26-5 Social network analysis of graduate students in a multidisciplinary school: Impacts on professional network development

Session: Current Advances in Geoscience Education Research (Posters)

Presenting Author:

Authors:

Abstract:

The development of professional networks remains a critical outcome for the success of graduate students, yet measuring network development remains difficult. Social network analyses of graduate students within a multidisciplinary school of science and engineering were used to quantify the graduate students’ professional and personal connections within these fields. A twelve-question survey asking students to name individuals within their interdisciplinary school who fit specific network criteria (e.g., “who you have attended a conference with”, “who you would turn to for professional advice”). The survey was deployed at the beginning of Spring 2024, followed by a professional development intervention activity in Fall 2024, and lastly, the same survey was given to students at the end of Fall 2024. These data were used to create sociograms of the relationships between students for each question.

The pre-intervention sociogram for the question “research you know about” showed a large divide between the civil engineering students and the environmental engineering/earth science students, with only one connection between the two departments. This led the research team to believe that many students may be familiar with the research within their department, but that the two departments are siloed and do not have many connections between them. The research team then developed a poster session intervention, providing research groups the opportunity to introduce their research and members of their group (faculty and graduate students) to other members of the school, with the goal of fostering professional and personal connections across civil engineering, environmental engineering, and earth sciences. 

Both average path length and graph density of the networks showed improvement after the intervention. In nine out of twelve questions, the average path length decreased, suggesting a more efficient network. In eleven out of twelve questions the graph density increased, signifying a more tightly-connected network. The average degree only increased for two questions, but this could be attributed to new students incoming within the Fall 2024 semester. This study demonstrates that improvements to professional and personal networks are possible with social academic interventions like a poster session. Continued work should be done to foster these connections as they provide meaningful ways for students to further develop their professional networks. 

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

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