Wise, Alyssa Friend, and Yi Cui. "Learning communities in the crowd: Characteristics of content related interactions and social relationships in MOOC discussion forums." Computers & education 122 (2018): 221-242.

This mixed-method study employed social network analysis (SNA) and qualitative analysis to explore social relationships in discussions within a statistics MOOC, comparing content-related and non-content-related interactions. It examined how different definitions of network ties influenced network structures and properties. The analysis revealed distinct differences between the two types of discussions, highlighting that content discussions involved more repeated interactions and complex communication. Additionally, the characteristics of learner networks were linked to instructors' facilitation approaches, suggesting the emergence of learning community traits among tightly connected learners.