THAITécnicas de Investigación

Cualitativa y Mixta

S5. Análisis de redes sociales y métodos mixtos

Alejandra Martínez Monés 28 de septiembre 2010

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Index

Social Network Analysis An example of a mixed method Tools

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Social network analysis (SNA)

Considers relations and mutual effects of actors within groups and organisations

– Based on empirical data– Different levels of analysis (individual, sub-group,

community) Formal methods, mainly based on graph theory and

graph algorithms Fundamentals were presented as „Sociometry“

(Moreno, 1951)– Sociogram– Sociomatrix

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Social network analysisSocial network

Set of actors (a person, a department, a company) and relationships among them

Examples: – “is a friend of”– “is a neighbor of”– “distributes goods to”– “is a member of”

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Social Network AnalysisGraphical representation - Sociograms

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Social network analysis Types of networks

Mode– One-mode networks: one set of actors– Two-mode networks: two sets of actors.

Affiliation networks: relationships between actors and activities

Complete vs. egocentric networks

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Social Network Analysis Application areas to computer science

Human oriented disciplines– Computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL)– Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW)

Network Analysis– Identification of bottlenecks in computer networks– Fault-tolerance and –handling in distributed systems

Knowledge Structures– Growing interest in analysis of dynamic knowledge

structures, such as Wikipedia

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Social network analysis Some indicators

Centrality of actors– Degree based– Proximity / Closeness based– Betweenness based

Centralization of a network Prestige of actors

– Indegree and proximity Groupings: Cliques, Clusters, Positions

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Social network analysis Indicators - Examples

Individual: – Degree centrality: Activity of a node

C D (ni) = d(ni) = xi+

– Normalized degree centralityC’D (ni) = d(ni) / (g-1)

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Social network analysis Indicators - Examples

Global: – Density: Global activity of the network

= 2 L / g (g -1) L, number of links; g, number of nodes

– Degree Centralization: Dependency of a single actor

CD = 1<=i<=g [CD (n*) – CD( ni)] / (g-1) (g-2),

CD (n*) = maxiCD( ni)

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Social Network AnalysisSociograms

Who is central in this network?

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Social network analysis Visualisation techniques

Teacher

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Intra-group

Inter-group

= 24,45%CD = 63,6%

CD (x00) = 81,9 %

CD (x21) = 9,1 %CD (x32) = 9,1 %

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Social network analysis Data Collection and Transformations

Computer-mediated communication– Discussion Forums– Mailinglists– Web 2.0 applications, such as xing, facebook etc.

Archival records / artifacts– Bibliographies– Wikis– Versioning systems (e.g. CVS)

Automatically processable Potential for transformation between differenet

network types

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Social network analysis Limitations of the method

Frequently not all of the interaction takes place inside a computer environment– People going for a coffee and discussing their

homework Interpretation is hard without „insider

knowledge“, i.e. replication is difficult Combination with other methods is useful

„triangulation“

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Index

Social Network Analysis An example of a mixed method Tools

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Research context

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CSCL – Computer Supported Collaborative Learning– Emphasises interactions among learners

F2F / Distance / Blended– Technology and models to support the whole lifecycle– Validation in authentic scenarios

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Research ContextEvaluation of CSCL situations

Overall research question: How to help teachers in monitoring participatory aspects of learning by means of technology?

“Validation” research question: How is the evolution of participation structures in a classroom supported by technology?

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Integrate context Study of real situations Participants’ point of view

New forms of interaction

Visualisation processes Participatory aspects

Scalable and efficient processes

Research contextWhat we needed … Mixed evaluation

method

– Ethnographic data sources – Qualitative analysis – Automatically recorded data

– Quantitative analysis– Tools

– Social network analysis

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Interviews QuestionnairesObservations Automaticdata

Phases

End ofproject

Throughoutthe

experience

Prepara-tion

Analysis methods

SNA

Eventlogs

Socio-metries

Socio-metries

Face to face interact.

