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Mobility, Data and Learner Agency in Networked Learning pp 51–68Cite as

Learning in the Wild: Understanding Networked Ties in Reddit

Part of the Research in Networked Learning book series (RINL)

Abstract

Social media has emerged as a space in which people engage in both formal and informal learning, often as people interact with one another. Some of these interactions form the basis for learning ties and learning networks. In this chapter, we study how learning ties are formed and sustained among users of Reddit, a popular social media site. By using a social network analysis approach, we hope to understand how networked members on this site contribute to collaborative learning processes in those communities where we know that learning, and particularly informal learning, is likely to happen. Our overarching goal is to apply what we learn about group dynamics from these more successful communities on Reddit to other communities and even other social media platforms. As a case study for this chapter, we examined two online communities on Reddit: AskStatistics and AskSocialScience. Our results show that informal learning processes occurring in these two communities are determined by the reciprocal and transitive nature of communicative ties among their members. We also found that moderators play a key role in fostering interactions in these two communities.

Keywords

  • Social network learning analysis
  • Informal learning
  • Reddit
  • Subreddit communities
  • Exponential random graph models

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Fig. 4.1
Fig. 4.2
Fig. 4.3

Notes

  1. 1.

    According to the Reddit metrics website: http://redditmetrics.com/history/month

  2. 2.

    H-index is used to quantify the impact of someone’s publication record by indicating how many of their publications are cited a particular number of times. For example, an author with the h-index of 23 has at least 23 publications that have been cited at least 23 times.

  3. 3.

    After data collection, in August 2018, Reddit’s Gold Membership program was overhauled and renamed Reddit Premium.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) under Insight Grant Scheme (PI: Gruzd).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Media Studies, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Marc Esteve Del Valle

  2. Social Media Lab, Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Anatoliy Gruzd & Priya Kumar

  3. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Sarah Gilbert

Authors
  1. Marc Esteve Del Valle
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  2. Anatoliy Gruzd
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  3. Priya Kumar
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  4. Sarah Gilbert
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Correspondence to Marc Esteve Del Valle .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Design and Communication, University of Southern Denmark, Kolding, Denmark

    Dr. Nina Bonderup Dohn

  2. Department of Informatics & Computing, Zagreb University of Applied Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia

    Prof. Petar Jandrić

  3. Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Dr. Thomas Ryberg

  4. Learning, Teaching & Curriculum, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Dr. Maarten de Laat

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Del Valle, M.E., Gruzd, A., Kumar, P., Gilbert, S. (2020). Learning in the Wild: Understanding Networked Ties in Reddit. In: Dohn, N., Jandrić, P., Ryberg, T., de Laat, M. (eds) Mobility, Data and Learner Agency in Networked Learning. Research in Networked Learning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36911-8_4

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