SOCIAL NETWORK INTERACTION OF COLLEGE STUDENTS IN AN ONLINE LEARNING-COMMUNITY DISCUSSING INVOLVING SCIENTIFIC ISSUE

This study aimed at exploring the social network interaction of college students in an online learning-community as they discuss the scientific issue involving global warming. To understand the cohesion of learning network, both micro property (centrality) and macro property (density) were analyzed using SNA method. 63 college students who have selected a general course named “Interpreting Science from Popular Science Reading” in central Taiwan and a tutor participated in this research. This course uses global warming as the primary educational theme by using two popular science books (Episode of Warming War: Global Warning and Climate Change and An Inconvenient Truth) and related videos for learning materials. In the course schedule, eight weeks are arranged for classroom instruction and discussion, and eight weeks for online learning-community discussion using Facebook. UCINET 6.0 software was used to analyze the interaction of online learning-community discussion. Interaction pattern in a networked learning community was visualized and indegree and outdegree are measured for degree centrality. Low value of overall density was analyzed and that means weak interaction and low percentage of participation.