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Online Help-Seeking in a Large Science Class:

A Social Network Analysis Perspective

Erkan ErLearning, Design, and Technology

AECT 2014

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Help-Seeking

• Utilizing peers, teachers, or family as a source of support to overcome learning difficulties,

• A self-regulated learning strategy,

• Seeking help has a positive influence on student learning (Ames & Lau, 1982; Kitsantas & Chow, 2007; Magnusson & Perry, 1992)

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Avoidance of Help-Seeking

• Students perceive help-seeking as a threat to self-worth (Newman, 1990; Ryan & Pintrich, 1997).

• Social concerns contribute to the perceived threat of help-seeking.

• Unsocial classroom environments lead to higher perceptions of threat, therefore leads to avoidance of help-seeking.

(Ryan & Pintrich,1997)

• In caring, supportive, and friendly environments, students feel positive relationships with others.

• Positive relationships and familiarity with others encourage students to seek help when they need it.

(Marchand & Skinner, 2007; Nelson-Le Gall & Gumerman, 1984; Ryan et al., 2005).

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Research QuestionsThis study suggests that the initial friendship network will be linked to the help-seeking behaviors of students. The research questions are:

• What is the relationship between initial friendship networks and the early help-seeking behavior of students?

• What is the relationship between a position of a student in the initial friendship network and the early help-seeking behavior of students?

According to the help-seeking literature, this study is the first attempt in understanding help-seeking from social networking analysis perspective.

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The Context

• 395 college students• Microbiology class• Flipped class:

– Online tools • Video recording of each week’s lecture,• A web-based learning tool for asking questions

– F2F classes• Group activities

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Data Collection

• Sociometric Questionnaire

– List 10 people: • (1) friends whom they would ask for academic support,

• (2) friends with whom they think they are close, and

• (3) friends whom they know but do not interact with frequently

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Data Collection

• Sociometric Questionnaire– The ego networks obtained for each individual student are

combined to build the complete (pre-existing) friendship network in the class.

Ego Networks

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Data Collection

• Sociometric Questionnaire– The ego networks obtained for each individual student are

combined to build the complete (pre-existing) friendship network in the class

Complete Pre-existing Friendship Network

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Method: Social Network Analysis

• This study employs several SNA methods – clique analysis – actor analysis via centrality measures (e.g., indegree and

outdegree).

– UCINET software was used for SNA.

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Clique Analysis

• Clique analysis involves identifying cliques, defined as “a maximal complete sub-graph of three or more nodes” (Wasserman & Faust, 1994, p. 254). – For example, a group of three (or more) students all of

whom know each other can be considered a clique.

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Clique Analysis

• Clique analysis involves identifying cliques, defined as “a maximal complete sub-graph of three or more nodes” (Wasserman & Faust, 1994, p. 254). – For example, a group of three (or more) students all of

whom know each other can be considered a clique.

• This study employs clique analysis and calculates an average score based on the number of cliques to which a student belongs.– The higher the score the more friendship the student has.

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Degree Centrality

• Degree centrality defines the most active or involved actor in the network. – Regardless of the direction of links, an actor with the highest

number of adjacent actors is the one who achieves the highest degree centrality.

– Outdegree centrality considers only interactions directed from an actor to others

– Indegree centrality considers only interactions directed from others to an actor.

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Results

Active help-seeking and the pre-existing friendship network.

A t-test was conducted to compare the clique scores of two student groups:

• students who did not seek help • students who sought help (during the first month of the class)

The goal of this comparison is to understand whether having higher or lower numbers of friends is associated with the early help-seeking activities.

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Results

Active help-seeking and the pre-existing friendship network.

There was a significant difference in the clique scores in

• sought help (M=0.068, SD=0.110) and • did not seek help (M=0.047, SD=0.088) conditions

(t(393)= 2.037, p = 0.026)

, which may suggest that

Students who sought help were likely to be a member of more friendship

groups (or cliques) than students who did not seek help.

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Results

Lurking and the pre-existing friendship network.

This study considers lurking behavior a way of passive help-seeking.

A t-test was conducted to compare the means of lurking scores of two student groups:

• students with a pre-existing friendship group (clique)• students who have no friendship groups (clique)

The goal of this comparison is to determine if membership within a friendship group is associated with students’ lurking to seek help.

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Results

Lurking and the pre-existing friendship network.

There was a significant difference in the scores for lurking in

• belonging to a clique (M=5.14, SD=3.579) and • not belonging to a clique (M=6.07, SD=4.381) conditions

(t(235)= -1.382, p = 0.039)

, which may suggest that

In other words, when students are social they are less likely to lurk whereas students who are strangers in the early semester are more likely to lurk to passively seek help.

Students who belong to a clique are less likely to seek help through lurking than are students who does not belong to a clique.

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Results: Correlational Statistics

Correlations between the number of help requests and SNA measures.

There was a significant correlation between help-seeking and indegree centrality.

, which may suggest that

In other words, popular students may feel less threatened when seeking help.

Students who are known by many others (indegree centrality) are less likely to avoid seeking help and are more likely to request help.

Indegree Outdegree

Help Requests .879** -0.06

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Conclusion and Implications

• Pre-existing social network in the class was related to students’ initial help-seeking activities– Specifically, friendship is positively correlated with active help-seeking

and negatively correlated with lurking (passively seeking help).

• These findings were consistent with previous research findings – Positive relationships and familiarity with others promote help-seeking

when needed since they decrease the perceived threat.(Marchand & Skinner, 2007; Nelson-Le Gall & Gumerman, 1984; Ryan et al., 2005).

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Conclusion and Implications

• In order to promote help-seeking, teachers should create a social learning environment that can allow students to interact with each other.

• Early in the semester, providing opportunities (icebreakers) for students to interact and get familiar with each other can have positive influence on subsequent help-seeking behavior.

• Web-based tools such as social networking sites can be used to enhance friendship and maintain communication outside the classroom.

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Limitations and Future Research

• Help-seeking was examined by giving no consideration to other influential factors– Goal orientation, self-efficacy, perceived teacher support, classroom

goal structure, etc.– Using social network analysis in relation to these factors might provide

a better and more clear understanding on help-seeking behavior.

• This study used a SNA to take a picture of the social network at a time. – However, the change in the social network over time might be related

to the change in help-seeking behavior over time,– A more comprehensive research is needed to observe how these

changes relate to one another.

• The network of Help-providers and Help-seekers might provide a new perspective on how people are connected in the class.

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Thanks!

• Questions, suggestions?