Conceptualising Social Space in Cyberspace - A Study of the Interactions in Online Discussion Forums

Online discussion forums are perceived as conduciveenvironments for the evolvement and support of collaborative andsocio- constructivist learning. However, study of previous work inthe field revealed a growing need for developing empiric frameworksfor ascertaining the materialisation of these perceptions. The bookstudies the social dynamics in online discussion threads generatedby postgraduate students participating in an online course, inwhich they were required to contribute to online discussions forumsand participate in social construction of learning. Building onEthnomethodological notions and Structural Analysis approach, thebook introduces an alternative analytic framework for theinvestigation of the socio constructivist dynamics in onlinediscussion forums. The approach portrayed conceptualises discussionforums as systems of relations rather than aggregations ofindividual contributors. The book introduces a new method forvisualising systems of online networks of relations as socialspaces,and would be useful for sociologists and educatorsinvestigating the social dynamics of online discussions, and theirconstruction of collaborative spaces of meaning.