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Network awareness tool & SocialLearn: Visualising relations that matter

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Maarten de Laat, LOOK, Open Universiteit, The Netherlands
Maarten de Laat, LOOK, Open Universiteit, The Netherlands

Talk held during the SolarStorm Learning Analytics Symposium. Organized by Simon Buckingham Shum. The OUNL team will talk about work in progress from a SocialLearn research internship held by Bieke Schreurs. The Network Awareness Tool (NAT) was developed initially for rendering the normally invisible non-digital networks underpinning informal learning (in particular for teacher professional development). The work reported here describes how NAT was adapted to render social networks between informal learners in the OUs SocialLearn platform, in which different social ties can be filtered in and out of the network visualization, and moreover, enriched with topics. http://bit.ly/LearningAnalyticsOU

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Network awareness tool & SocialLearn: Visualising relations that matter Bieke Schreurs, Maarten de Laat, Chris Teplovs, Rebecca Ferguson & Simon Buckingham Shum
Overview OU NL / LOOK - Social & Networked Learning Professional development Informal learning networks Network Awareness Tool (NAT) OU UK / SocialLearn Social Learning Analytics SocialLearn & NAT Problemshift & University of Windsor Visualising social networks & NAT
LOOK - Social & Networked Learning Professional development A focus on working and learning Learning is part of everyday work Work-related problems often results into learning Most professional learning is not formally organized but happens during informal spontaneous activities Does not happen in isolation
Professional development Make use of each others expertise Networked interactions allow professionals to share their own practice rather than being passive recipients of expert knowledge. (Boud & Hager, 2012) Knowledge networks will enable staff inside schools to become plugged in to the world of ideas outside their professional contexts, as well as offering them the chance to explore their work with the help of others outside their schools (Southworth, 2000)
Informal learning Problem of informal learning Ad hoc & problem-based Spontaneous Integrated in daily work practices Invisible People rely on their networks for information to get their work done What can we do? Start with networks that energize learning, make their work visible and make it accessible
Informal Networked Learning Informal Networked Learning is situated in practice, where people rely strongly on their social contacts for assistance and development
Theoretical Background Social Network Theory Network structures reveal important information about flow and shared knowledge within an organisation Use SNA to study network properties such as density, clusters, holes, bridges, strong & weak ties, network paths Social Capital Looks more closely at the relational resources embedded in social ties and how actors interact to gain access to these resources Social learning communities and networks Looks at learning as a social process of participation, coconstruction, collaboration, development of a shared identity and the collective development of a particular domain and practice.
Practice-based research Facing a double invisibility problem Raising cultural awareness about informal learning & professional development Study what you cant see
Making the invisible visible Mapping offline networks in daily practice Bottom-up Uplanned Residing in real practices No overview entire network exists Problem-based Ego-networks See how they are connected Problem: Time consuming Labour intensive Loses sense of urgency in practice
What makes a learning tie? Participant demographics Learning topics (based on work-related problems) Ego networks around those topics Quality of the Ego network: Relevance to practice, personal development & organizational learning Strength these ties: frequency, quality Dynamics over time Building a tool to facilitate this research
Network Awareness Tool Manually user populated tool to gather real time networked data based on learning topics that can be updated by the participants when needed
Network Awareness Tool Automatically generated visualisations based on manually entered ties Filters by Topic, Organization & Individuals
SocialLearn Social Learning Analytics Specific focus on role of Learning Analytics in online social platforms interest in processes of learning, not just quality of products (focus of most LA work) E.g. SNA, Discourse Analytics, Collaborative Knowledge Building (Buckingham Shum & Ferguson 2012) SocialLearn & NAT Broader goal to develop SLA dashboard in SL Could NAT be a plug-in to automatically visualize meaningful learning ties from the SocialLearn database?
The Big Questions 1. What makes a tie a learning tie? 2. What is the content of the tie? 3. What is the impact of NAT visualizations on the development of networked learning?
Exploring SocialLearn & NAT Develop visualizations based on rules that describe learning ties around topics Ties around SocialLearn TOPICS exist IF: 1) A user "friends" another user 2) A user "follows" another user 3) A user replies or comments on a resource contributed by another user.
NAT in SocialLearn Visualising social learning using Nat
Problemshift
Resources NAT demo database http://problemshift.com/nib_export/exampl e4anon.html NAT paper LAK 2012 mail: maarten.delaat@ou.nl
Some next moves SocialLearn Gather empirical data on the use of NAT in SocialLearn Build connections between LA dashboard tools Use LA tools to evaluate quality of learning, teaching and learning design NAT Time slider tap in organizational social history by finding contacts around topics in the past Semantic analysis & use associations to build richer tag clouds
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Network awareness tool & SocialLearn: Visualising relations that matter

