Journal for Educators, Teachers and Trainers

Abstract

Virtual Communities (CV), in the diversity of its type, develop forms of collaboration that can be studied under the analysis of social networks (ARS). This technique allows identifying the social structures that emerge from interactions among individuals, whose relations provides patterns that affect the behavior of individuals. The added value of Web 2.0 tools has increased interest of social researchers to the ARS study in a variety of contexts. The purpose of this paper is to introduce globally the concept of social network analysis as an analytical tool for the study of virtual communities. The article reviews the key theoretical concepts, software applications and stands for ARS, demonstrates the potential of as capital and presented based on the use of ARS in education studies CV. In discussing some methodological aspects as well as the challenges and prospects for development in the field they are addressed.