ERIC Number: EJ1459019
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Feb
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0266-4909
EISSN: EISSN-1365-2729
Mining Teacher Informal Online Learning Networks: Community Commitment in Unstructured Learning Environments
Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, v41 n1 e13090 2025
Background: Social media provides new opportunities for teachers to learn, communicate and develop professional relationships. It has been proved to be a valid and helpful resource for teachers' professional learning purposes. Objectives: While previous studies pursued questions like how participants feel, how to support interaction and why participants remain committed, we asked a more fundamental question: what is the structure of a massive informal online professional learning network and what dynamics can we expect regarding participants' commitment? Methods: This work presents an empirical study of massive informal online professional networks to investigate the dynamics of learning communities and participants' commitment over time. We employed social network analysis and data mining techniques on a longitudinal data set of more than 400,000 tweets published with the hashtag "#edchat." Results and Conclusions: We found that around 30% of participants remained committed to the informal learning community over time. Meanwhile, as more and more people committed to the online learning community, participants tended to form smaller communities where the internal connection was stronger. Takeaways: In informal online learning environments, participants can form stable connections. The 30% threshold can be used to measure massive informal online learning networks in terms of commitment or persistence.
Descriptors: Teachers, Professional Development, Social Media, Communities of Practice, Informal Education, Interprofessional Relationship, Collegiality, Social Networks
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2191/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A