About: CollegeNetworksLab

Posted on by brownm

About: CollegeNetworksLab

The College Networks Lab focuses on relational networks, especially college student networks, and the ways that higher education institutions can shape them in ways that may reproduce or interrupt inequality. We are interested in how learning environments, policies, and practices facilitate and constrain opportunities for connection and the educational outcomes of student networks. We study environments such as classrooms (physical and virtual), learning communities, and residence halls. We use primarily social network analysis and mixed methods in our research.

Recent Publications

Posted on by brownm

Recent Publications

Undergraduate Student Networks

  • Brown, M. & Ellison, N. (2021). Inequality in access to information about college: How low-income first-year college students’ use social media for seeking and sharing information about college. In. Handbook of Digital Inequality. Hargittai, Eszter, (Ed.), Edward Elgar Press.
  • Brown, M. (2019). The push and pull of social gravity: How peer relationships form around an undergraduate science lecture. Review of Higher Education. 43:2, p. 603-632.
  • Brown, M. and DeMonbrun, R.M. (2019) Who gets helped? The opportunity structure of the physics classroom, peer instruction, and perceptions of helping. Journal of College Science Teaching. 49:2, p. 36-44.
  • Smith, R.A.  (2018). Connective segregation:  Residential learning communities as networks of engagement. The Review of Higher Education, 42(1), 1-27.
  • Brown, M.G., DeMonbrun, R. M. & Teasley, S. (2018). Conceptualizing co-enrollment: Accounting for student experiences across the curriculum. Proceedings of the 8th annual Learning Analytics and Knowledge conference. Melbourne, AU.
  • Brown, M., Wohn, D.Y., and Ellison, N. (2016). Without a map: College access and the online practices of youth from low-income communities. Computers & Education. 92-93. 104-116.
  • Smith, R.A. (2015). Magnets and seekers:  A network perspective on academic integration. The Journal of Higher Education, 86(6), 893-992.
  • Ellison, N., Wohn, D.Y., and Brown, M. (July/August 2014). Social Media and College Access. ACM Interactions.  Vol. XXI.4. New York, NY: ACM.
  • Smith, R..A. (2011). Learning community transitions in the first year:  A case study of academic and social network change. Journal of the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, 23(2), 13-31.

Network Theory, Measurement, & Assessment

  • Smith, R.A., & Vonhoff, C. (2019). Problematizing community:  A network approach to conceptualizing campus communities. Journal of College Student Development, 60(3), 255-270.

Topic & Citation Networks in Higher Education

  • Smith, R.A. (2019). Structuring the conversations:  Using co-citation networks to trace 60 years of the Journal of College Student Development. Journal of College Student Development, 60(6), 695-717.
  • Brown, M. (2015). Mapping the Study of Blended Learning in Engineering Education. Proceedings of the 122nd meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education. June 2015. Seattle, WA.