JALN Volume 7, Issue 3 — September 2003

EFFECTS OF SOCIAL NETWORK ON STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE: A WEB-BASED FORUM STUDY IN TAIWAN
Heng-Li Yang Professor Department of Management Information Systems National Cheng-Chi University 64 Section 2, Chihnan Road, Mucha Dist., 116, Taipei, Taiwan Phone: 886-2-29387651 Fax: 886-2-29393754 yanh@mis.nccu.edu.tw Jih-Hsin Tang Phd Candidate Department of Management Information Systems National Cheng-Chi University Faculty of Management Information Systems Tak Ming College 56 Section 1, Huan-Shan Rd., Taipei, Taiwan Phone: 886-2-26585801 jefftang@mail.mis.takming.edu.tw

ABSTRACT
This research investigates the effects of social networks on students’ performance in online education which uses networking as an adjunct mode for enhancing traditional face-to-face education or distance education. Using data from a 40-student course on Advanced Management Information Systems (AMIS), we empirically tested how social networks (friendly, advising, and adversarial) related to students’ performance. First, advising network variables are positively related to student performance both in the class and on the forum. Adversarial variables are negatively correlated with almost all students’ performance. Second, advising and adversarial network variables are good determinants for overall academic performance; however, adversarial network variables are not influential on students’ performance on the forum. Friendship network variables are not determinants of students’ performance. Implications for the results are also discussed.

KEYWORDS
Learning Effectiveness, Social Network Analysis, Asynchronous Learning, Forum

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JALN Volume 7, Issue 3 — September 2003

I. INTRODUCTION
The impact of the Internet on education is an important issue that has caught both educators’ and practitioners’ attention in recent years [1-4]. According to