Understanding online knowledge communities via social networks and self-regulation in synchronous VR co-creation for distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract This study examined social networks and self-regulation in two different co-creation environments (2D digital and 3D VR co-creation) through SNA and ANCOVA. The study utilized a quasi-experimental research design with 44 tenth-grade students, 24 males (55%) and 20 females (45%), from an English class at a public senior high school in northern Taiwan. To assess the effects of the environment, the classes were divided into a control group and an experimental group, with a valid sample of 22 in each group. As the results showed, 3D VR co-creation manifested more restricted social networks with fewer cliques but higher cohesiveness, reciprocity and betweenness. This suggests not only greater community solidarity and stability in 3D VR co-creation but also greater needs of 3D VR co-creators for interconnection when facing the novelty effect. Such dependence on interaction corroborated the dominance of lower-level cognitive strategies in 3D VR communities and echoed the ANCOVA results showing that strategy use was the most prominent self-regulatory skill in 3D VR co-creation. The limitation on gender composition was specified. Further implications are discussed, and suggestions for increased co-creation time, coworking strategies, and the development of a predictive model as scaffolding are offered.