Title: Reflections on the impact of trust on social capital in Virtual Learning Communities (VLCs)

Authors: Giuseppina R. Mangione, M. Elisabetta Cigognini, M. Chiara Pettenati

Addresses: Electronics and Telecommunications Department, University of Florence, Via Santa Marta, 3 50139 Florence, Italy. ' Electronics and Telecommunications Department, University of Florence, Via Santa Marta, 3 50139 Florence, Italy. ' Electronics and Telecommunications Department, University of Florence, Via Santa Marta, 3 50139 Florence, Italy

Abstract: In this work, we focus on the relation between trust and the creation of social capital in specific organisations, i.e., Virtual Learning Communities (VLCs). We aim at demonstrating that effective online collaboration and knowledge construction are enabled by a set of trust-related elements which are grounding elements influencing results, motivation, collaboration and cognitive overload; these elements must be accounted for to sustain the overall learning process. To this extent, we provide an investigation model – a questionnaire – to point out the relation between trust and social capital as it is perceived by VLC members of a postgraduate online course. The result of the analysis of the questionnaire is the identification of trust-related elements and indicators to be used in the setup for building a more effective, collaboration-oriented online educational environment.

Keywords: trust; social capital; online collaboration; virtual learning communities; VLCs; questionnaire; web based communities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNVO.2010.031222

International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, 2010 Vol.7 No.2/3, pp.272 - 294

Published online: 26 Jan 2010 *

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