Community structure in introductory physics course networks

TL;DR

This study uses network analysis to quantitatively examine student collaboration structures in calculus-based physics courses, revealing differences between small and large class environments and informing instructional strategies.

Contribution

It extends previous research by applying community detection to diverse class sizes at a large university with nontraditional students.

Findings

Community structures differ significantly between small and large classes.

Pre- and post-course collaboration patterns show measurable changes.

Network analysis provides insights into social dynamics beyond qualitative methods.

Abstract

Student-to-student interactions are foundational to many active learning environments, but are most often studied using qualitative methods. Network analysis tools provide a quantitative complement to this picture, allowing researchers to describe the social interactions of whole classrooms as systems. Past results from introductory physics courses have suggested a sharp division in the formation of social structure between large lecture sections and small studio classroom environments. Extending those results, this study focuses on calculus-based introductory physics courses at a large public university with a heavily commuter and nontraditional student population. Community detection network methods are used to characterize pre- and post-course collaborative structure in several sections, and differences are considered between small and large classes. These results are compared with expectations from earlier findings, and comment on implications for instruction and further study.