Social network anlaysis has found utility is institutional, classroom and analyses of networked data in socially-based educational games. However, the utility of the method largely rests on being able to ascribe meaning to the structure of the network. Without meaningful interpretation of structure there is no added value to a networked model, you will find more suvccess simply regressing your outcome against student characteristics. Understanding measures of centrality and network structure in SNA are therefore an important, though difficult, aspect of the method. As with all SNA work, the vocabulary can be daunting though the ideas are relatively intuitive.
- Be able to generate a basic sociogram
- Be able to apply and interpret a range of centrality measures to a network
- Be able to apply and interpret a range of clustering procedures to a network
In this unit you will be working towards building several social network diagrams (graphs/sociograms) of a school classroom and then analyzing both centrality measures and clusters within the network. As background to this task please read over the follwing materials and watch the methodological videos. If you find any other useful materials please add them under Additional Materials at the end of the this page and pull request the change back to this repo.
Hanneman, R. & Riddle, M. (2005). Introduction to Social Network Methods. Riverside, CA: University of California, Riverside Chapter 10: Centrality & Power Chapter 11: Cliques & Subgroups
Williams, N. (2014). Basics of Social Network Analysis.
Complexity Labs. (2015). Social Network Analysis Overview.
Complexity Labs. (2015). Network Centrality.
Complexity Labs. (2015). Network Clustering & Connectedness.
Once you have completed all tasks in the unit, please complete the knowledge check.