Koedinger, K. R. (2001). Investigations into help seeking and learning with a cognitive tutor. In R. Luckin (Ed.), Papers of the AIED-2001 Workshop on Help Provision and Help Seeking in Interactive Learning Environments (pp. 47–58). Available via http://www.hcrc.ed.ac.uk/aied2001/workshops.html.
Ardichvili, A., Page, V., & Wentling, T. (2003). Motivation and barriers to participation in virtual knowledge sharing communities of practice. Journal of Knowledge Management, 7(1), 64–77.
Barnard, L., Lan, W., To, Y., Paton, V., & Lai, S. (2009). Measuring self-regulated in online and blended learning environments. The Internet and Higher Education, 12(1), 1–6.
Bodemer, D., & Dehler, J. (2011). Group awareness in CSCL environment. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 1043–1045.
Buder, J. (2011). Group awareness tools for learning: current and future directions. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 1114–1117.
Cadima, R., Ferreira, C., Monguet, J., Ojeda, J., & Fernandez, J. (2010). Promoting social network awareness: a social network monitoring system. Computers & Education, 54(4), 1233–1240.
Castillo, S., & Ayala, G. (2010). Content adaptation in mobile learning environments. International Journal of Multimedia Data Engineering and Management, 1(4), 1–15.
Chao, C. Y., Hwu, S. L., & Chang, C. C. (2011). Supporting interaction among participants of online learning using the knowledge sharing concept. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 10(4), 311–319.
Chen, C. M., & Chang, C. C. (2012). Mining learning social networks for cooperative learning with appropriate learning partners in a problem-based learning environment. Interactive Learning Environments. (Available online: 09 Feb 2012).
Dawson, S. (2008). A study of the relationship between student social networks and sense of community. Educational Technology & Society, 11(3), 224–238.
Dehler, J., Bodemer, D., Buder, J., & Hesse, F. W. (2011). Guiding knowledge communication in CSCL via group knowledge awareness. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 1068–1078.
DiMicco, J., Hollenbach, K., Pandolfo, A., & Bender, W. (2007). The impact of increased awareness while face-to-face. Human Computer Interaction, 22, 47–96.
Ehrlich, K., & Carboni, I. (2013). Inside social network analysis. Published in digital form at http://ppr.cs.dal.ca/sraza/files/social%20networks(1).pdf (Retrieved on 2013/12/5).
El-Bishouty, M. M., Ogata, H., & Yano, Y. (2007). PERKAM: personalized knowledge awareness map for computer supported ubiquitous learning. Educational Technology & Society, 10(3), 122–134.
El-Bishouty, M. M., Ogata, H., Rahman, S., & Yano, Y. (2010). Social knowledge awareness map for computer supported ubiquitous learning environment. Educational Technology & Society, 13(4), 27–37.
Engel, A., Coll, C., & Bustos, A. (2013). Distributed teaching presence and communicative patterns in asynchronous learning: name versus reply networks. Computers & Education, 60(1), 184–196.
Engelmann, T., Tergan, S., & Hesse, F. W. (2010). Evoking knowledge and information awareness for enhancing computer-supported collaborative problem solving. The Journal of Experimental Education, 78(2), 268–290.
Erickson, T., & Kellogg, W. A. (2000). Social translucence: an approach to designing systems that support social processes. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 7(1), 59–83.
Hanneman, R. A., & Mark, R. (2005). Introduction to social network methods. Riverside, CA: University of California, Riverside. Published in digital form at. http://faculty.ucr.edu/~hanneman/nettext/ (Retrieved on 2013/4/22).
Hendriks, P. (1999). Why share knowledge? The influence of ICT on the motivation for knowledge sharing. Knowledge and Process Management, 6(2), 91–100.
Heo, H., Lim, K. Y., & Kim, Y. (2010). Exploratory study on the patterns of online interaction and knowledge co-construction in project-based learning. Computers & Education, 55(3), 1383–1392.
Janssen, J., & Bodemer, D. (2013). Coordinated computer-supported collaborative learning: awareness and awareness tools. Educational Psychologist, 48(1), 40–55.
