Social Network Analytics

Amber ThomasJISC Programme Manager

Thursday 23rd February 2012

JISC CETIS Conference 2012

http://slidesha.re/z44AqU

Author: Amber Thomas (c) HEFCE on behalf of JISC

www.jisc.ac.uk

CC BY except slide templates, all logos and images unless otherwise

stated

Thursday 23rd February 2012

JISC CETIS Conference 2012

Social Networksin Education and Research

Social Network Analytics in Education and Research

Examples

Who are the social networks in education?

Who is the social network?• inside the institution:

o academics: as researcherso academics: as teacherso services: libraries, IT, catering, accommodation,

conferenceso students

• institutional management has different levels of control, each has different motivations

• outside the institution:o potential learners and informal learnerso the public/societyo journalistso employers

Not everyone engages in the same way:Users and non users, visitors and residents

3

A first look:Social network use in education

A message and a medium

Social media as speaking (marketing)

Social media as listening (user feedback, market intelligence)

Social media as exchange (learning, scholarship, CRM?) 

wikis as collaboration

student as media producer

practitioner peer to peer 

amplification of teaching

amplification of events

broadcasting platforms e.g youtube

blogging as digital scholarship

blogging as services update

universities on facebook

twitter as alerts

twitter as exchange

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The value of social networks in education

Lets give social networks the benefit of the doubt:

They are a good thing

They are a useful thing

Lets assume no-one is questioning that.

So ... social networks generate data. Can that data help to:

Show the value of social networks?

Enhance the value of social networks?

Improve the way we use social networks?

What’s not to like?

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Is social network analysis a trap?

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Thursday 23rd February 2012

JISC CETIS Conference 2012

Social Networks in Education and Research

Social Network Analytics in Education and Research

Examples

Who’s agenda is this anyway?

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comfort zone

OPEN ACCESS TO RESEARCH

OPEN INNOVATION

OPEN EDU RESOURCES

KNOWLEDGE SHARING

ACADEMIC AUTONOMY

PUBLIC GOOD

LANGUAGE OF VALUES

dirty words

IMPACT

BRAND

COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS

METRICS

KPIs

BUSINESS CASES

LANGUAGE OF THE MARKET

[Data capture is not [Analytics] is not Metrics]

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DATA CAPTURE

The Data Exists Anyway

METRICS(come later)

ANALYTICS

Demystifying the role of data in decision-making

DECISIONS

EVIDENCEDECISION-MAKER(s)

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METRICS

“Evidence-based decision making”&

“Data-driven decision making”

DECISIONS

EVIDENCEMETRICS

VALUES

STRATEGIES

IMPACT MODELS STAKEHOLDER

VIEWS

ETC !

DECISION-MAKER(s)

RESOURCES

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Demystifying the role of data in decision-makingthe messy reality

“Evidence-informed& data-informed

decision making”

Demystifying data in an age of data

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Opportunity:Using the techniques of the market to support our values

in the age of data

APIsFeeds

Web analyticsData visualisation

Storytelling

• deny it's happening• leave the people in suits to

work it out • pay lip service• produce numbers• produce stories• deepen our listening

approaches• improve our metrics• broaden our impact model• extend our impact timeframe

Tactics for responding to the age of data

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Thursday 23rd February 2012

JISC CETIS Conference 2012

Social Networks in Education and Research

Social Network Analytics in Education and Research

Examples

The age of data

In the age of data, data is everywhere

... even if its not the whole story

Decision-makers want numbers

... even if they don’t “understand” them

and

People like pictures

Decision makers want numbers(even if they don’t understand them)

http://scaleofuniverse.com/

People Like Pictures

Principles for responding to the age of data

In the age of data, data is everywhere

Decision-makers want numbers

People like pictures

BUT

Not everything can be measured

Not everything should be measured

There are legal and ethical issues

Data can be mistaken, misunderstood and misused

A Lesson in Glorious Obfuscation

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/281562

Tactics for responding to the age of data

Reduce our fear of numbers

Be generous with data, not guarded

Increase our data literacy and our technical skills

Combine data, combine effort, work faster

Imagine we’re all talking to strangers

Every data it’s story, every story it’s data

Glanceability in an abundance of data: visual matters

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Looking again:Social network use in education

A message and a medium

Social media as speaking (marketing)

Social media as listening (user feedback, market intelligence)

Social media as exchange (learning, scholarship, CRM?) 

wikis as collaboration

student as media producer

practitioner peer to peer 

amplification of teaching

amplification of events

broadcasting platforms e.g youtube

blogging as digital scholarship

blogging as services update

universities on facebook

twitter as alerts

twitter as exchange

21

 

Examples

Aside from the Hirst and the Hawksey, please see also:

Institutional use of social media eg Brian Kelly

http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/

New models of impact for research eg ALT Metrics

http://altmetrics.org/manifesto/

Learning analytics eg Siemens et al

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_analytics

Text mining twitter eg Proctor, Manchester

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/07/twitter-riots-how-news-spread

My SNA ExamplesWho is the hashtag community?

Heart of #UKOER

http://zoom.it/6ucv5

By

Martin Hawksey UKOER Viz Project

My SNA ExamplesAre two people being listened to by the same people?

dkernohan & ambrouk

TwiangulateMutual Followers

Analysis

From www.twiangulate.com

Following 205 people in common of 1050 total tweeps followed

My SNA ExamplesAre two people listening to the same people?

dkernohan & ambrouk

TwiangulateMutual Friends

Analysis

From www.twiangulate.com

Followed by 244 people in common of 1336 total following tweeps

My SNA ExamplesA Rather Cunning and Brave

and Possibly Foolish Experiment:

How much use/reach/impact does this presentation have?

http://slidesha.re/z44AqU

See topsy tracking links in the notes of this presentation

Pick your favourite:

personal impact = pimpact

vanity analytics = vanalytics

Tweet/use your favourite term online

And I’ll do something interesting/useful/vain with it

Amber Thomas

Programme Manager

Digital Infrastructure Team

Twitter: @ambrouk

Skype: amber_thomas

Full Contact Details:

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/contactus/staff/amberthomas.aspx

My blog posts: http://bit.ly/zBQ2er

Thank You