Characterizing Faculty Online Learning Community Interactions Using Social Network Analysis

TL;DR

This study applies Social Network Analysis to examine communication patterns in PICUP's Slack workspace, evaluating community engagement and goal achievement to inform future community development strategies.

Contribution

It introduces a framework using SNA metrics to assess online community interactions and engagement levels within a physics education collaborative.

Findings

Identified three engagement levels among users.

Analyzed communication patterns across eight Slack channels.

Provided recommendations for enhancing community interaction.

Abstract

The Partnership for Integration of Computation into Undergraduate Physics (PICUP) was founded in the mid-2010s to assist educators with the challenges of integrating computation into physics curricula. In addition to in-person trainings and hosted educational materials, PICUP uses a Slack Workspace to continue collaboration and discussion offline. In this work, we use Social Network Analysis (SNA) to study the communication patterns of PICUP and assess if PICUP is meeting their goals in the Slack environment. Through our analysis, we discuss PICUP's community structure and define a conceptual framework to evaluate if the goals are being met through SNA metrics. We present a comprehensive analysis of eight channels in the Slack Workspace using various SNA metrics, identifying three distinct levels of user engagement. We conclude with implications for PICUP and provide recommendations for the community.