11/09/2013

Katy JordanThe Open UniversityKaty.jordan@open.ac.uk@katy_jordan

Association for Learning Technology Conference11th September 2013

Academics and their online networksExploring the role of academic social networking sites

Defining academic SNS

“We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.” (boyd & Ellison, 2007).

0

5000000

10000000

150000000

500000

1000000

1500000

2000000

2500000

Web rank

Num

ber

of

users

Academia.edu

ResearchGate.net

Mendeley.com

Lallslo.com

Mynetresearch.com

Iamresearcher.com

Academici.com

Affordances of academic SNS

• Identity: Constructing an online academic profile– Almousa, 2011; Menendez, de Angeli & Menestrina, 2012• Communication: Discovery and dissemination of research findings; asking and answering questions.– Veletsianos, 2011• Collaboration: Finding similar or different collaborators; supporting active research relationships.– Jeng et al., 2012; Oh & Jeng, 2011

Research questions

• What is the structure of academic social networks?• To what extent do different academic social networking sites foster similar networks?• Do factors such as discipline or position correlate with behaviour in the network?

Research methods

• Focused upon Open University (OU) academics• Mapped network of connections between OU-affiliated academics on three main academic SNS• Categorised according to position and discipline• Survey carried out on a sub-sample to explore perceptions about role of academic SNS and follow up on differences in network structure based on position and discipline

Visualizing the networks - discipline

Mendeley Academia.edu

Community structure

Historical & Philosophical StudiesEducationBiological SciencesSocial StudiesComputer ScienceBusiness & AdministrationCreative Arts & DesignMedicine relatedPhysical SciencesMathematicsLanguagesLawLinguistics, Classics & relatedEngineering

Connection and position in the network

• Both degree and centrality showed significant differences according to position• More senior academics have a higher degree and occupy a more central position in the network

Undergraduate student

Alumnus

Academic support

Lecturer

Unknown0

10203040

Position

Deg

ree = In degree

☐ = out degree

Survey resultsTheme Item Subject Positio

nActive

Communication – posing and answering questions

Being able to ask questions of the online community is important      

Academic SNS allow me to draw upon a wider community of expertise when I need help

     

Communication – academic publications

Academic SNS are a good way of promoting my own academic publications

 

Academic SNS are a good way of finding out about new publications of interest

 

Collaboration – present and future

Academic SNS are a useful way to support working in collaboration with other researchers

     

Having a profile will enhance my future career prospects      

Identity – how academics view the role of profiles

Being part of an academic SNS is useful 

   

My online academic and personal identities are separated      

I see my profile as an online business card 

     

I use my profile as a research journal 

     

I actively interact with others via the site 

     

Identity – exploring trends in network structure

I only follow people who I know personally If someone follows me, I follow them back 

 

I follow people who I would like to work with in the future  

I follow people as a way of staying in touch with people I used to work with

 

Conclusions

• Provided an insight into the network structure fostered by academic SNS• Similarities with social network structures in other contexts• Subject area influential on community structure• Seniority influential on position and connectivity of individual nodes

Acknowledgements

• Thanks to my supervisors, Professor Martin Weller and Dr. Canan Blake.• This work was made possible through a doctoral studentship from the Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology at the Open University, UK.• Special thanks to all of the Open University graduate students and academics who took part in the pilot study.

References•Almousa, O. (2011) Users’ classification and usage-pattern identification in academic social networks. Proc. AEECT.•boyd, d.m. & Ellison, N.B. (2007) Social network sites: Definition, history and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13, 1, article 1.• Jeng, W., He, D., Jiang, J. & Zhang, Y. (2012) Groups in Mendeley: Owners’ descriptions and group outcomes. Proc. ASIST.•Menendez, M., de Angeli, A. & Menestrina, Z. (2012) Chapter 4: Exploring the virtual space of academia. In: J. Dugdale et al. (eds.) From research to practice in the design of cooperative systems. Springer.•Nentwich, M. & Konig, R.(2012) Cyberscience 2.0: Research in the age of digital social networks. Campus Verlag.•Oh, J.S. & Jeng, W. (2011) Groups in academic social networking services: An exploration of their potential as a platform for multi-disciplinary collaboration. Proc. SocialCom.

•Rainie, L. & Wellman, B. (2012) Networked: The new social operating system. Cambridge: MIT Press.

•Veletsianos, G. (2011), Higher education scholars' participation and practices on Twitter. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 28(4), 336-349.

•Weller, M. (2011) The Digital Scholar: How technology is transforming scholarly practice. London: Bloomsbury.