This past spring, I took a graduate course at Rutgers University called Organizational Communication Networks. The focus was on social networks concepts and methods used to understand relationships in and among organizations. While it was a difficult subject to grasp for a novice like myself, I found it intriguing. I would offer that this study of networks and the relationships within it could serve as a higher level multimodal learning experience to be incorporated into classroom learning, perhaps for high school students.

Datasets can be created in Microsoft Excel and then that information is copied or imported into UCINET, which was created by Analytic Technologies and publishes software for social network analysis and cultural domain analysis. A free version of UCINET is available at: http://www.analytictech.com/products.htm  There is also a free software package called NetDraw used for visualizing social networks that uses the Excel data to create a networked visualization.

Another Rutgers professor, Katya Ognyanova, uses data visualization extensively in her research on media systems and civic and political participation. To read more about her work, go to: http://kateto.net/research/ 

She has also shared a how-to for using UCINET and NetDraw at: http://www.kateto.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/COMM645%20-%20Ucinet%20Handout.pdf

An online textbook for how to use UCINET and NetDraw is also available for free at: http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~hanneman/nettext/index.html (Hanneman and Riddle, 2005).

A quick example that I can share is from an assignment related to media organizations in Croatia. The dataset was provided by our professor and we were tasked with creating a data visualization based on various factors.

Background: These networks are based on fieldwork and interviews of organizations that were active during the Croatian civil society movement (c.f. Doerfel & Taylor, 2004; Taylor & Doerfel, 2003).

- The communication network refers to communication ties present or absent in the system. The Excel file lists organizations who reported their ties (senders) and those with whom they reported having a tie (receivers).

- For the communication network: Visualize the network using NetDraw and be sure both organization type and “overall” importance (represent all three points in time in assessing importance) are included in the visualization. In NetDraw, save the network as a jpeg file and include the visualization in your work.

Network Visualization of Organizational Importance during the Croatian Civil Society Movement

Network Analysis:

There are 25 organizations represented in the network. The key for the visualization is as follows:

Development Agency = Pink Square (3)
News Outlet = Yellow Circle (8)
Membership Organization = Lime Green Triangle (2)
Non-Governmental Organization = Teal Diamond (12)

Going back into the Excel file, I created a pivot table that included all three times that organizations were asked to rate organizational importance. Out of curiosity, I decided to average the three numbers for each organization and found that the highest averages belonged to:

Zelena akcija (a membership organization) with an average of 6.3
Zarez (NGO) with an average of 6
GONG (NGO) with an average of 6
Radio 101 (News Outlet) with an average of 3.6
Zenska Infoteka (News Outlet) with an average of 3.6

Turning back to the visualization, the organizations considered to be key connectors within this network hail from three of the four organizational types, not including development agencies.

The line thickness is equal to the strength of the tie. Ties are strongest for the aforementioned organizations which represent their influence in the network. For example, Zelena akcija is a membership organization that would assumedly be connected to many organizations due to the nature of its organizational type. That was not surprising that they had the highest average. Two NGOs followed with the next highest averages, which signifies their level of influence and communication flow in the network. Organizations that hold positions of power and influence within networks often have access to more resources than organizations that are less connected. Poor HTV is out in left field all by itself and does not communicate with any other organization in the network, nor they with them.

In closing, for educators think about how you can create an assignment where students would use data (it could be collected by the student as part of the project or provided to them) on a topic that relates to the subject taught. Before jumping right into UCINET and NetDraw, you could try some of the suggestions shared at Teachthought.com (though it is five years old): https://www.teachthought.com/technology/5-free-data-visualization-tools-you-can-use-in-the-classroo/ including:

- LinkedIn Maps

- Google Ripples

- Facebook Profiles

If you are working with students who are looking for a multimodal learning challenge, I would suggest giving this a try. It won't be easy but our technologically savvy students will appreciate the opportunity to create a powerful representation (artifact) of their learning. Good luck.

Works Cited

Analytic Technologies. Retrieved from http://www.analytictech.com/

Hanneman, R. and Riddle, M. (2005) Retrieved from http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~hanneman/nettext/index.html

Katya Ognyanova on Life, The Universe, and Networked Media. Retrieved from http://kateto.net/

Seven Data Visualization Tools You Can Use in the Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/technology/5-free-data-visualization-tools-you-can-use-in-the-classroo/