Keynote Presentation
 

"How social network position relates to knowledge building in online learning communities" By Professor Wang Lu, Department of Educational Technology, Capital Normal University, China

Professor WANG Lu, Ph.D., is a senior researcher in web based learning of the Virtual Learning Communities（VLCs）in
China. In recent five years, she has published over 20 papers on professional journals and awarded three Teaching
and Research prizes from the ministry of education and the educational administration of Beijing. Professor Wang
published the first VLCs’ monograph of China in 2004, that is The Principle and Application of Virtual Learning
Community (Higher Education Press, 2004). And she published the Information-oriented education research
methodology (Education Science Press, 2008), which is popular as a textbook of the education technology in
many universities and colleges.

Now, professor Wang is interested in the effects of the social interaction on the web based education of VLCs. Her
first research is to extract the social network structure from the social interactions in VLCs. She studies the causal
models of VLCs between the social network structure and the effects of the web based education consequently.

Professor Wang is a member of the executive committee of the Global Chinese Society for Computers in Education
(GCSCE), a standing director of Computer Based Education Society of Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence,
and a member of the Academic Committee of Chinese National Teacher Education Society.

Social network analysis, statistical analysis, content analysis and other research methods were used to research
online learning communities at Capital Normal University, Beijing. Analysis of the two online courses resulted in the
following conclusions: (1) Social networks of the two online courses form typical core-periphery structures;
(2) Social networks of the two online courses contain ‘structural holes’, where some actors position themselves to
become potential opinion-leaders within their social networks; (3) Actors, variously positioned within a
core-periphery structure, show quite significant differences in terms of knowledge building; (4) Taking ‘structural
holes’ into account, there exist considerable differences in knowledge building between opinion-leaders and non
opinion-leaders; (5) Actors in the ‘core’ and ‘structural hole’ positions have very different characteristics in
terms of knowledge building. These actors in particular play important roles in online learning communities, impacting
on the level of the constructed knowledge.

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