Janssen, J., Erkens, G., Kanselaar, G., & Jaspers, J. (2007). Visualization of participation: does it contribute to successful computer-supported collaborative learning? Computers & Education, 49, 1037–1065.
Kenny, D. A., Kashy, W. L., & Cook. (2006). Dyadic data analysis. New York/London: The Guilford Press.
Kimmerle, J., & Cress, U. (2008). Group awareness and self-presentation in computer-supported information exchange. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 3(1), 85–97.
King, A. (2007). Scripting collaborative learning processes: A cognitive perspective. In F. Fischer, I. Kollar, H. Mandl, & J. Haake (Eds.), Scripting computer-supported collaborative learning. US: Springer.
Lin, J. W., & Lai, Y. C. (2013a). Harnessing collaborative annotations on online formative assessments. Educational Technology & Society, 16(1), 263–274.
Lin, J. W., & Lai, Y. C. (2013b). Online formative assessments with social network awareness. Computers & Education, 66, 40–53.
Lin, J. W., Lai, Y. C., & Chuang, Y. S. (2013). Timely diagnostic feedback for database concept learning. Educational Technology & Society, 16(2), 228–242.
Lipponen, L., Rahikainen, M., Lallimo, J., & Hakkarainen, K. (2003). Patterns of participation and discourse in elementary students’ computer-supported collaborative learning. Learning and Instruction, 13(5), 487–509.
Little, J. L., Bjork, E. L., Bjork, R. A., & Angello, G. (2012). Multiple-choice tests exonerated, at least of some charges fostering test-induced learning and avoiding test-induced forgetting. Psychological Science, 23(11), 1337–1344.
Pear, J. J., & Crone-Todd, D. E. (2002). A social constructivist approach to computer-mediated instruction. Computers & Education, 38(1), 221–231.
Pfeil, U., & Zaphiris, P. (2009). Investigating social network patterns within an empathic online community for older people. Computers in Human Behavior, 25, 1139–1155.
Reffay, C., & Chanier, T. (2003). How social network analysis can help to measure cohesion in collaborative distance-learning. Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, 2, 343–352.
Sangin, M., Molinari, G., Nüssli, M.-A., & Dillenbourg, P. (2011). Facilitating peer knowledge modeling: effects of a knowledge awareness tool on collaborative learning outcomes and processes. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(3), 1059–1067.
Shi, Y., Frederiksen, C. H., & Muis, K. R. (2013). A cross-cultural study of self-regulated learning in a computer-supported collaborative learning environment. Learning and Instruction, 23, 52–59.
Slof, B., Erkens, G., Kirschner, P. A., & Helms-Lorenz, M. (2013). The effects of inspecting and constructing part-task-specific visualizations on team and individual learning. Computers & Education, 60(1), 221–233.
Soller, A., Martinez, A., Jermann, P. & Muehlenbrock, M. (2005). From Mirroring to Guiding: A Review of State of the Art Technology for Supporting Collaborative Learning. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 15, 261–290.
Vrocharidou, A., & Efthymiou, I. (2012). Computer mediated communication for social and academic purposes: profiles of use and university students’ gratifications. Computers & Education, 58(1), 95–103.
Wang, T. H. (2011). Developing web-based assessment strategies for facilitating junior high school students to perform self-regulated learning in an e-learning environment. Computers & Education, 57(2), 1801–1812.
Wasserman, S., & Faust, K. (1994). Social network analysis: Methods and applications. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Yang, S. J. H., Chen, I. Y. L., Kinshuk, & Chen, N. S. (2007). Enhancing the quality of e-learning in virtual learning communities by finding quality learning content and trustworthy collaborators. Educational Technology & Society, 10(2), 84–95.
Yuan, Y., Fulk, J., Shumate, M., Monge, P. R., Bryant, J. A., & Matsaganis, M. (2005). Individual participation in organizational information commons: the impact of team level social influence and technology-specific competence. Human Communication Research, 31(2), 212–240.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan for the financial support under Grant No. 103-2410-H-231-002. The authors also would like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
About this article
Cite this article
Lin, JW., Mai, LJ. & Lai, YC. Peer interaction and social network analysis of online communities with the support of awareness of different contexts. Intern. J. Comput.-Support. Collab. Learn 10, 139–159 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-015-9212-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-015-9212-4