  • 1. Network awareness tool & SocialLearn: Visualising relations that matter Bieke Schreurs, Maarten de Laat, Chris Teplovs, Rebecca Ferguson & Simon Buckingham Shum
  • 2. Overview OU NL / LOOK - Social & Networked Learning Professional development Informal learning networks Network Awareness Tool (NAT) OU UK / SocialLearn Social Learning Analytics SocialLearn & NAT Problemshift & University of Windsor Visualising social networks & NAT
  • 3. LOOK - Social & Networked Learning Professional development A focus on working and learning Learning is part of everyday work Work-related problems often results into learning Most professional learning is not formally organized but happens during informal spontaneous activities Does not happen in isolation
  • 4. Professional development Make use of each others expertise Networked interactions allow professionals to share their own practice rather than being passive recipients of expert knowledge. (Boud & Hager, 2012) Knowledge networks will enable staff inside schools to become plugged in to the world of ideas outside their professional contexts, as well as offering them the chance to explore their work with the help of others outside their schools (Southworth, 2000)
  • 5. Informal learning Problem of informal learning Ad hoc & problem-based Spontaneous Integrated in daily work practices Invisible People rely on their networks for information to get their work done What can we do? Start with networks that energize learning, make their work visible and make it accessible
  • 6. Informal Networked Learning Informal Networked Learning is situated in practice, where people rely strongly on their social contacts for assistance and development
  • 7. Theoretical Background Social Network Theory Network structures reveal important information about flow and shared knowledge within an organisation Use SNA to study network properties such as density, clusters, holes, bridges, strong & weak ties, network paths Social Capital Looks more closely at the relational resources embedded in social ties and how actors interact to gain access to these resources Social learning communities and networks Looks at learning as a social process of participation, coconstruction, collaboration, development of a shared identity and the collective development of a particular domain and practice.
  • 8. Practice-based research Facing a double invisibility problem Raising cultural awareness about informal learning & professional development Study what you cant see
  • 9. Making the invisible visible Mapping offline networks in daily practice Bottom-up Uplanned Residing in real practices No overview entire network exists Problem-based Ego-networks See how they are connected Problem: Time consuming Labour intensive Loses sense of urgency in practice
  • 10. What makes a learning tie? Participant demographics Learning topics (based on work-related problems) Ego networks around those topics Quality of the Ego network: Relevance to practice, personal development & organizational learning Strength these ties: frequency, quality Dynamics over time Building a tool to facilitate this research
  • 11. Network Awareness Tool Manually user populated tool to gather real time networked data based on learning topics that can be updated by the participants when needed
  • 12. Network Awareness Tool Automatically generated visualisations based on manually entered ties Filters by Topic, Organization & Individuals
  • 13. SocialLearn Social Learning Analytics Specific focus on role of Learning Analytics in online social platforms interest in processes of learning, not just quality of products (focus of most LA work) E.g. SNA, Discourse Analytics, Collaborative Knowledge Building (Buckingham Shum & Ferguson 2012) SocialLearn & NAT Broader goal to develop SLA dashboard in SL Could NAT be a plug-in to automatically visualize meaningful learning ties from the SocialLearn database?
  • 14. The Big Questions 1. What makes a tie a learning tie? 2. What is the content of the tie? 3. What is the impact of NAT visualizations on the development of networked learning?
  • 15. Exploring SocialLearn & NAT Develop visualizations based on rules that describe learning ties around topics Ties around SocialLearn TOPICS exist IF: 1) A user "friends" another user 2) A user "follows" another user 3) A user replies or comments on a resource contributed by another user.
  • 16. NAT in SocialLearn Visualising social learning using Nat
  • 18. Resources NAT demo database http://problemshift.com/nib_export/exampl e4anon.html NAT paper LAK 2012 mail: maarten.delaat@ou.nl
  • 19. Some next moves SocialLearn Gather empirical data on the use of NAT in SocialLearn Build connections between LA dashboard tools Use LA tools to evaluate quality of learning, teaching and learning design NAT Time slider tap in organizational social history by finding contacts around topics in the past Semantic analysis & use associations to build richer tag clouds