Dentro la rete degli apprendenti. Un’applicazione della social network analysis ai MOOC linguistici

Abstract

The year 2020 has been defined “the second year of the MOOC”. In the last year many changes happened in the world of e-learning, mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent measures adopted on a global scale. Therefore, it is not surprising that we are attending to a rising interest in MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), even from a critical point of view. In this scenario, LMOOCs are constantly gaining popularity, so there is a need for new perspectives, that should allow to study the language teaching and learning in massive contexts, considering these contexts as complex systems. This paper aims to analyse Introduction to Italian (Universita per Stranieri di Siena), a linguistic MOOC hosted by FutureLearn, from a social network analysis point of view. Moreover, the LMOOC is investigated by means of a series of directed and weighted graphs, in which every user is a node that, when interacting with another user, builds an edge . The study investigates the communicative relationships represented by the graphs, calculating the betweenness centrality values and relating them with learners’ performances. Results give on one hand the chance to reflect upon the importance, for learners, to participate in the conversations that take place inside the LMOOC; on the other hand, data allow to consider the role of tutors as facilitators in building and maintaining a positive and effective learning environment.