Social Network Behavior, Thought-Leaders and Knowledge Building in an Online Learning Community

This paper investigates the relationship between student role-behavior and position in a Social Network and the processes of creating sustained collaborative knowledge building in online learning communities. Through an empirical study of an online learning community, we analyze how core student participants (thought-leaders) interact with peers and how this impacts on the collaborative knowledge building process. The findings indicate that core participants can be distinguished by a combination of patterns of interaction and types of contribution.