Qualitative

Scheme of categories

Quantitative

Data sources

• After milestones• Critics about the

project

Final

Previousconcepts

(individual)Initial

After milestones

Daily work

Final

Conclusions

Mixed evaluation method

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Index

Social network analysis An example of a mixed method Tools

– SAMSA– Quest, Iloca, Nudist

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SAMSAUsage overview

ActionsFilter

Socio-metries

Filter

f2f interacions

Filter

SAMSADatos

Configuration parameters

SNA Indexes

Sociograms

Generic representation of actions

Output files

(Ucinet,

NetDraw)

Logs fromCSCL tools

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SAMSAConfiguration Dates, actors, objects … Types of relationships

Indirect: mediated by objects(shared workspaces)

Direct: chats, forums, etc.

Person-object: use of resources

SAMSA Configuration

• Example of SAMSA configuration screen

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ID Title Thread_ID

Parent_ID date Student

NameSchoo

l

21 Solutions of it is Energy Conservation? 3 0 2007-04-30 A41 A

22 I think it is too late for us to solve the global warming 3 21 2007-05-19 A5 A

<SESSION id=”Thread_3” date=30.04.2007><ACTION> <ACT.TIMESTAMP>19.05.2007 00:00:00</ACT.TIMESTAMP>

  <ACT.SOURCE ref="A5" /> <ACT.DESC> <ACT.DIR type="Debate">  <ACT.DIR.DEST ref="A41" />   </ACT.DIR>  </ACT.DESC></ACTION></SESSION>

Samsa in useWorkshop on interaction analysis approaches (CSCL 2009)

Analysis. Thread’s leader

• Thread 6: thread beginner is the thread leader

CDi(A25) = 46,7

CCi(A25) = 62,5

Analysis. Thread’s leader

• Thread 3CDi(A41) = 25,0

CCi(A41) = 52,0

Thread beginner

CDi(A5) = 58,3

CCi(A5) = 70,6

Thread leader

Analysis. Thread’s leader

• Thread 28 – School B

Detecting roles

DynamizerCDo(B20) = 16

CDo-sessions (B20) = 30,8%

CDi (B20) = 4 (17th value)

Isolated

Non-participative

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Other analysis experiences

Analysis of collaboration in a clasroom using f2f observations

Analysis of collaboration in a course mediated by BSCW – Both in blended and distance settings

Analysis of collaboration in a problem-solving CSCL tool

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Other SNA Software

UCINet – Whole Network Analysis – NetDraw – Visualization – http://www.analytictech.com/downloaduc6.htm

Pajek – Network Visualization (Large Networks) – http://pajek.imfm.si/doku.php

SAMSA – SNA applied to CSCL scenarios– amartine@infor.uva.es

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Index

Social network analysis An example of a mixed method Tools

– SAMSA– Quest, Iloca, Nudist

Observations

SAMSA

Teacher /evaluator

DL File (UCINET format)

CSCL tool

QUEST

obs2xml

Participants

Answer to questionnaires

Interactions through the computer

el2xml

Event log

Interactionmaps

NUD*IST

Newcategories

Pedagogical tool

Evaluation tool or module

File

STATISTICPACKAGE

Categories

Statisticindexes

Tools - Quest

SNA indexes& sociograms

Actions

(XML)

Designs questionnaires RTF files

Tables

XML file

Observations

SAMSA

Teacher /evaluator

Configurationparameters

DL File (UCINET format)

CSCL tool

QUEST

obs2xml

Participants

Respuestascuestionarios

Interactions through the computer

el2xml

Event log

Interactionmaps

NUD*IST

Newcategories

Pedagogical tool

Evaluation tool or module

File

STATISTICPACKAGE

Categories

Statisticindexes

Tools – Iloca and Nud*IST

SNA indexes& sociograms

Actions

(XML)

iloca

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Tools Qualitative analysis

Many tools NVivo (antes Nud*IST) allows to analyse

qualitative data:– Textual– Video, audio

Supports the researcher in “making sense” of the data.

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Nud*IST Example – Coding data