Interacciones de estudiantes de pedagogía en un foro de discusión

The use of virtual learning environment in higher education has allowed the development of complementary activities to face-to-face classes. Online discussion forums as an asynchronous communication option make collaboration and knowledge construction among students possible through different types of interactions. The objective of this study was to determine the structure of interactions in a discussion forum, in which first-year pedagogy students participated, depending on sex and career of origin. A Social Network Analysis was used to characterize the structure of the interactions. The UCINET software allowed an analysis of student-student(s) interactions, through basic indicators of centrality and cohesion. The NETDRAW software made it possible to visualize the structure of the interactions based on the variables already defined. Students interacted more frequently with others from the same career and women participated more; however, no significant differences were found. Using other Social Network Analysis measures will allow to have a more complete view of the interactions produced as well as whether there are differences according to the selected variables.