The aim of this research is to shed light in collaborative e-learning communities in order to observe, analyse and support the e-learning participants. The research context is the Greek teachers’ e-learning community, started in 2003 as part of a project for online teachers’ training and aimed at enabling teachers to acquire new competencies. However, these aims were not met because of passive participation; therefore this study aimed to enhance the Greek teachers’ social engagement to achieve the new skills acquisition. Therefore, the initial sense of community identification was based on empathy; however, because it was inadequate to fully describe the context,, a Sense of E-Learning Community Index (SeLCI) was developed. The new SeLCI attributes were: community evolution; sense of belonging; empathy; trust; intensity characterised by e-learners’ levels of participation and persistence on posting; collaborative e-learning quality measured by the quality in Computer Supported Collaborative eLearning (CSCeL) dialogical sequences, participants’ reflections on own learning; and social network analysis based on: global cohesion anchored in density, reciprocity, cliques and structural equivalence, global centrality derived from in- and out-degree centrality and closeness; and local nodes and centrality in real time. Forty Greek teachers participated in the study for 30 days using Moodle and enhanced Moodle with to measure participation, local Social network Analysis and critical thinking levels in CSCeL. Quantitative, qualitative, Social Network Analysis and measurements produced by the tools were used for data analysis. The findings indicated that each of the SeLCI is essential to enhance participation, collaboration, internalisation and externalisation of knowledge to ensure the e-learning quality and new skills acquisition. Affective factors in CSCeL (sense of belonging, empathy and trust) were also essential to increase reciprocity and promote active participation. Community management, e-learning activities and lastly, the technology appear to affect CSCeL.
Social network analysis for e-learning environments