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ERIC Number: EJ1464471
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 30
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2472-5749
EISSN: EISSN-2472-5730
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Social Capital in Online Environments: Effects of Social Structure on Academic Performance in an Online University
Agustí Canals; Josep Cobarsí-Morales; Eva Ortoll
Online Learning, v29 n1 p238-265 2025
The idea of social capital as the value obtainable from an individual's social relationships has been used to study many organizational and social settings, but rarely virtual environments. We used data from an online higher education institution to examine how an individual's social capital derived from her position in the social structure influences her performance levels. We confirmed that social capital has a significant effect on achievement. Firstly, we found that centrality and cohesion in social networks have a positive effect. Secondly, we showed how the network structure counts and how diversity in relationships is important. Having access to heterogeneous peers also increases the performance level in learning processes. These findings suggest that the proven importance of social capital in face-to-face situations might be translated into virtual environments and support the need to build or enhance ICT-mediated students' social networks in distance learning.
Online Learning Consortium, Inc. P.O. Box 1238, Newburyport, MA 01950. Tel: 888-898-6209; Fax: 888-898-6209; e-mail: olj@onlinelearning-c.org; Web site: https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/index
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Spain (Barcelona)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A