This project investigates how communication patterns shape learning outcomes in collaborative settings, both online and offline. Drawing on data from university forums and mobile phone interactions in a teacher training program, we examine how the timing and structure of peer interactions influence individual performance. The aim is to better understand the social mechanisms underlying help-seeking, engagement, and success in diverse educational environments.
In the online learning context, we analyze student discussions across 20 blended and fully online university courses. Forum activity is used to reconstruct interaction networks, and we ask whether common network metrics—such as the number of connections or frequency of interaction—reflect meaningful social relationships or simply mirror individual activity levels. Our work published in LAK20 questions the assumption that forum networks are inherently social, and our more recent article in Educational Technology Research and Development (2024) introduces a multi-level framework that links individual contributions, group discussions, and emergent patterns of collaboration.
In the offline context, we study a mobile phone dataset collected during a teacher training program in Madagascar, in partnership with Orange Labs. Over a three-month period, 450 participants exchanged more than 350,000 calls and texts while completing daily quizzes. By analyzing the timing of quiz responses and communication patterns, we examine whether speaking with a peer who had already answered a quiz improves performance. Our findings suggest that learners who interact with more knowledgeable peers shortly before answering a quiz are significantly more likely to succeed, and that these effects ripple through the network, creating chains of peer influence. We also identify distinct learning strategies, from highly independent learners to those who rely strategically on social support.
Across both cases, our work contributes to understanding how peer interactions can support learning, especially in resource-constrained or decentralized educational contexts. It highlights the importance of designing learning environments that foster meaningful collaboration—whether mediated by digital platforms or simple mobile phones. The findings are relevant for educators, instructional designers, and policy makers aiming to leverage peer networks to enhance learning equity and engagement.
📄 Are Forum Networks Social Networks? (LAK20)
📄 Forum Posts and Relational Structures (ETRD 2024)
📄 Quantifying Social Learning Strategies in Collaborative Phone-Based Education – manuscript in preparation
Interaction Data Lab 