It’s not just what you know, it’s who you know: Testing a model of the relative importance of social networks to academic performance

Abstract

Applying three mathematical modeling techniques, this study proposes and tests the fit of an academic performance model, and then estimates the relative importance of four performance predictors: academic ability, performance goal orientation, educational technology use, and social network density. Drawing on social network theory, findings from this study show that social network density is a statistically important and unique predictor of academic performance, suggesting that "who you know" matters in large classroom settings. However, this study also indicates that academic ability is the most dominant factor in the explanation of academic performance. Practical and theoretical implications for enhancing academic performance through social networks are discussed.

The influence of relationship networks on academic performance in higher education: a comparative study between students of a creative and a non-creative discipline

“…Most of them confirm the growing importance of this relationship (Baldwin et al 1997;Thomas 2000;Yang and Tang 2003;Yuan et al 2006;Smith and Peterson 2007;Rizzuto et al 2009;Hommes et al 2012;Gašević et al 2013). Consequently, social network position is expected to be a relevant predictor of academic performance of undergraduates in higher education.…”

“…Much of this literature draws on student ability and motivation as the most significant factors (Meece et al 2006;Kassim et al 2008;Pekrun et al 2009), while less attention has been given to the social factors that shape performance in academic-settings (Rizzuto et al 2009). Nevertheless, social relationships are highlighted by many scholars as one of the critical factors that influence the students' learning process (Gašević et al 2013).…”

“…Traditionally, factors related to personal skills and motivation have been used to explain the performance of students (Rizzuto et al 2009). However, in recent years scholars have also recognized the influence on this performance of students social interactions, independent of their course work or instruction (Johnson and Johnson 1993;Baldwin et al 1997).…”

Exploitation of Social Networking Sites and Its Impacts on Students’ Academic Results: A Quest for Correlation or Misspecification in Bangladesh

“…Furthermore, by asking students that why they did not put more effort into academic work, Yazedjan et al in 2008 have found SNSs' distraction as a regular explanation. Other researchers studying this same issue found either no-to-little relationship between the use of SNSs and student academic performance (Ahmed & Qazi, 2011;Hargittai & Hsieh, 2010;Kolek and Saunders, 2008), or actually an increase in student academic performance (Junco, Heibergert, & Loken, 2011;Pasek, More, & Hargittai, 2009;Rizzuto, LeDoux, & Hatala, 2009). Among these studies, Madge, et al in 2009 found that SNSs are mainly used to keep up with social aspects of college life and it is a part of most students' daily routine.…”

An Examination of Greek College Students’ Perceptions of Positive and Negative Effects of Social Networking Use

“…Given these findings, a number of research studies have focused on the impact of technologically enhanced social media interactions on academic achievement in terms of an increase in collegiate students' grade point averages, self-regulation strategies, and self-efficacy development [20,29,34,35]. As such, online social media tools like Facebook and Twitter afford innovative opportunities for collegiate instructors to enhance student learning through modelling, mentoring, assessments, and promoting self-regulation strategies [9,12], However, a limited number of studies have been conducted to document the negative and positive effects of social media including the examination of gender and age differences.…”