Journal article
Understanding interaction network formation across instructional contexts in remote physics courses
Physical review. Physics education research, v 18(2), p020141
01 Dec 2022
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Engaging in interactions with peers is important for student learning. Many studies have quantified patterns of student interactions in in-person physics courses using social network analysis, finding different network structures between instructional contexts (lecture and laboratory) and styles (active and tradi-tional). Such studies also find inconsistent results as to whether and how student-level variables (e.g., grades and demographics) relate to the formation of interaction networks. In this cross-sectional research study, we investigate these relationships further by examining lecture and lab interaction networks in four different remote physics courses spanning various instructional styles and student populations. We apply statistical methods from social network analysis-exponential random graph models-to measure the relationship between network formation and multiple variables: students' discussion and lab section enrollment, final course grades, gender, and race or ethnicity. Similar to previous studies of in-person courses, we find that remote lecture interaction networks contain large clusters connecting many students, while remote lab interaction networks contain smaller clusters of a few students. Our statistical analysis suggests that these distinct network structures arise from a combination of both instruction-level and student-level variables, including the learning goals of each instructional context, whether assignments are completed in groups or individually, and the distribution of gender and major of students enrolled in a course. We further discuss how these and other variables help to understand the formation of interaction networks in both remote and in-person physics courses.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Understanding interaction network formation across instructional contexts in remote physics courses
- Creators
- Meagan Sundstrom - Cornell UniversityAndy Schang - Cornell UniversityAshley B. Heim - Cornell UniversityN. G. Holmes - Cornell University
- Publication Details
- Physical review. Physics education research, v 18(2), p020141
- Publisher
- Amer Physical Soc
- Number of pages
- 19
- Grant note
- DGE-2139899; DUE -1836617 / National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program; National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Physics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000893163800001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85145452406
- Other Identifier
- 991022032156804721
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- Web of Science research areas
- Education & Educational Research
- Education, Scientific Disciplines