Title: Gender impact on online classroom social networks for working professionals

Authors: Roger McHaney; Iris Reychav; Lutfus Sayeed; Lin Zhu

Addresses: Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA ' Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ariel University, P.O. Box 40700, Ariel, Israel ' Information Systems Department, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, USA ' Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ariel University, P.O. Box 40700, Ariel, Israel

Abstract: This study investigated gender impact on interactions within an online social network composed of Professional Master of Business Administration (PMBA) students. The findings enable educators to construct more effective online social networks. Participants engaged in discussions using a platform called VoiceThread. These discussions comprised text, audio and video components. Emerging dynamics were examined with social network analysis (SNA) and sentiment analysis (SA) techniques. Social presence and discussion quality characteristics were based on collected data. Among the findings were that males made multimedia posts more commonly than females. Responses to multimedia posts typically were higher quality suggesting greater social presence related to more engaged discussions. Regarding SNA outcomes, higher centrality correlated with comment positivity. Among the unique findings, males responded to female-initiated threads more negatively than did other females. In conclusion, our results indicated that gender impacts classroom discussions. Ultimately, educator awareness of this impact can enhance equitable use of social networks in higher education.

Keywords: online learning; social media; network analysis; gender; social presence; gender; working professional; online discussions; social networking; social network analysis; SNA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2025.148792

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2025 Vol.50 No.2, pp.137 - 166

Received: 18 Aug 2021
Accepted: 23 Nov 2021
Published online: 25 Sep 2025 *

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