Abstract
This article examines the interplay between offline social capital and online interactivity in higher education's online learning discussions. In a field study, we examine networks of interactions extracted from the online discussions and offline acquittance questionnaire of four classes. Two classes belong to a traditional brick-and-mortar university, where an offline acquaintance is a common resource, and two classes belong to a distance-learning university with a loose offline acquaintance. We analyzed the offline and online networks of interactions at the individual, dyadic, and community levels. We found that there is a positive association between offline social capital and online learning interactions across all classes at the individual and dyadic levels. Using network analysis, we found evidence for a substitutional relationship between the offline and online networks at the community level, thus suggesting that online interactions may be encouraged as a complementing dimension of offline social capital.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1186-1211 |
Number of pages | 26 |
Journal | International Journal of Communication |
Volume | 13 |
State | Published - 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2019 (Carmel Kent, Amit Rechavi, and Sheizaf Rafaeli).
Keywords
- Online interactivity
- Online learning communities
- Social capital
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication