In der Netzwerkgesellschaft des 21. Jahrhunderts gilt die kollaborative Verteilung und Nutzung von Information und Wissen als Schlüsselstrategie für den webbasierten Informations- und Wissenstransfer. Durch die technologischen Möglichkeiten werden technische Zugangsbarrieren weitestgehend überwunden und traditionelle Formen der Wissensvermittlung durch moderne webbasierte Lernumgebungen ergänzt. Der Umgang mit kollaborativen Lehr- und Lernszenarien im dynamischen Informations- und Wissenstransfer bildet die Grundlage für den soziokulturellen Fortschritt innerhalb der Bildungsforschung. Der Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit lag auf der strukturellen und relationalen Analyse sozialer Organisationsstrukturen innerhalb von Wissensnetzwerken. Ziel war es, Einflussfaktoren offenzulegen, die sich auf das Innovations- und Distributionspotential von Information und Wissen innerhalb von kollaborativen Wissensnetzwerken auswirken. Es wurden dazu Interaktionsprozesse von Teilnehmern innerhalb von Diskussionsforen am Beispiel der Lernplattform OPAL – dem aktuell populärsten Lernmanagementsystem in der Hochschulbildung Sachsens, Deutschland – untersucht. Unter der Annahme, dass soziale Interaktion besonders im Umgang mit kollaborativen Medien den Bildungsablauf und der Aufbau von Wissensnetzwerken die Lehr- und Lernprozesse beeinflusst, wurden in dieser Arbeit die strukturellen Bedingungen des kollaborativen Wissensnetzwerkes in OPAL exploriert und soziale Rollenkonstrukte relational identifiziert, um die Auswirkungen kollaborativer Aktivitäten auf den Informations- und Wissenstransfer in Wissensnetzwerken zu erklären. Es wurden vornehmlich beziehungsorientierte kommunikationstheoretische Modelle zugrunde gelegt und relationale Forschungsmethoden wie SNA (Social Network Analysis) und DNA (Dynamic Network Analysis) angewandt, um eine Basis für die weiterführende Implementierung sozial vernetzter Lehr- und Lernstrategien in der Bildungsforschung zu schaffen. […] / In the network society of the 21st century, a key strategy for web-based exchange of information and knowledge is their collaborative distribution and use. Technical hurdles of access are mostly being overcome with technological advances and traditional forms of passing on knowledge are being complemented by modern, e-learning environments. Within research into education, the foundation for socio-cultural progress is formed by involvement with collaborative teaching and learning scenarios in a dynamic exchange of information and knowledge. The emphasis of this work lay in the analysis of structures and relationships of social organisations within knowledge networks. The aim was to describe the exchange of information and knowledge in collaborative learning systems and to explore its influence on the potential for innovation and distribution of information and knowledge. A study was undertaken of the interaction of participants in discussion forums as exemplified by the learning platform OPAL – currently the most popular learning management system in secondary school education in Saxony, Germany. On the assumption that social interaction, particularly involving collaborative media, the progress of education and the construction of knowledge networks do influence teaching and learning processes, this work explored the structural conditions of OPAL's collaborative knowledge network and identified relationships between social role constructs in order to explain the effect of collaborative activities on the process of diffusion of information and knowledge in knowledge networks. Primarily the study was based on relationship oriented sociological models and communication theory models, and research methods for relationships, including SNA (Social Network Analysis) and DNA (Dynamic Network Analysis) were applied, so as to create a basis for further implementation of social network teaching and learning strategies in educational research. [...]

In der Netzwerkgesellschaft des 21. Jahrhunderts gilt die kollaborative Verteilung und Nutzung von Information und Wissen als Schlüsselstrategie für den webbasierten Informations- und Wissenstransfer. Durch die technologischen Möglichkeiten werden technische Zugangsbarrieren weitestgehend überwunden und traditionelle Formen der Wissensvermittlung durch moderne webbasierte Lernumgebungen ergänzt. Der Umgang mit kollaborativen Lehr- und Lernszenarien im dynamischen Informations- und Wissenstransfer bildet die Grundlage für den soziokulturellen Fortschritt innerhalb der Bildungsforschung. Der Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit lag auf der strukturellen und relationalen Analyse sozialer Organisationsstrukturen innerhalb von Wissensnetzwerken. Ziel war es, Einflussfaktoren offenzulegen, die sich auf das Innovations- und Distributionspotential von Information und Wissen innerhalb von kollaborativen Wissensnetzwerken auswirken. Es wurden dazu Interaktionsprozesse von Teilnehmern innerhalb von Diskussionsforen am Beispiel der Lernplattform OPAL – dem aktuell populärsten Lernmanagementsystem in der Hochschulbildung Sachsens, Deutschland – untersucht. Unter der Annahme, dass soziale Interaktion besonders im Umgang mit kollaborativen Medien den Bildungsablauf und der Aufbau von Wissensnetzwerken die Lehr- und Lernprozesse beeinflusst, wurden in dieser Arbeit die strukturellen Bedingungen des kollaborativen Wissensnetzwerkes in OPAL exploriert und soziale Rollenkonstrukte relational identifiziert, um die Auswirkungen kollaborativer Aktivitäten auf den Informations- und Wissenstransfer in Wissensnetzwerken zu erklären. Es wurden vornehmlich beziehungsorientierte kommunikationstheoretische Modelle zugrunde gelegt und relationale Forschungsmethoden wie SNA (Social Network Analysis) und DNA (Dynamic Network Analysis) angewandt, um eine Basis für die weiterführende Implementierung sozial vernetzter Lehr- und Lernstrategien in der Bildungsforschung zu schaffen. […] / In the network society of the 21st century, a key strategy for web-based exchange of information and knowledge is their collaborative distribution and use. Technical hurdles of access are mostly being overcome with technological advances and traditional forms of passing on knowledge are being complemented by modern, e-learning environments. Within research into education, the foundation for socio-cultural progress is formed by involvement with collaborative teaching and learning scenarios in a dynamic exchange of information and knowledge. The emphasis of this work lay in the analysis of structures and relationships of social organisations within knowledge networks. The aim was to describe the exchange of information and knowledge in collaborative learning systems and to explore its influence on the potential for innovation and distribution of information and knowledge. A study was undertaken of the interaction of participants in discussion forums as exemplified by the learning platform OPAL – currently the most popular learning management system in secondary school education in Saxony, Germany. On the assumption that social interaction, particularly involving collaborative media, the progress of education and the construction of knowledge networks do influence teaching and learning processes, this work explored the structural conditions of OPAL's collaborative knowledge network and identified relationships between social role constructs in order to explain the effect of collaborative activities on the process of diffusion of information and knowledge in knowledge networks. Primarily the study was based on relationship oriented sociological models and communication theory models, and research methods for relationships, including SNA (Social Network Analysis) and DNA (Dynamic Network Analysis) were applied, so as to create a basis for further implementation of social network teaching and learning strategies in educational research. [...]

<p>Social presence positively influences the motivation, satisfaction, retention, and learning outcomes of online students. Although it is crucial for successful online learning experiences, little work has thoroughly examined the evolution of social presence over time and the influence of social presence on peer interaction. In other words, if social presence can be learned by interacting with others. This three-article dissertation study elucidates this gap by answering the overarching question: How does online students' social presence evolve over time to shape their online learning behaviors? Using stochastic-actor oriented models to reflect the dependence among learners in online collaborative learning communities, this dissertation investigated how learners' social presence evolved in learner-learner interaction resulting in two empirical studies and one conceptual framework. The first study explored social presence through clickstream interaction (e.g., number of replies received/sent in an online discussion) of 382 learners enrolled in a Massive Open Online Course. Three key findings from the study were: 1) dropout rates could be lowered if social presence affordances are used purposefully; 2) adding social media characteristics to online discussion boards, for example, "like" buttons, inhibits conversational behavior, and eventually, decreases achievement of learning outcomes; and 3) the "rich-get-richer" effect also applies to social presence, reinforcing highly active students' behavior and risking inactive online students to experience isolation. The second study used peer-nomination data (i.e., asking students who they interact with) and a scale to investigate the spread of social presence perceptions in online networks of students over three consecutive courses (n = 197). Although there was no evidence of social influence, online learners who nominated more peers are more likely to report higher social presence perceptions over time. Students were not more likely to share with those who showed similar levels of social presence. The "rich-get-richer effect" was observed in the incoming nominations of learners. The third study is a conceptual framework that integrates network theory and the online learning literature into a new perspective to analyze learners' online behaviors and interactions under the light of social presence theory. The proposed framework includes four main steps: 1) interaction, 2) social presence alignment, 3) unit of analysis definition, and 3) network statistics and inferential analysis selection. The findings of this dissertation improve educational practice by identifying behaviors that harm online social presence and providing specific actions for online instructors and instructional designers to promote social presence in online learning.  </p>