Vol.:(0123456789) Technology, Knowledge and Learning (2019) 24:659–681 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-019-09416-7 1 3 ORIGINAL RESEARCH Sociograms: An Efective Tool For Decision Making in Social Learning Marta Zorrilla 1  · Mariana de Lima Silva 2 Published online: 30 May 2019 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019 Abstract In the last few years, social learning, i.e., learning based on the analysis and discussion of topics by means of social collaborative systems, mainly social network services such as Facebook or Twitter, has acquired a great importance and led many instructors and institu- tions to deploy courses that include activities to be performed in them. For efective learn- ing, both teachers and learners are required to gain insight into how the interaction takes place and how the learning process evolves over the time. Given that the nature of this kind of learning is inherently social, the Social Network Analysis (SNA) theory is per- fectly suitable for this purpose. Therefore, this paper proposes the use of sociograms, SNA representations, to answer many of the questions that both learners and teachers need to know to make the best decisions and act accordingly. Furthermore, several network settings are suggested and the interpretation of the most relevant centrality measures when applied to online social learning is provided. Finally, the usefulness of sociograms is shown by means of the analysis of the activity performed in a MOOC course hosted in OpenMOOC platform. Keywords Social network analysis · Social learning analytics · Graph mining · Social learning 1 Introduction Currently, the use of computer-based collaborative tools in the learning arena is fully gen- eralised. In particular, we refer to those tools used for the interaction and communication among actors who are involved in a learning process. For instance, forums for communi- cation and topic discussion (Joubert and Wishart 2012; Tobarra et al. 2014), blogs or ser- vices such as Google Docs for the development of collaborative writing activities (McNely * Marta Zorrilla marta.zorrilla@unican.es Mariana de Lima Silva marianadelimasilva@gmail.com 1 Dpto. Ingeniería Informática y Electrónica, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. Los Castros s/n, Santander, Spain 2 Dpto. Educación, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. Los Castros s/n, Santander, Spain