“Brokering” Behavior in Collaborative Learning Systems

The meaning and the impact of social roles and their embeddedness in social systems have a long tradition in social sciences. Especially the identification of structural conditions of individuals is important for studying processes of innovation and diffusion. Prior research has shown that “mediating” actors acquire a special role in knowledge networks by forming dynamic chains of information flow in the process of knowledge transfer. Therefore, it is important to detect and describe the impact of these individuals in digital distance learning processes for a better understanding of the relationship between network structure and information flow. In a previous work five typical influential social roles of actors were extracted and examined in knowledge networks. This paper presents the special mediating role labeled as “Broker” in formal and informal online learning communities by using Social Network Analysis (SNA). In the research teachers and students in remote learning communities are examined by their embeddedness in different communication networks in macro and micro perspective via structural analysis. The data were collected from the most popular 120 discussion boards comprising834 users and 11030 articles in the distance learning system, called OPAL, that is actively used by 11 universities located in the state of Saxony, Germany. The social network data are represented as communication networks between individuals. Brokering behavior is characterized by examining role patterns and flow of information through the network of learners and educators in the distance learning system. The results of the study describe the impact of Brokers for the communication and collaboration process in digital knowledge communities.