Online Learning Communities in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Social Learning Network Analysis of Twitter During the Shutdown

Authors

  • David John Lemay McGill University
  • Tenzin Doleck University of Southern California

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijai.v2i1.15427

Keywords:

Social learning network analysis, Twitter, online learning, online teaching, COVID-19, online discourse communities, discussion forums

Abstract


This paper presents a social learning network analysis of Twitter during the 2020 global shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Research concerning online learning environments is focused on the reproduction of conventional teaching arrangements, whereas social media technologies afford new channels for the dissemination of information and sharing of knowledge and expertise. We examine Twitter feed around the hashtags #onlinelearning and #onlineteaching during the global shutdown to examine the spontaneous development of online learning communities. We find relatively small and ephemeral communities on the two topics. Most users make spontaneous contributions to the discussion but do not maintain a presence in the Twitter discourse. Optimizing the social learning network, we find many potential efficiencies to be gained through more proactive efforts to connect knowledge seekers and knowledge disseminators. Considerations and prospects for supporting online informal social learning networks are discussed.

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Published

2020-06-16

How to Cite

Lemay, D. J., & Doleck, T. (2020). Online Learning Communities in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Social Learning Network Analysis of Twitter During the Shutdown. International Journal of Learning Analytics and Artificial Intelligence for Education (iJAI), 2(1), pp. 85–100. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijai.v2i1.15427

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Papers