Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
3 rd International Conference on Educational Technology and Online Learning – ICETOL 2023, Balıkesir, Türkiye, 20 - 23 Haziran 2023, sa.145, ss.58
Social networks are connections of individuals, groups, organizations and related systems that
link one or more types of interdependence. The aim of this study is to examine the
educational sciences studies conducted at higher education level in which social network
analysis is used by content analysis method. Studies in the field of educational sciences at the
higher education level was analyzed for this purpose based on journals, years, author
countries, number of citations, models, theories, and concepts, research methods, target
audience, target audience sizes, target audience selection, and target audience
characteristics. Content analysis method was used in the study. The reliability of inter-coder
agreement was calculated as.88. The findings were categorized under certain themes
according to the research questions. It was seen that the journals in which the articles were
mostly published were Internet and Higher Education (n=6) and Computers and Education
(n=5). When the studies are ranked by year, it is clear that the most studies (n=12) were
conducted in 2019. It shows that the studies within the scope were mostly conducted by
authors in the USA. According to the number of citations of the articles in the study on Google
Scholar and Web of Science, "Seeing' the learning community: An exploration of the
development of a resource for monitoring online student networking" was the most cited
article. When the underlying models, theories and concepts were analyzed, six themes
emerged: Social paradigm, learning environments/tools, learning approaches/methods,
feedback/assessment, informal approaches to teaching and individual characteristics. The
method used was mostly quantitative research. It was seen that the target group was
undergraduate students, the target group size was between 30-60, and the target group
selection was mostly convenience sampling. According to the findings and results of the
study, suggestions for the use of social network analysis in the field of educational sciences
were presented.
Keywords: Social network analysis, Higher education, Content analysis, Educational sciences